Having completed millinery class with a damaged boater and even less inspiration than when I started it, I was a bit flummoxed about how I would actually finally find a hat to complete my wedding guest outfit. Honestly, I was expecting to be dis-invited due to the limit on numbers at weddings, but somehow I found out at short notice I was still on the list. "I hope you've got your hat ready" said the bride... #cringeforKatrina
I stumbled upon Elswhen Millinery on Etsy and they immediately seemed like a good bet. I'm not massively interested in historical sewing but this store was packed with interesting sewn hat designs that looked completely wearable.
I was really drawn to a few designs but ended up purchasing the Zoe 1940s Beret because I wanted my face and my hair visible in any potential photos. I also really liked the piecing on the crown and thought it was a nice design element.
Since this was a special hat I shelled out on some lovely green birdseye wool from Fabworks and some liberty print for the lining. I used a basic fusible interfacing for the pieces and face mask/garden wire for the wired parts.
I think the design was great and the hat came together very quickly and easily. I found the instructions to be comprehensive but maybe also a little jarring for people used to sewing garments. I slightly resented needing to draft a lining piece, but the shape was very easy to trace and it fit nicely on an A3 piece of paper.
I am impressed with how well this hat fits too. I was expecting to add small crochet loops for hair grips but they weren't needed at all.
I was pleased to use my wiring skills in this project but I should've done the wiring in the embellishment by hand as the wire doesn't sit completely right. I also put the embellishment on a pin to make it a bit more versatile in use. I can move the bow around on the hat, or maybe move it to my lapel or a bag for coherence.
For the full wedding guest outfit I teamed this with Burda 6875 and Vogue 1645 (green) to complete the look. I feel accidentally incredibly stylish!
Interestingly, this outfit is really tricky to photograph. The jumpsuit and hat appear black in a lot of photos and the coat reads as completely grey. None of the coloured stripes were picked up by B's fancy new Fuji XT2. How odd!
K x
