Thursday 1 October 2015

Redecorating hats.

I've been really busy with altering my costumes and accessories. Two of my latest projects are my 1840's bonnet and my 1880's hat.

One of my friends is borrowing my 1840's working class costume. This was a very good reason for me to give my old green velvet bonnet an update. I removed the cotton lace and ribbon flowers and added 6 inch pleated crinoline instead. I also removed the wide velvet ties, which where really hard to tie, and replaced it with petersham ribbon. No matter who wore the bonnet it kept falling of so I decided to cheat and stitched a small clear plastic comb in.

front

right side

Back 
Still not to happy with the curtain.

left side


A while ago a friend gave me a lot of flowers to decorate my hats with. I had intended to make a new 1880's hat but didn't have the time or the money. So I just added colored flowers and now it looks completly different! My hat pins can't get through the hat so again I decided to cheat and stitched in hat elastic to keep in place.

front

right side 

This was the inspiration for the hat. Rachel McAdams as "The Woman" Irene Adler in Sherlock Holmes. Can't wait to wear it!


2 comments:

Cathy Raymond said...

I love the look of the green velvet bonnet but see what you mean about the rear curtain. Have you considered making a new curtain out of a lighter fabric--perhaps a matching green silk, or black lace? That might work better than trying to pleat velvet.

Esther said...

Hi @Cathy,
No, I hadn't thought of that. It's an excellent idea!
i knew I wasn't happy with how it looked but I was thinking along the lines of a different instead of also changing the fabric.
Thank you. :)