Brown Cloche Hat With Feathers

Let's take a look at my final millinery project: a blocked felt hat! I decided to do a simple cloche hat decorated with feathers. 

To make a blocked felt hat, you buy a "hood" or "capeline" which is 100% wool. (Or you can buy an 100% wool hat that has already been shaped and reshape it. You can get them at H&M.) 

You heat up a tea kettle that doesn't have an automatic shut off (so it will keep boiling--just make sure it doesn't run out of water, because you need the steam and to not set anything on fire). You place the hood/capeline over the steam spout and let it steam. It should have condensation on the outside and it will be really hot when it is ready for shaping. Use tongs to take the hood/capeline off the steam and place it over your desired block. I used a round crown top. Then you stretch it over the block, tie it tight and pin it in place. Let it dry for 24 hours. 

For my cloche, the crown and brim are all one piece. I was pressed for time with moving and was going to miss the last class, so doing a one piece hat was necessary--but also, I really like this style anyway.

If I were to do a separate blocked brim, at this point I would have carefully cut off the brim with an exacto-knife and blocked it on a brim block. For a one piece hat, I applied more steam and shaped the brim while the crown was still tied down on the block. I used rolled up pieces of fabric to shape around and let it sit while it dried. During this time I trimmed off some of the excess felt  from the brim to get it closer to the finished shape that I wanted.

When it was dry, I removed it from the block and set about finishing the edge of the brim. I decided to do a simple folded edge finish. I marked my finished edge and carefully trimmed the brim, leaving a 1/2" fold allowance. I folded it over, using bulldog clips to hold it in place so I could baste it. Then I carefully ironed it before stitching it as invisibly as possible. I ironed it again after stitching. This helped to give it a crisper edge.

Next I added the decorations and headband to the inside. I also gave it a label. I decided to accent it with more of that green silk I bought for the previous hat and feathers left over from my Forest Guardian costume. The goal is to stitch decorations on securely without making them look heavily stitched on,

I'm not too impressed with how the decorations turned out--specifically the feathers. I may replace them later. But I really love this shape--simple, yet elegant!


I've signed up for Millinery Part 2! So look forward to more hats, coming this fall! :D

Edwardian Hat With Kanzashi

Let's talk about hat project #3: blocked buckram! We had to create a blocked buckram hat with crown & brim. I decided to design an Edwardian style hat. This process requires a lot of patience, as the entirety of it was painstakingly hand stitched.

I don't have photo documentation of the blocking process, but you essentially take the buckram, wet it and then stretch it over the block until there are no bumps/bubbles. Then you pin it in place and let it dry. I blocked the brim and the tip of the crown for this hat, the sloped side of the crown I flat patterned.

Once the pieces were dry I marked and cut them down to the desired size/shape. 

The crown and brim are covered and assembled separately, then sewn together. I used a layer of lambswool between the buckram and silk covering to give it a softer finish. All of the edges are finished on each buckram piece (excluding the head opening on the brim) before they are covered in the fashion fabric.

Bulldog clips are exceptionally helpful in holding your fabric in place. Also much of the finishing stitches were done with a curved needle on this project.

I first created my lining. It is a rectangle that I sewed into a loop that equaled the circumference of the brim. One edge was tacked down to the outer edge of the brim, and the other was carefully pleated into the center in a radial pattern. I made it as even as possible. I basted this down along the head size opening.

Next I draped the outer fabric layer over the top of the brim. I pulled it into place and tried to have as little rippling along the brim edge as possible. I folded the raw edge and turned it under. After basting it, I then slip stitched the edge down as invisibly as possible. The curved needle was really handy here.

To finish the crown, first I sewed down the circular pice to cover the tip. I notched the edges before folding them over the edge for a smoother finish. Then I draped the curved side band over the side. I folded over the raw top edge of the fabric aligning it just shy of the edge of the cylinder. I pinned it in place and then slip stitched the edges down. I left the center back seam open at this time. The bottom edge is simply folded up, but not attached. This meant I could still access the inside to attach the crown and brim.

I cut my head size opening hole in the brim, leaving 1/2" seam allowance. I cut notches into the seam allowance so the "tabs" could be folded up. The crown has no seam allowance--the brim seam allowance slots inside the crown, and they are stab stitched together along the brim seam allowance.

I ran into a few problems here--I didn't cut my head size opening large enough, so it didn't fit snugly inside the crown. It made sewing them together super difficult. And as a result the hat doesn't fit very well since its a touch small. But this is a learning process, so I just kind of rolled with it...

I then finished up the back seam of the crown cover. And I tacked down the lower edge in a few places.

Next was to finish the lining. I sewed the outer edge of the gros grain ribbon in along the edge of the opening. Then I carefully laid the crown lining inside. I sewed the inner edge of the ribbon to the crown lining, finishing the inside super cleanly.

You may notice I silk screened my new label into the lining! I'm getting so professional. ;D

Then I created a whole bunch of kanzashi flowers to decorate it with. Some were made of a really beautiful plum silk shot with blue. I also used more of the cream silk to match the lining. And accented with green silk "leaves".

I like the hat, but if I were to wear it (for a costume) I would probably need to fix up the size issue...

Cloche Hat with Kanzashi

Today is a short entry about a project I did for school! The goal was to change the shape of an existing felt hat using steam, and decorate it. I created a 1920s inspired cloche hat that I decorated with kanzashi flowers. Pretty cute right? ;D

For doing this it is very important that the hat is 100% wool, otherwise it won't really work. I found this nondescript black hat at H&M for about $25.

