20 February 2013

Making an Old Hat New



Last spring I mutilated the black grosgrain ribbon from my straw hat to use on my pumpkin's pudding cap. This wasn't a real sacrifice since I was itching to swap the trim. Last fall I finally got around to tacking on some new ribbon that I just love. Here's how it came together...

I found vintage grosgrain ribbon that's three inches wide which reminded me of the hat in this 1780s miniature portrait...


The hat above is much like the hat worn in this painting...

 
 A Girl Buying a Ballad, c.1778  

Here's a better look at her hat...


To start I made large poofs which I basted, and then whipped them to the crown.

photo from my Instagram page

The bow proved a bit trickier. Thanks to the dangling ribbons, I'm pretty sure there's a bow in the two examples on the opposite side that's not depicted. Not knowing what this looks like, I kept  my bow simple and made sure that I had about 2.5in of ribbon hanging off.


To create the faux zigzag at the end of the ribbon, I just cut it with scissors--though it turned out slightly awkward. (I should have used chalk to create a mini pattern to have prevented it from being so uneven on one end.)


Lastly I whipped the ties to the brim...


...and I used an old ballet pointe shoe trick to keep the ribbon's edge from fraying. I ran the edge of the ribbon under a flame which creates a nice singed edge and worked wonderfully for this ribbon. (I've found that it doesn't work well with silk satin ribbon.)

Detail of the ribbon's edge after it was singed.

And ta da, it was done!





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