Made this for one of the ladies at my church.
Side view
Another frontal
I just love this one.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Gladys the Glass Head and the Micro-hat
This is made from felt and zebra print tulle.
Love the big bow.
Pretty bow.
side view
I am loving these hats!!
Tiny Top Hat
Finished another hat. How cute is this super tiny top hat??
Super cut hat from the back.
Another view.
Love that back view!!!
Sunday, March 11, 2012
New Hats
For this piece, I started with a tear drop shaped form, and covered it in black felt. I then made a few fabric flowers added a pretty button and enclosed in all in a mushroom of tulle.
Here is Gladys the Glass Head, so appropriately named my my oldest daughter, modeling my latest creation. I had some trouble with the focus on my camera. I think the tulle confused my automatic focus.
Gladys form another angle.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Vogue: 1940's Style Felt Hat
Isn't she absolutely beautiful??? Look at that hat!! So chic. So Dick Tracy! I can imagine her in a black and white episode of Dick Tracy, tears in her eyes, chest heaving, breathlessly gasping in a slow southern drawl, "Ah thank someone is trahing to kill me." ~sigh~ I was sooo born in the wrong era.This hat is a Vogue pattern from the 1930-1940's era. What is not to love. I tried my hand at making one. I am not 100% satisfied with the results, but still quite pleased. I made it for a lady at church, and added a bit of tulle.
My bow is a bit off kilter, but all in all, not too bad. I think I will still play with it a little more. See if I can't overcome the crumpled look.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Flower hat Tutorial
I love vintage. I have been on a vintage kick for about a month now. Actually, longer than that but I never had the nerve to make it and wear it, until I started loosing weight. Yeah, Baby! I lost 5" on my waist. Woot! To celebrate, I sewed myself a lovely dress and jacket. More on that later. My accomplishment today was a lovely black Flower Hat. I dreamed it the other night. Yes, I actually dreamed that I made this hat one night. It is not fun at all. I get excited about a project and all night long I dream I am sewing and making my project. The hubbs has even got up on some mornings asking me what I 'built' that night. He never sleeps well when I am 'building' in my sleep. Evidently, not only am I building in my sleep, I am also, mumbling and twitching. He doesn't sleep well either. So, when I say I designed and sewed hats all night long, I mean just that.
The first thing I did was cut myself a tear drop shaped piece of buckram, about the size and shape of a shoulder pad. I also cut a piece of black felt about 1/4" larger than the buckram. Save the felt, we will work with it later. I placed a wet wash cloth on a 6" styrofoam ball, then placed the piece of buckram on the wash cloth. To keep the ball from rolling, I placed it in a small dessert dish. I molded the buckram to accept the shape of the ball. I removed the wash cloth and replaced the buckram on the styrofaom ball and let it dry. After it is completely dry, it will regain its former stiffness.
Now for the felt. Important fact: Use felt from the bolt at a fabric store. Do not use craft felt. You will have wonky looking hat. This is my felt piece. I placed the felt piece over the stiff buckram piece, smoothed it out, and and sewed it around the edges using a 1/4" fold.
Here is the underside where I stitched the felt to the buckram. This is going to be your hat! That's it. That is all there is to it. Now, we will move on to the decorating part of our hat
I cut 3- 3" strips the length of my felt about 18" long. I cut 6- 18" long strands of 14 gauge wire. This can be found in the jewelry making section of Hobby Lobby. (I would love to live in Hobby Lobby)
The next step is to sew about a 1/4" seam down each side of the felt strip. This will be done to all three pieces of felt.
After the sides are finished, make an itty bitty crook at the end of one of the wires. Thread the wire in the space made by the seam. Do this to both sides.
Cut the strip in half. You will have to use shears that are strong enough to cut through wire so you don't ruin your good scissors.
