Now I'm not a milliner or a hat expert. I made my first top hat as a last resort with no pattern and no real idea of how it's supposed to be done. I had some experience with flat construction hats (hats made of cutting and sewing together flat pieces into a 3d shape, no moisture, no blocks, no heat, etc). I merely looked up patterns (to see what shape my pieces were supposed to be), peered into my fedoras (I have 6 of them) and a friend's top hat to see how they were done (mostly felt steamed over a block...), and looked at every description of millinery buckram I could find to see if I could garner any tips. Because of course, with my excellent skills of pre-planning: I decided to make that first hat without being able to A. assemble all of the necessary materials and B. buy a pattern.
It came out alright but slightly too small. My attempts to attach the brim to everything else failed and I had to jerry rig the attachment which added just enough bulk for the wearer to complain, constantly, that it was just slightly too tight.
And then it got sat on. All thoughts that this hat looked ok despite the flaws and glue stains went out of the window.
Whoops. So in my sewing queue has been "make new top hat". I figure if I manged to make it once, I can make it again. Right?!
I made some changes from my original 'method' because I learned from that trial.
I. I added a layer of water resistant fabric to the hat-not to make my life harder by adding a slippery element-because this hat lives in the UK where it rains fairly regularly. The mull/felt protects the buckram to a certain extent but not enough as I found out when an entire pint got spilled on the brim causing the buckram of most of the hat to collapse. I'm hoping that adding a water resistant layer will help me avoid the whole holding a hat brim into shape for more than an hour thing.
II. I still haven't found the sweet spot for proper millinery wire because there is nowhere local where I can talk to someone in real life about it. This hat uses jewelry wire wrapped around a clear type of millinery cord to enhance stiffness.
III. No glue goes near this hat once the outside fabric comes into play.
IV. The trimmed ribbon gets sewn on. It's harder to switch out ribbons to use the hat for multiple purposes but it also won't migrate upwards, like in the old hat, exposing the join of side and brim.
V. I figured out that most hats with sides like this create the cylinder with an angled join thus allowing the fashion fabric to neatly get sewn inside the hat instead of a bulky outside seam as I had before.
VI. Crown tip. Less ugly and more draped. Wider bias tape to ease the ugly in this area.
Materials: What do you need to make a top hat?
-Thicker paper, pencil, tape measure, ruler because you're going to draft a simple brim
-Millinery Buckram (I use the cheapest option, no adhesive at all. Keep in mind, this stuff is not the same as curtain buckram which can be called thickener. Avoid these.)
-Wire for the brim edge (thick. top hats traditionally have a curved up side brim and flat front and back-the wire is what creates that shape)
-Mull or Felt (I use quality dressmaker's wool felt.)
-PVA
-optional: double sided fusible (I invested in some "interweb")
-optional: some sort of water resistant fabric
-Lining fabric for the interior. (fat quarter?)
-Fashion fabric for the outside (best if opaque) (1/2 meter?)
-Bias binding-for the brim I use 1", the crown and interior brim had 2"
-Ribbon for trimming
-Strong Straw Needles (I've tried using book binding needles and various other weaker sorts and they all broke. Invest in some hardcore straw needles, you'll cry less. Straw needles tend to be heavier metal and have an eye that is the same width of the shaft unlike most other needles.) Get multiple needles-they have too many opportunities to dull (that wire)
-Iron
1. Draft your brim. I turn you over to Sempstress whose tutorial is far better than anything I could come up with.
Remember that the brim has 3 ovals. One is the outer oval (mine is 2 in wide) for the proper brim, the brim interior and a smaller clipping oval (mine is 1/2 in).
2. Cut out your brim out of the buckram twice. Then cut 2 of the brim proper out of the felt/mull (that is, only the outer oval). Then cut 2 out of the water resistant fabric.
Note that since you want no extra bulk in the clipping part of the brim, any extra fabric and felt is cut only to fit the brim. If your clips contain any excess bulk, it will make the hat smaller. (The bonus is that the ovals you cut out of the middles of the water resistant and of the felt can be used for your crown so cut carefully and save them)
If your buckram is buckled (mine got folded), you can flatten it by lightly steaming it (lift the iron up and blast) then pressing flat.
3. Bind the water resistant to one of the buckram pieces-sandwiching the buckram between the water resistant fabric.
If you don't have interweb, you can start with the gluing. For hat making you want to dilute your PVA heavily so it's more water than glue. Brush the fabric with glue and set buckram on it and smooth as flat as possible (I use my bone folder). Prepare to get glue all over your hands. Give it a quick little press with the iron to make sure it's flat and dry up some of the moisture. Set the brim between two books larger than your brim to dry (you want it to dry flat and not buckle). You should probably let it dry overnight.
4. Some flat hand sewing time! Stitch the wire to the outer edge as tight as possible with an overcast stitch-sewing felt on at the same time. (Don't even think about using a machine)
I have never managed to make the felt sew flat on so I clip out tiny little mini wedges to let it lie flat.
5. Whipstitch the other piece of buckram to the other side. Tack down the felt to the inside edge.
Press it as well-it's a bit curved/curled at this point but that's ok, top hat brims are always curved up at the sides so you're just half way there already.
6. Cut out your full brims (clipped section included) out of the fashion fabric. Tack them down at the clipping line. Whipstitch over the brim to join them together.
(If you're capable of using glue and not dripping/spreading it over everything in a 5 mile radius, you can of course cut the fashion fabric at the same time as your brims. I am assuredly not, so I cut them later after all the glue has been cleaned up and put away.)
7. Get out your bias binding and stitch it closely over the wire edge.
You want to have a tight stitch against the wire to get the bias binding taut.
You have three options for the edges. If you're glue confident, you can glue the edges down with a light coat of pure PVA applied with a brush right at the stitch line. If you have a favorite double sided interfacing, you can use that. If you are hand-stitching confident, you can stitch that edge down.
8. Clip the inner oval. Try it on to make sure it fits the wearer! You want it to be slightly loose but snug enough to be an obviously fitting hat.
If it's far too big, don't worry at this stage-it's easy to add bulk.
If it's snug, clip off half of the clips of one of the buckram layers and see if it gets it loose enough.
If it's tight, clip off the clips of one of the buckram layers and deepen the clips overall.
See you next week for some cylinder building!
