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sun hat pattern
Hi all,
I just came back from vacation w/ a nasty sunburn and I've been thinking about sewing my own sun hat, since hats at the stores are always too small for my evidently enormous head. Does anyone have some tips on how to construct one? I've seen a couple of patterns, but again the standard head measurements won't fit - I'm wondering if I should buy a pattern then alter dramatically, or just try it on my own..? Thanks in advance for your suggestions/comments, G |
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#2
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G wrote:
Hi all, I just came back from vacation w/ a nasty sunburn and I've been thinking about sewing my own sun hat, since hats at the stores are always too small for my evidently enormous head. Does anyone have some tips on how to construct one? I've seen a couple of patterns, but again the standard head measurements won't fit - I'm wondering if I should buy a pattern then alter dramatically, or just try it on my own..? Thanks in advance for your suggestions/comments, G Dear G! You're not alone! I have exactly the same problem (big head and fair, red-head's skin)! I've made sunhats for my DD (who is also going to be a big-head when she's grown-up), but haven't done one for myself - yet! I expect I'll only have to enlarge the chilren's pattern enough so that the circumference will fit my own. I'll make a few prototypes from calico first, I think! The technique is a little fiddly, but if you're patient the results are worth it. A lot depends on the pattern you use. The one I chose was for a shallowish, flat-topped crown (ie. had an oval-shaped piece on top of the head) and a wide brim. You can also get ones that piece the crown together in four to eight triangular-shaped bits (baseball hats usually work on this principle - they 'cup' the head rather than standing up from it). Either way, the hardest part is in attaching the brim to the crown. You're fitting two circular outlines together and their curvature is not exactly the same. The things to remember a 1. *Make sure* you pin the bits together *along the sewing line*, not the edge! It's an easy assumption to pin the *edges* of the fabric together and this will give you a severe headache: there's no way you'll ease the brim into the crown piece because its edge is longer! Pin along the sewing line (chalk it in with dressmaker's pencil or white coloured pencil - that makes it a bit easier) and patiently ease the bits together. 2. Stay-stitch around the completed crown and the brim (ie about midway between the edge and the stitching line). There'll be a good bit of bias stretch in your circular pieces and they could stretch a lot as you handle them. Stay-stitching will ensure this is minimised and will prevent there being too much ease. 3. Relax! If you get all fraught with tension, it'll never work. A good idea is to divide the brim and crown pieces into quarters by placing a pin at each quarter mark. Match these pinned points together (ie brim to crown) and then ease in the distance between them. In this way, you won't wind up with a heap of fullness in one place (thus making you look like a potato head!) Other bits of advice... You stiffen the brim by ironing in some heavy interfacing. You can interface just one piece (usually the top) or both top and bottom pieces. If you want *really* stiff brims, you could use buckram (a very heavy, old-fashioned interfacing that you sew in). Sometimes, it's enough to simply stitch around and around the brim at quarter inch intervals. A nice idea is to put in a heavy piping at the edge of the brim, or to pipe the crown/brim seam and top crown seam. I once made my DD a Bananas In Pyjamas outfit for preschool. It was a simple shirred dress with white cotton cord shoulder ties and a banana-yellow hem insert. I made the matching sunhat with yellow piping around the blue/white striped hat brim and more at the top of the crown. This piping was made with the thickest piping cord available (1/4") and it gave the brim excellent body! The hat could be scrunched up as only kids can scrunch, yet the stiffish piping always brought it back into shape! Another cute idea is to make the hat reversible by using hand stitching techiques to hide seamlines. This takes longer to do, but you wind up with a really clever hat! Also, you need to think carefully about the fabric you're going to use. Can it be laundered? Will you need to shrink it a lot before use (some cottons can shrink ferociously!)? Will it be too hot? Too heavy? Will it breathe? Will it wrinkle and need to be ironed? I once tooled myself a *beootiful* hat from thin calf leather. It was based on the Akubra 'Snowy River' style and featured clusters of gum leaves with little owls peering from a tree-hole. It was laced artfully together with triple cordovan stitch. It took ages to make and the idea was to shield me from the hot Oz sun while attending Pony Club instruction days. BUT... I had not *weighed* the considerably large piece of leather from which I cut the hat pieces! It weighed an imperial ton! After an hour of wearing it, my neck began to concertina back into my body! While the hat kept my (large and stupid) head cool at all times, the cost to my cervical vertebrae was just too great! It hangs on my wall now, still very beautiful but completely useless. It *pretends* to be a hat, but is really a wall-hanging... :-( Anyway, hat making isn't hard - I only hope to save you some angst by listing my own mistakes! ;-D HTH, -- Trish {|:-} Newcastle, NSW, Australia |
#3
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G wrote:
Hi all, I just came back from vacation w/ a nasty sunburn and I've been thinking about sewing my own sun hat, since hats at the stores are always too small for my evidently enormous head. Does anyone have some tips on how to construct one? I've seen a couple of patterns, but again the standard head measurements won't fit - I'm wondering if I should buy a pattern then alter dramatically, or just try it on my own..? You can download Wild Things! from Wild Ginger, free, from http://www.wildginger.com/wildthings!/ It includes a pattern for a sunhat and you can specify the size you want. Sally |
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I think being a red head and having a large head size must be connected,
both my husband & son are red-haired with large heads. Hmm, this could be a thesis paper! meg |
#5
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Meg Street wrote:
I think being a red head and having a large head size must be connected, both my husband & son are red-haired with large heads. Hmm, this could be a thesis paper! meg Any asthma among your family members? Hayfever? My kids and I *so* enjoy the wonders of antihistamine! =:-0 -- Trish {|:-} Newcastle, NSW, Australia PS. I dunno about the red hair gene! My hair was flame-coloured when I was a child. It has grown darker over the years and is now dark, dark mahogany (can only see the red highlights in strong sunlight). My son (nearly thirty) is on the same path as me: his bright red hair is darkening underneath (and thinning on top, poor kid!). My daughter (nearly ten) has a mane of coppery tresses all the way down to her bum - I'm assuming it's going to darken too and none of us will have red hair in the end. It doesn't seem fair! I've spent most of my life being noticed for my red hair, choosing a green wardrobe and having ferocious sunburns, courtesy of the skin. Now, while I still *think* of myself as a red-head, people look at me very oddly when I say so ('But *your* hair's not red!') Well, it was for thirty years! Snif! And my poor boy is sadly waving goodbye to his crowning glory and adjusting to a life without any hair a-tall! Isn't it *sad*? PPS. My hairdresser told me that red-heads have more hairs on their heads than other people. I would agree with this: my hair is extremely thick and long (not particularly nice hair, though - my daughter's is: hers is silky and glossy while mine's bitter and twisted! LOL!) |
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Trish Brown wrote:
I dunno about the red hair gene! My hair was flame-coloured when I was a child. It has grown darker over the years and is now dark, dark mahogany (can only see the red highlights in strong sunlight). One word: henna. It gives lovely red highlights and makes your hair wonderfully glossy. People comment on my hair and it's all down to henna. It won't lighten it but it will make the red highlights stronger. Sally |
#7
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I know how to make that mahogany hair red again!!!