Fold the strip in a little raindrop shape. Tack the middle with your machine. Be careful not to run over a wire and break your needle. Ask me how I know!!!! After you machine tack the loop, you will hand sew the bottom of the loops and gather them until the bottom is nice and tight. Do this to only 5 of the strips. You will save one of them for the middle.
After you sew the ends nice and tight, take your pliers and fold the ends under so it looks nice and tidy.
See? Nice, neat, and very pretty. :)
Now lets take that last strip. We are gonna fold him in half and sew him real tight like we did the bottom of the loops. After the middle is sewn tight sew both ends in the same manner.
Arrange the five loops on the top of the hat. I put two loops at the front of the head, I thought that one in the front looked funny. Tack the loops to the center of the hat.
Here are the two loop I positioned to the front. Now we will sew the loops secure to the rest of the hat. I left a tiny bit un-sewn right at the rim of the hat just in case I decided to add a veil.
Almost done!!! Take that last piece of felt strip. We are going to sew this right in the middle of our hat to cover up all that ugly hand stitching.
Sew one of the ends at the edge of the middle in a way as to hide the end. Now secure the middle of your strip to the exact middle of you hat. Last secure the final end of you strip to the other side to complete a double loop. Straighten all your loops and fix the loops so they arranged attractively on the hat. Add a lovely hat pin and you are finished!!!!
If you are interested in purchasing one of this style hat, leave me a comment. The hat is available for $30 plus shipping and handling. I also have hat pins like the one featured in the picture for $10 each.
I added a bit of a tulle veil to it at the request of the young lady who bought it. I think it looks very pretty. You can't tell it from the picture, but there is little flecks of glitter in the veil. Love it.
The first thing I did was cut myself a tear drop shaped piece of buckram, about the size and shape of a shoulder pad. I also cut a piece of black felt about 1/4" larger than the buckram. Save the felt, we will work with it later. I placed a wet wash cloth on a 6" styrofoam ball, then placed the piece of buckram on the wash cloth. To keep the ball from rolling, I placed it in a small dessert dish. I molded the buckram to accept the shape of the ball. I removed the wash cloth and replaced the buckram on the styrofaom ball and let it dry. After it is completely dry, it will regain its former stiffness.
Now for the felt. Important fact: Use felt from the bolt at a fabric store. Do not use craft felt. You will have wonky looking hat. This is my felt piece. I placed the felt piece over the stiff buckram piece, smoothed it out, and and sewed it around the edges using a 1/4" fold.Here is the underside where I stitched the felt to the buckram. This is going to be your hat! That's it. That is all there is to it. Now, we will move on to the decorating part of our hat
I cut 3- 3" strips the length of my felt about 18" long. I cut 6- 18" long strands of 14 gauge wire. This can be found in the jewelry making section of Hobby Lobby. (I would love to live in Hobby Lobby)
The next step is to sew about a 1/4" seam down each side of the felt strip. This will be done to all three pieces of felt.
After the sides are finished, make an itty bitty crook at the end of one of the wires. Thread the wire in the space made by the seam. Do this to both sides.
Cut the strip in half. You will have to use shears that are strong enough to cut through wire so you don't ruin your good scissors.
Fold the strip in a little raindrop shape. Tack the middle with your machine. Be careful not to run over a wire and break your needle. Ask me how I know!!!! After you machine tack the loop, you will hand sew the bottom of the loops and gather them until the bottom is nice and tight. Do this to only 5 of the strips. You will save one of them for the middle.
After you sew the ends nice and tight, take your pliers and fold the ends under so it looks nice and tidy.
See? Nice, neat, and very pretty. :)
Now lets take that last strip. We are gonna fold him in half and sew him real tight like we did the bottom of the loops. After the middle is sewn tight sew both ends in the same manner.Arrange the five loops on the top of the hat. I put two loops at the front of the head, I thought that one in the front looked funny. Tack the loops to the center of the hat.
Here are the two loop I positioned to the front. Now we will sew the loops secure to the rest of the hat. I left a tiny bit un-sewn right at the rim of the hat just in case I decided to add a veil.
