Hello lovelies,

yesterday was a lolita teaparty at the Austria art gallery (KHM). It was the perfect location and therefore I wanted to wear something special.
My outfit is rococo inspired and the best hair accessory would be a matching rococo hat, the bergere. It has a wide brim but a low crown and they were popular from the 1730s throughout the 18th century.

I started with a normal straw hat. It's a vintage hat and in good condition. Only the flower garland had a kind of washed out colour.

It does look better without the flowers.
The crown is too big for a bergere and this is where it will be cut.


You should have three separate hat pieces now. One brim part, one crown part and one middle part.
If you have a hat that is as wide as the whole on the brim part on the top, you can skip this part. My hat was a bit slimmer on the top than on the bottom and therefore I had to add a bit of straw on the top from the middle part.
Sewing straw was absolutely no problem. I used a free hand stitching foot but I think a normal foot would do just as fine. If the straw is too stiff, try spraying in with a bit of water and wait for a few minutes.
To add straw to the top part, I opened the top part (the part which going downwards) until I only had the flat part. I pressed it flat and sewed everything on again. I then added a few centimetres from my middle part, which I also unstitched until I had only one piece of straw in my hand.


I had no pins to go fix the two parts together but masking tape worked perfectly for me. I used a big needle to go through the straw but any needle would do the job (as I found out later). I fixed the crown with a top to bottom stitch.

And that was the final result. The colour change is due to my weird light in my flat. It was already after sundown and only my little light was on. The top looks a bit bigger than the bottom, damn you laziness for not checking beforehand if the top is too big. But to be honest, it was just a tiny bit too big. But I added a ribbon and thus made it invisible.

But after that I added the lace to the brim.
 I didn't want to use masking tape for that. The only option left was to stick needle into it until it was secured on the top and a hedgehog on the bottom. But I only managed to drive the needles in my leg one time and poke the needle into my fingers two times.

And this is the lace from the top.

Afterwards all that is left is to decorate the hat. I recommend using a lot of ribbons and feathers.
And it's done! All in all it took me about 5 hours (I later remembered I could have sewn the lace with my sewing machine and save A LOT OF TIME).
I wore it to the teaparty and had a blast. I even won the best lolita coord, only because of the hat (in my opinion).


Tip before ending the entry:
Be aware on how secure your hat on your head. I was lucky because my hat had two small eyelets. I inserted a ribbon and I secured this ribbon with a lot of bobby pins to my head. It was also super windy outside and a big ribbon wrapped over the hat and tied under my chin helped it stay in place.
If you do not have that option, maybe a hair comb could help.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me. I am aware of the fact that I am super bad at explaining stuff....

All the best,

Aurîs☆