This month’s theme for the Make a Garment a Month sewalong on Instagram is “November Needs”. Well, I needed a wide-brimmed hat, so I dug out a pattern and found some fabric and I was good to go. The fabric is a linen/metal mix from Potters (from about six years ago) and the pattern is Vogue 9230 from 1975, which I adore. Everything single thing about it. I so want a red gingham sunsuit and hat trimmed with white ric-rac (even though I’m not a great fan of ric-rac) , and they’re coming folks, just give me time!
The fabric is tricky as it can’t be pressed under high heat because the metal breaks and then it gets prickly. It’s a bit itchy anyway which is why I’ve never used it, but I figured a lined hat might resolve the problem.
I pulled all the pattern pieces out of the envelope only to find the brim piece missing. Lots of really helpful advice on Instagram (thank you everyone!) later and I had a pattern piece, and it even fitted! As can be seen from the line drawing, there is a lot of close top stitching on the brim, and there is elastic threaded through a piece of bias binding on the inside to make it fit tightly. The hat is not lined, which I remedied immediately by lining it with a piece of cotton which I had eco-dyed and some bias binding made from a cotton scrap.
You are not allowed to laugh when you look at the photo. Oh, all right, have a good one at my expense!
Did I overdo the width of the brim? Well, as it happens the original pattern piece materialised under my cutting table and I was almost spot on. It’s just wide! That’s a bit of a problem with these early line drawings – they can be very deceiving.
I have to admit that I feel like a mushroom under this hat, but, although I can’t see a thing, the sun is nowhere near my face or neck.
The hat is also a smidge big in the crown, sitting too far down over my ears. I went home from my walk, unpicked it all and reduced the height of the crown. Needless to say, this did not resolve my problems. Mark gently prized the hat from my fingers and threw it in the bin – that man knows me too well as I had been busy wondering how I could salvage the unsalvageable!
Back to the drawing board. I had a fiddle with the pattern, reducing the width of the brim by 1cm and taking about the same out of the crown. Then it was off to the stash and I found a scrap of fabric which would be perfect. I have no idea where this fabric came from but it’s some sort of gorgeous cotton, almost a denim and I just managed to get the hat out of it. And yes, I should have pressed my top before taking photos.
The pattern calls for felt to stiffen the brim, and I had used some stiff woven for the first hat, but for the second I used some Vlieseline 360, which is a padded, soft interfacing and it was perfect. I didn’t make the topstitching quite as close together, and I’m not sure about my reasoning here. Idleness perhaps?
As mentioned previously, this pattern does not call for the crown to be lined but I like to line my hats, and I really like to use silk, this silk being scraps left over from my Kitchenette Pyjamas. This time I chose not to use the bias binding, stitching the elastic directly on to the seamline between the crown and the brim.
In my first hat, I topstitched through both the inside and outside crowns, but for this iteration I only topstitched the outer crown, and left the lining loose, handstitching it to the brim.
I decided that I wanted my hat to be a little bit jaunty, so I put a red and white spotted ribbon round it.
As previously mentioned, this hat is really good for keeping my face and neck in the shade as evidenced here
BTW that reddish top is a hack of Burda 7866. I realise I haven’t blogged it, so will endeavour to change that and outline what I did (if I remember!).
Ages ago I made a cap, using Kwik Sew 4164.
It is made from all the denim woven scraps left over from my jacket which I entered in the 2016 The Refashioners challenge. The pattern has a detachable visor, but I decided that I would never detach it, so saved myself a bit of effort by sewing it on. I have worn and worn this cap, although I always feel as though I am wearing a bonnet!
I’m not sure why I’ve never blogged it, except there isn’t a lot to say about it. I have found that the open back doesn’t give me much protection from the sun which is why I have made the sun hat. I won’t be abandoning my cap though as it is really comfortable and never blows off. 
I will be making another of those wide-brimmed hats, but meanwhile, I feel as though I have definitely filled a need!
What I’m wearing:
White Jalie Elèonore pull up jeans
Itch-to-Stitch Tierra woven joggers