As long as Clairol is in business I will never be grey!! "Trish Brown" wrote in message ... Meg Street wrote: I think being a red head and having a large head size must be connected, both my husband & son are red-haired with large heads. Hmm, this could be a thesis paper! meg Any asthma among your family members? Hayfever? My kids and I *so* enjoy the wonders of antihistamine! =:-0 -- Trish {|:-} Newcastle, NSW, Australia PS. I dunno about the red hair gene! My hair was flame-coloured when I was a child. It has grown darker over the years and is now dark, dark mahogany (can only see the red highlights in strong sunlight). My son (nearly thirty) is on the same path as me: his bright red hair is darkening underneath (and thinning on top, poor kid!). My daughter (nearly ten) has a mane of coppery tresses all the way down to her bum - I'm assuming it's going to darken too and none of us will have red hair in the end. It doesn't seem fair! I've spent most of my life being noticed for my red hair, choosing a green wardrobe and having ferocious sunburns, courtesy of the skin. Now, while I still *think* of myself as a red-head, people look at me very oddly when I say so ('But *your* hair's not red!') Well, it was for thirty years! Snif! And my poor boy is sadly waving goodbye to his crowning glory and adjusting to a life without any hair a-tall! Isn't it *sad*? PPS. My hairdresser told me that red-heads have more hairs on their heads than other people. I would agree with this: my hair is extremely thick and long (not particularly nice hair, though - my daughter's is: hers is silky and glossy while mine's bitter and twisted! LOL!) |
#8
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Maybe this thread will finally kick me into gear. I copied a Gilligan hat, made myself a wardrobe of machine-washable hats that can be crammed into a pocket, wrote up instructions for drafting the brim -- under "Pattern Drafting: a circle with a hole in it" in _Rough Sewing_ -- and that was as far as I got. Doesn't help that I plan to make a cylinder-shaped crown on the next hat -- you don't need instructions to make one of those. I don't find the brim a bit difficult to attach to the crown. I mark the crown and the brim in eight places, put the crown inside the brim, pin, stitch a little outside the stitching line, then pin in a strip of selvage sewn into a circle that just fits my head to the other side of the brim, sew on the stitching line, turn the sweatband to the inside to cover the raw edges, hand-sew it into place. (Machine stitching works fine for digging-in-the-garden hats.) The crown itself is usually cut on the crossgrain (duh! Perhaps the straight grain doesn't *always* have to run up and down. furious cogitation ensues), so it stretches a bit, so it's only the sweatband that holds the hat to the correct size. more cogitation When I get around to making that black cotton velvet hat, I think I'll cut the crown a little too big and ease it onto the brim, so as to create a slightly-poufy effect. Or, perhaps, I'll make it as a brimmed pillbox . . . Joy Beeson -- http://home.earthlink.net/~joybeeson/ -- needlework http://home.earthlink.net/~beeson_n3f/ -- Writers' Exchange joy beeson at earthlink dot net |
#9
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Trish Brown wrote:
Meg Street wrote: I think being a red head and having a large head size must be connected, both my husband & son are red-haired with large heads. Hmm, this could be a thesis paper! meg Any asthma among your family members? Hayfever? My kids and I *so* enjoy the wonders of antihistamine! =:-0 DH has red hair, but I have the hayfever thankfully only mild most of the time. Looks like DS will start out as strawberry blonde, but will probably darken up as he gets older. DH's hair is a really beautiful copper colour and wavy, I'm jealous, but it won't suit me :-( -- Melinda http://cust.idl.com.au/athol |
#10
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melinda wrote:
Trish Brown wrote: Meg Street wrote: I think being a red head and having a large head size must be connected, both my husband & son are red-haired with large heads. Hmm, this could be a thesis paper! meg Any asthma among your family members? Hayfever? My kids and I *so* enjoy the wonders of antihistamine! =:-0 DH has red hair, but I have the hayfever thankfully only mild most of the time. Looks like DS will start out as strawberry blonde, but will probably darken up as he gets older. DH's hair is a really beautiful copper colour and wavy, I'm jealous, but it won't suit me :-( I have the skin to go with that, and natural copper and gold highlight, but over all, my hair looks dark brown (with grey bits!). Mine isn't the dead white skin and blue eyes look of the Norse ancestry, but the dark eyed celt crossed with pict look! -- Kate XXXXXX Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk Click on Kate's Pages and explore! |
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