It’s super hard for me to decide which I enjoy more, this silly little 1930’s hat or the luscious capelet in a Japanese Cotton. They were both very fun makes and great additions to my wardrobe. You might have guessed by now, that Navy is my Black. I much prefer a little color to my basics and navy blue really fits the bill.

It’s been a strange few months:

• ALL of our Summer Camps for kids were taught online

• I made over 20 videos to support my Summer Camps. They are not perfect but I got better at them and look forward to making more in the Fall.

• My Business has taken a big pivot from teaching a lot of in person classes to teaching entirely online and also focusing more on Fabric and Product than teaching.

• I actually have a mask that matches this outfit. (It was in my mom’s pocket while she was snapping photos of me, around the corner from her house). I have masks for almost every outfit now, as it has quickly become mandatory to wear them in the State of California. I have mixed feelings about the mask in general, but wear mine all the time, when I’m out in public and not getting my photo taken by my mom.

• I’ve actually made almost 1500 masks to date that i’ve either sold or donated. That’s kind of another odd part about the last few months. What was once a rhythmic schedule has been turned upside down and shaken up so that I’m doing so many different things.

Sewing for myself has been a saving grace throughout this pandemic. It’s really kept me sane and helped me to focus on something other than the topsy turvy nature of life as we know it now. It’s also fun to get dressed up now an then if only for myself. Read on for more details about these two pieces. I hope it adds a little whimsy to your day.

AHHHHH this fabric. I chose this fabric for the shop and then kept eyeing it wondering what I could make with it. When patterns from Decades of Style arrived in the mail, I knew this capelet would come together very well with this wave print Japanese Cotton. And to top it off, I had the perfect buttons (found at an estate sale earlier this year).

I made absolutely NO changes to the pattern before sewing it up. Most of it was sewn by machine but I did stitch the hems down by hand. I was not feeling particularly couture focused when I made it up, so the buttonholes are just standard made with my machine, other than the top buttonhole, which is concealed in the seam. I really like that detail, however, because the buttonhole was on an angled seam, the positioning of the other buttonholes as a little tricky.

Once again I used Vogue accessories pattern 7464, but this time made view C. This was a much easier hat to create, than view B that I made in my last post. I used a navy blue silk shantung from my stash, buckram and wire. I simply followed the instructions and looked at the diagrams.

There were only a couple of changes I made to the way they construct the hat:

1. When making the buckram base, the instructions call for the edge of the two layer buckram circle, to be folded back and stitched down. Did that. Then the instructions have one thread a piece of wire through that folded over part. I found this extremely difficult, so instead of trying to force the wire through that narrow passageway, I just zigzag stitched over the wire on the outside edge of the buckram like I’ve done with other hats. It worked just fine this way.

2. I did not use buckram shaped over a tennis ball for the hat lining. Instead, I just hand stitched a circle of fabric over the open hole in the center, with the seam allowances turned inside. The hat hole is so small, it just rests on top of the head, so I did not see any reason to add that curved buckram piece.

The ribbons for the hat were actually very effective in keeping the hat on my head. I might use a hat pin if there was any wind, however, as that hat really just sits on top there.

Below are some process photos from making the hat.

Here are the details (with links) for my outfit:

Japanese Wave Fabric - 100% Cotton with a slight texture

1930’s Capelet Pattern - Decades of Style #3009

1930’s & 1940’s hats - Vogue Accessories 7464

Trousers - Me made for Miss Fisher Con - View that post here

Until Next Time - Happy Sewing!

xo Jennifer