Hands-On Hats! A Miscellany of Millinery

Alessandra Kelley

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So it was suggested that maybe we needed a thread dedicated for hats. So hey, share your favorite hats! Self-made, store-bought, new or historic, neat, useful, fun, whatever...

This was spurred by my mentioning I had recently made a pirate hat with lace. It's the easiest thing to make a cocked hat ("tricorne" is a Victorian neologism) - you just take a regular felt hat blank (a plain unshaped crown with a brim) and tack up the brim in three places. Also, I learned that historically cocked hats with lace were definitely A Thing, and not just for the ladies.

I sewed the brim trimmings on before cocking up the brim. I happened to have a couple of lengths of rayon lace that were a little too short for most projects, but were just about perfect for this (takes about a yard to go around this brim). I threaded some of that thin silk ribbon they sell for embroidery through the lace that would show on the outside.

Then I took an awl and some leather lacing, poked holed in the brim and crown and tied the brim up in three parts. Ta dah!

(I may add a lining later.)
 

mrsmig

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Maryn

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Did anyone else play Merriam-Webster's Hat Quiz? It's twenty multiple-choice questions asking for the name of the type of hat shown. I did pretty well.
 

Maryn

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That's the one I missed! I've already forgotten its name, though.

What fascinated me was how many odd ones I knew, I guess just from reading.
 

mrsmig

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I did, but got three wrong. I'm embarrassed that I know so few chapeaux outside the American/European styles.
 

Farnham

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Due to local temperatures, right now favoring a large brim straw hat in dry weather, a boonie hat when rain threatens, and a Panama Hat for dressier occasions. Have to wait for cooler weather to wear my fedora.
 
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