Hello lovelies,

so my last post was about the Harry Potter convention I attended. I already hinted that I made the hat myself and now I want to share my whole sewing process.
The hat is made out of stiff inner material, black cotton satin and hat wire. I later decorated it with a yellow satin ribbon and flowers to show my Hufflepuff colours.


I started out with a simple pattern that looked liked this:


Even though maths was my most hated subject in school it comes in quite handy when drafting round pattern. So what I did was measure out my head (54,5cm) and then use an online calculator to find out what the radius was.
Circumference: 54,5cm
The calculator said the radius was 8,67. I then used a bow compass, measured out the number and drew the circle. Now this will be the inner circle and will be cut out later on. 
For the outer circle, I added about 15cm to make the brim. I didn't use a bow compass for this, instead I used my normal straight ruler. I was too lazy to draw a full circle as a pattern and therefore divided my pattern by four, but I can not recommend my method. 
The top part is 50cm long and the bottom part should match the circumference. What I did was take a 50 cm long string and attach it to the peak with a pin. Afterwards I drew a kind of half circle with it.

I started with cutting one piece of each from the stiff inner material.

I used 1,5cm sewing allowance on every outer edge. The top part was left aside for now and I first worked on the brim.
For the next step I used milinery wire but I guess every other wire similar to it would work too (?).
 I pinned the wire exactly to my marking for the sewing allowance and then kind of slip stitched onto the hat. 


And here is a close up.
Next I cut out small triangles, I wasn't careful and almost cut into the wire a few times which would really have ruined my scissors. So be careful with that.

The triangles where then folded in, so that they covered the wire and sewn down with a quick running stitch. For this I used a stronger thread than my standard sewing thread.
The next two pictures show what it looked like from the outside and the last pictures from the inside.



The next part took ages but looks stunning. I marked my pattern in equal parts (more maths!! :( booh!) and cut them.
As you can see from the markings at the bottom it took me ages to get the right number because I always miscalculated. 

 Between one pleat an the next I added two more pleats and then glued everything back together again. Below is the finish result and keep in mind that this was just 1/4 of the brim and I needed three more.

I pleated this monster and guess who decided that this brim laced with needles was the perfect place to sleep?
Cats can be really horrible.

Ironing is very importing. The difference between the former and the latter is huge. I don't recommend ironing in summer though.

Once everything was either ironed or sewn in place I had to decided if the pleats should be on the outer or inner side of the hat. I chose the outer side but in hindsight that was a mistake because the pleats were not visible once the hat was worn. Booh.
Here I place the pleated brim on my white inner lining.

Next is a method I like to use with round seams. I take a large needle and pull a thread through the other edge of the sewing allowance. Once I am finished I pull and the seam rolls itself onto the hat.
But after that, the hat was done. Hooray. And it only took me three days.

 Ignore the thread and the pins, I made a couple of shots of the hat in between but of course forgot to do some when I was done.

The pleats look really cute. Too bad they are not visible.

I wore this hat for the Harry Potter convention in Vienna, remember my last post?



Dead witch.

I will probably use the hat again for Halloween.

All the best,

Auris Lothol