Almost done!!! Take that last piece of felt strip. We are going to sew this right in the middle of our hat to cover up all that ugly hand stitching.
Sew one of the ends at the edge of the middle in a way as to hide the end. Now secure the middle of your strip to the exact middle of you hat. Last secure the final end of you strip to the other side to complete a double loop. Straighten all your loops and fix the loops so they arranged attractively on the hat. Add a lovely hat pin and you are finished!!!!
I added a bit of a tulle veil to it at the request of the young lady who bought it. I think it looks very pretty. You can't tell it from the picture, but there is little flecks of glitter in the veil. Love it.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Recovering dining room chair cushion (tutorial)
I am soooo loving my new (inexpensive, yard sale find) dining room table and chairs. I am still working on the chairs. I am now to the 're-doing the cushion' part of the chairs. Strap on your seat belts, and here we go!!
The first thing we have to do is remove the cushion from the chair. Turn the chair over and look at the bottom. You should see some screws at each corner or thereabouts. My chair had four straight slot screws which I promptly removed with my trusty kitchen knife. With the screws gone, the cushion should just fall out.
The cushion consist of 1 piece of board, a piece of foam, and 1 to several old fabric/vinyl pieces that were used to recover the seat in the past. If you look on the bottom wood part of the cushion you will see where they attached the fabric with nails, staples, or tacks of some type. My chair had small tacks, which I removed and recycled. Remove whatever was used to attach the previous seat cover. Use this piece as a template or pattern to cut your seat covering to the correct size.
To attach the new seat cover, lay the fabric face down on a table or, in my case, the floor. Place the seat, cushion side down, in the center of the fabric. On one side of the seat, wrap fabric over the edge and put two are three tacks. I used the original tacks that I removed from the seat. Leave about 3" from the corner. Stretch the fabric taut and do the same to the opposite side. Secure fabric to all four sides, working directly across from each side.
Now for the corners. Take the corner piece of fabric and stretch it across the corner of the seat until it is snug. Tack that piece. Now smooth the side, folding the fabric over th piece you just tacked making a smooth fold. Tack this piece. Do the same to the other side of the same corner. Continue this way until all corners are done. Your seat should be done. If there are loose places, put extra tacks for added hold. Replace chair to it original position and screw back into place. Woot Woot! Your seat is done!! Happy dance!!
Pictures to come.
The first thing we have to do is remove the cushion from the chair. Turn the chair over and look at the bottom. You should see some screws at each corner or thereabouts. My chair had four straight slot screws which I promptly removed with my trusty kitchen knife. With the screws gone, the cushion should just fall out.
The cushion consist of 1 piece of board, a piece of foam, and 1 to several old fabric/vinyl pieces that were used to recover the seat in the past. If you look on the bottom wood part of the cushion you will see where they attached the fabric with nails, staples, or tacks of some type. My chair had small tacks, which I removed and recycled. Remove whatever was used to attach the previous seat cover. Use this piece as a template or pattern to cut your seat covering to the correct size.
To attach the new seat cover, lay the fabric face down on a table or, in my case, the floor. Place the seat, cushion side down, in the center of the fabric. On one side of the seat, wrap fabric over the edge and put two are three tacks. I used the original tacks that I removed from the seat. Leave about 3" from the corner. Stretch the fabric taut and do the same to the opposite side. Secure fabric to all four sides, working directly across from each side.
Now for the corners. Take the corner piece of fabric and stretch it across the corner of the seat until it is snug. Tack that piece. Now smooth the side, folding the fabric over th piece you just tacked making a smooth fold. Tack this piece. Do the same to the other side of the same corner. Continue this way until all corners are done. Your seat should be done. If there are loose places, put extra tacks for added hold. Replace chair to it original position and screw back into place. Woot Woot! Your seat is done!! Happy dance!!
Pictures to come.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)