Ok, so it's been a hot minute since I've blogged anything. I legitimately forgot that I ever even set this up until I found it today. That being said, probably no one reads this, since there are 4 posts from like 4 or 5 or 17 years ago. So, if you've forgotten who I am, I'm just your friendly, neighborhood crazy lady who makes stuff and does silly things. (Usually late at night, hence the clever name of the blog)
So, back on topic, let's talk Flat Caps. I've been a cast member of our local Renaissance Festival for about 5 years. I've made a bunch of these neat little hats in a short amount of time. I like the versatility of them. They can be super simple peasant wear, or if you tart them up a bit, they can be a casual noble look.
Now that the obligatory background is out of the way, let's get to it, shall we?
Firstly, there are a few things you're going to need.
1. largish mixing bowl, or platter. It must be round, and a couple inches larger than your head
2. smallish mixing bowl or plate. It also must be round. But much closer to actual head size
3. Fabric. I feel like this is obvious. But yes, you are going to need some material to make the hat out of.
3.5 You also need some form of interfacing/structural do hickey in here. I like to use buckram because it makes me feel all fancy and legit. But I've also made these types of hat with iron on interfacing such as pellon. Once, as a proof of concept, I used 2 layers of canvass, and then sewed about a million lines of tiny stitches to mimic pad stitching. It worked, but it took forever, and was in general a giant pain in the butt. I don't want to discourage you, if that's your dream then you follow it. But if that's not your idea of a good idea, well.....learn from my folly.
4. Chalk or other fabric marking tool. I recommend tailor chalk. You can also use sidewalk chalk. I've even used Crayola washable marker in a pinch. If you're going to do that though, test it on a scrap of fabric first to make sure it's really going to wash out. Otherwise that will be awkward later.
5. Some method of sewing. Most people default to machines, but you can totally hand sew this or any other project
6. Scissors/pins
Whew, now that you've read 4 whole paragraphs and gathered a bunch of stuff you totally deserve a break. Go read a book, or eat a snickers, or run a marathon. Whatever relaxes you. Personally I enjoy naps and chocolate.
Step 1. Take your larger plate and trace out 4 circles on your fabric. I used this lovely dinner plate, but ultimately decided it was too small, so I tried again with a hat box lid.
Do whatever makes your pretty little head happy. I will say that your larger circle should be about 2-3 inches wider than your actual head. That excess is going to become the brim of your hat. And a brim of half an inch looks ridiculous. As does a giant 4-5 inch brim.
2. Here is a pic of my Buckram. Notice the tic tac toe lines? That's to represent the grain/crossgrain of the buckram. A dear friend once told me that when using buckram, have one layer rotated 45 degrees on top of the other. That's supposed to help with the structural integrity, I think. Or it might just be witchcraft. Either way, he makes some truly magnificent things, so even if he just made it up, that's how I do it. You can feel free to ignore this advice, but be warned that if you do, you might bring a curse down upon your head.
If you are using iron on interfacing, you just need 1 layer, and it'll be ironed on, so no need for any grain shenanigans. When I use iron on interfacing, I like to iron it on to the base fabric before cutting the circle out. That way it's all lined up, and you don't have to worry about getting things just so.
3. This is where the Romeo/Juliet separation begins (Don't worry this is going to have a much happier ending). 2 of your circles are going to be the crown of the hat and 2 circles + buckram or interfacing are going to become the brim of the hat. These star crossed lovers will eventually meet again. So don't be moved by their tears or protestations.
This lovely IKEA plate is the smaller plate I've chosen to use. You can see it is pretty much my-head-sized. Forgive my expression. I took myself by surprise with this pic. Oh, what a silly trickster I am, I never saw it coming!
4. Using the smaller plate, center it on your larger circle and trace. This is going to be cut out, and your head will eventually fit in this space.
5. The careful reader will have noticed by now that I'm not the most somber or serious of instructors. That reader may not be shocked to realize that I don't always use the most technical terms, or specialty tools. If you've reached this point simply to be scandalized that I use my finger as a unit of measure, I apologize. And I suggest you look into procuring some smelling salts before proceeding.....I'll wait
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Ok, now that we're back. Let's move on. You'll notice that in the left picture I've made a dashed line on the inside of my traced line. For this hat, I wanted a smaller head opening. There are a lot of reasons one might want a smaller opening. For instance, if your plate is slightly too big for your head, or you like the compression because it makes your brain feel larger. In this case, it was for one of my children, so I wanted a smaller head hole. The dashed line was where I cut the fabric and the solid was where I sewed.
On the right, you can see I've made the dash line on the outside of the solid line. This is a hat for me, and I'll be putting it on my adult-sized head. Here the solid line is my cut line, and the dashed is my sewing line.
IMPORTANT NOTE!!!
*********If this is the first time you're making a hat like this and you aren't certain the plate to head ratios, I suggest that you start with a dashed inner line, and cut that. If will have a smaller head opening, but you can adjust. It's a law of nature, physics, and sewing that you can cut more away significantly easier than you can add back. So, start with a smaller head hole, and adjust til you're happy with it. On the plus side, if you have a decent memory, you can recall what you did the last time and skip the adjustment steps
5. I realize I already put a step 5. But I feel like I should be honest and own up to my mistakes. So, we're doing 5 again. Let's be real here, there's a lot of messing up and backtracking in sewing. Things don't always go right the first time, or even the second or fifteenth. And that's ok. We recognize, reconsider, and move on. Let's not dwell on past mistakes, ok?
