Fox Embroidered Beret

My first project for my millinery class--the project outline gave us a choice of a number of styles of sewn hats. I chose to do a side sloped beret. And since decorating was required and beret tops have such a nice flat surface area I decided to turn this into an embroidery project.

I patterned the hat from scratch. And mocked it up to ensure I liked the style and fit. Then I sketched out my design for the top. Once I was satisfied with that, I moved on to the real hat.

I first cut out all my pieces. I picked a beautiful green wool for the fashion fabric and the lining is leftover silk from my Steampunk Corset.

Then I embroidered the top. I had to finish my embroidery completely before moving on, so that the back of the embroidery stitching could be protected by the lining and interfacing layers. That is the part that obviously took the longest.

I sewed the center back seam on my sidebands--lining and fashion layer.

I constructed the hat in the "pancake" method. The tip (top) of the hat has 3 layers: the outer layer, horse hair canvas interfacing, and the silk lining. I basted the 3 layers together.

Next I made some piping trim. This was stitched onto the top layer, piping to the inside, and seam allowance to the outside of the stitch line.

Then I basted on my outer layer of the side band. This was basted to the top, on top of the piping trim, following the same stitch line. Then I flipped it over and sewed the lining sideband to the bottom side, through all the layers.

The next step was to properly grade and notch my seam allowances to cut down on the bulk. Then I flipped the outside sideband over to the bottom. I carefully pressed it--without crushing the piping trim. Now the top of the hat was completely constructed and lined, and I could move on to the final part--the headband.

I basted my sideband layers together along the bottom seam allowance. Then I sewed one edge of the headband to the outside. I graded and notched my seam allowances before ironing and folding over the headband to the inside. This was pinned and then carefully slip-stitched in place by hand.

Presto! A fabulous beret!