Thanks, 'Bella! Armed with a copy of Denise Dreher's "From the Neck Up: an illustrated guide to hatmaking" and your helpful posts, we forged ahead with the 1908 hat project today. Using lightweight wool felt and a heavy non-fusible interfacing (possibly "Pel-tex'… it was in my stash but not labeled), and hand stitching, we got a nice approximation of the turban in McCall Pattern No. 6260, "Scotch Hats". (There are 3 views: a "scotch cap" which is fairly simple, a "tam-o-'shanter" which looks like a large Buster Brown hat, and the "turban" which is what took my student's fancy.) I haven't found any images for this pattern on teh interwebz -- it appears that McCall's has re-used that number at least 6 times in the intervening century -- so I'll try to get it posted on our Facebook page next week. :-)
I couldn't find hat canvas in our small midwestern town, and I didn't want to use buckram (available at JoAnn's in the utility fabric section) because it's not water-proof, so that dictated the choice of materials. I'm going to try another version with a lightweight fashion fabric for comparison. The pattern directions assume that you know when to trim and clip the seam allowance, and when to stitch the center back seam, and how to apply the embellishments… it was an interesting exercise in historic interpretation. The next challenge is to figure out how to adapt the pattern for different head sizes (I think this one assumes that you'll be wearing it on top of big hair). We're jazzed now and thinking about ordering hat canvas and millinery wire online so we can tackle more complicated projects. Suzanne On Feb 15, 2013, at 1:00 PM, h-costume-requ...@indra.com wrote: > Subject: Re: [h-cost] vintage hat-making instructions > Date: February 14, 2013 9:50:30 PM CST > To: Historical Costume <h-cost...@indra.com> > …. > > Your hat question has been on my mind for hours now, and I'm doing a little > bit of surfing. (I've been unable to find a picture of the pattern you have > though...poo!) > > Nevetheless, here's a little more hand-holding for ya! > > This page has a list of different types of hat canvas, and there's a > paragraph toward the middle of the page that says "for fabric suggestions, > go to my homepage." > > http://www.millinerytechniques.com/covered-hat-requirements.html > > 'Bella _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