(Also, side note here. My 11yo son was making waffles this morning. He forgot about the last batch and they burned something fierce. Like charcoal. I called him into the kitchen to have a quick chat about paying attention while cooking and the hazards of leaving appliances unattended. Poor kiddo was quaking. He kept apologizing, but I felt like he was more focused on not getting in trouble for making a mess than he was on recognizing what the problem was and how to avoid it in the future. I finally stopped and asked if I looked upset. I told him that I wasn't mad at all, I was trying to teach him something, and that no one is perfect their 1st try at a new thing. I didn't yell at him and I wasn't upset when he learned basic addition and proudly proclaimed that 2+2=5. There's no shame in mispronouncing a word you've never read before. Just teaching so that next time you do better. I hope I got through to him and that he realized that there's a degree of error in every new experience. I'm not upset when he makes mistakes, I just want him to learn.) I tell that story to illustrate that I'm not going to reach through the computer monitor and scream if you hit a hiccup. When you learn a new thing, stuff goes wrong the 1st time. And that's ok. Have some compassion for yourself. If you are the kind of person who would be horrified at the idea of me screaming at a child for a simple mistake, then you out to apply that same level of compassion towards yourself. And if you think I should have screamed at a child for learning something new, then I'm sorry for whoever/whatever has hurt you so deeply. Just know that you don't deserve the self-loathing you're suffering with.
Um, where was I? Oh yeah.
Step 6. Sew around the edges of both sets of circles. For the brim that will be 2 layers of fabric + buckram or interfacing. (Make a sandwich of Wrong Side up Fabric, Right side up Fabric, Buckram, Buckram.....or Wrong Side Up Fabric, Right side up fabric with interfacing ironed on to wrong side) Hope that makes sense. I'm breathing in a lot of burned waffle fumes today.
We're going to deal with the crown and brim separately for a bit here. This is the part where Romeo is banished for killing Tybalt. But he'll come back from Mantua soon enough.
This brim has been turned right side out, and the inner circle has been cut from all layers.
The crown, on the other hand, has the inner circle cut from only ONE layer. This is IMPORTANT! Iv'e made the mistake of mixing up what I'm doing and cutting the circle from both crown layers. This results in a hat with a giant hole in it. And you're going to have to start over. So, be careful. Sometimes, when I can feel a bout of stupid coming on, I'll mark the crown and brim pieces with chalk so I don't mess up. There's no shame in being careful. It's better to ride a bike with training wheels than ride into a tree that then catches fire.
Step 7. Our Star crossed lovers reunite. But wait, they've changed. And poor Juliet is dead! What!?!?! Oh NO!........don't panic. Remember I said this was going to have a happier ending.
Since the inner circle cut is the same size on both pieces, they will fit nicely together. Do you know what that means? No Gathering! No PLEATING! It's just simple! Which means you've just saved yourself approx 117 hours. And I'm pretty sure that's enough time to teach yourself to speak Japanese.
***I've been informed by the aforementioned 11 yo that you probably can't learn a foreign language in 117 hours. Sorry. You'll have to spend your free time in some other way. Maybe bake 117 cakes? Or just 50 cakes and use the rest of the time to vigorously exercise to combat your sudden and inexplicable weight gain.
Step 8. Our lovers are reunited! With the help of the Friar, Paris, Nurse, Balthasar, the Apothecary, (ok, really it's just straight pins. And no, I didn't actually name my pins. That would be insane)
Pin the heck out of this. There are a lot of layers, and you don't want shifting to happen. You're now going to sew the brim to the crown. This may involve some level of fabric yoga and manipulation to get it under the machine foot, but you can do it. I believe in you. Finish this seam in whatever way pleases you. You can bind it with bias tape, you can serge it, you can finish it with a zig zag stitch. Just so it doesn't fray and unravel and fall apart after all your hard work.
And just like that, you have a hat. You'll notice that this time I was much more alert. I din't have an opportunity to surprise myself like earlier.
VARIATIONS
We sewed right sides together on the brim and turned it right side out. This is the easiest way to do it, but now there's a bulky seam. You can choose instead of sew the Wrong Sides together, with interfacing/buckram sandwiched inbetween. And then use bias tape to bind the edge. Your bias can be matching, or contrasting for a sassy bit of color.
If you're doing the binding method, you can also choose to use millinary wire in the brim. Whip stitch this around the edge of the brim and cover it with your bias binding. Theoretically you can use a wide zig zag stitch to secure the millinary wire, however, I always break about 84 needles when I try this. So I find it easier to simply do that part by hand. The millinary wire makes your brim shapable, and a little more fancy.
Hatbands:
You can add a ribbon or some trim for decoration. This can be as simple as a bit of grossgrain ribbon, or it can be a sumptuous trim that's been beaded and blinged out. You can also add a feather or two depending on how saucy you're feeling.
Spunky Contrast. We used 4 circles of the same fabric for this hat. However, you can choose to use 3 circles of the same fabric, and 1 contrasting circle. That contrast is going to be the underbrim, and it can look pretty spiffy. All the steps are the same, you just need to make sure that when you attach crown and brim that the contrasting fabric is on the underside.