I cut off most of the brim, and from the cutaways I created the second brim layer. Using a tea kettle I let the hat steam and continued to stretch it by hand and over a metal bowl to change the shape. I did this until I was happy with it/the crease was gone. Then I hand stitched brim #2 on, then I wired the edge.  I finished the inside with a gros grain ribbon. This is so the hat wouldn't stretch later.

Once that was done I began to create the decorations. I found this great tutorial on making kanzashi flowers--Japanese style folded flowers. Using the same method I folded the leaves as well. It's basically like origami for fabric.

I finished the edge of the hat with a bias tape I had in my scrap bin.

I finished them by adding a couple of beads to the center, then I sewed them to the hat. I had a lot of fun making them and they turned out pretty great. I got the fabric when I was in Tokyo this past winter.

Then I had a cute hat to hand in! And to wear later! ;D

Isabelle - Outfit - Animal Crossing

Hey all! This is the second (and last) post on my Isabelle costume I made for my sister Alex! Isn't she adorable!? :D The outfit itself is pretty simple, but presented its own challenge: making checkered fabric!

Go here to look at how I made the Wig, Ears & Tail!

Thanks again to EleventhPhotograph for the cute pics! :D Be sure to check out his con gallery!

Let's talk about the easy stuff first: namely the purchased items. The blue skirt we got at H&M on sale for $7! Not bad! We both agreed it wasn't necessary to spend the money on fabric and/or the time on making something that could be easily purchased and worn as is. (Especially when it is perfect.)

The tights are from American Apparel, who have a decent selection of colours, but are on the pricier side. Sadly my favourite tights/socks store at Queen&Spadina seems to have gone out of business. (This was the place we got all of our insanely purple tights for the Katamari costumes...) I'm a bit sad about this, because I would rather not pay the iron American Apparel price for wacky coloured tights... So if anyone knows another good local GTA store to buy coloured tights, let me know!

The shoes are from her wardrobe (though technically the character doesn't wear shoes, we were both in agreement that shoes were necessary for wandering around a convention). The red ribbon was from Sussman's Bridal Supplies!

For the blouse I used the same pattern I created for her Suppi costume, but modified it: I made the collar rounded, and the sleeves pouffy. The pouffe sleeves were really just trial and error, I took the original pattern piece, made it a bit wider and taller and then gathered it along the top and bottom edge. Then I just added a rectangle to make the cuff. If you want to see how I put the original blouse together, go here!

To make the checkered fabric I started off with 3 different colours of green: light, mid and darker. I had a heck of a time finding 3 colours of green that looked good in combination that were close to the reference image. I eventually ended up with this combo, which is not 100% accurate, but I like it. :)

I started by cutting strips of fabric 3" wide. This included a 1/4" seam allowance on each side--meaning my finished squares would be 2 1/2" wide. I cut twice as many of the mid green fabric. Then I sewed my strips together lengthwise. The goal was to make 2 separate striped fabrics: one in light and mid green, one in mid and darker green. Make sure when you hold them up to each other the mid green stripes are offset, like in the picture above. This is important for the next step.

(You can also use this technique to make regular checked fabric--like a chessboard--you will just only need to make 1 striped fabric with an even number of each colour stripes.)

You then press your seams flat on your striped fabrics. Then you can begin cutting again. Cut 3" strips of your striped fabric perpendicularly to your stripes. You should end up with strips like pictured above.

Then you sew those strips together alternating the light stripe fabric with the darker stripe fabric. Press seams flat again. The result should look like the picture on the left.

It's difficult to gauge exactly how much fabric you are making, but as a rule of thumb I think it is better to have too much than too little.

I laid my pattern pieces down on my fabric and cut out the shapes. (I had already done a mockup at this point) I had to be mindful of the checker pattern, to ensure it lined up at the center front.) I sewed the vest together at the side seams, shoulders and closed the darts at the armholes. I opted to leave this garment less fitted because a) the character's body is essentially a sausage shape and b) too many darts really mess with the checker pattern particularly when the squares are this big.

I made an identical vest in the darkest green fabric to line the vest with, otherwise all the seams from the checked fabric will be exposed and fraying on the inside. I made the front placket and collar facing in this fabric also. I finished the bottom edge with a stripe of my darker green (the one I used in the checker fabric).  This finished those raw edges. The darkest green accent fabric is actually leftover from the Prince costume!

 I added 2 strips of velcro to close the jacket. The 2 large buttons added on top were just decoration.

Using the darkest green I made 4 rectangles. 2 were top stitched onto the front as fake pockets the other two had velcro to cinch in the waist at the back. This was instead of putting darts, which would have looked weird on the checkered fabric.

Lastly I attached a bias tape to the inside to finish off the armholes.

Isabelle - Wig, Ears & Tail - Animal Crossing

 The first of my Anime North posts! Lets look at Isabelle! This was made for my older sister Alex. This past Christmas I didn't really have enough time to make a whole bunch of gifts at the end of term, so instead I made a "gift certificate" for my sisters for 1 costume each. Elanne picked Sakura, and Alex picked Isabelle.


Isabelle is a character from the popular game series Animal Crossing. (Called Shizue / しずえ in the original Japanese version.) She is the secretary to the Mayor (the player). I don't play it, but my sister is very much a fan! As you can see, this is a gijinka version of the character, but since the characters in this game are already pretty much humanoid already, there wasn't much redesign necessary to create a gijinka version. This is really just a wig with ears instead of a full mascot head.

She wore this costume on the Saturday of Anime North, while running her Crafters' Corner table, which had her tied up for the majority of the weekend. She did manage to escape for a little bit and did a mini shoot of the costume with Mike of EleventhPhotograph . We got some really cute pics! :D Be sure to check out his con gallery!

The base wig we started with was this one from Epic Cosplay. I really liked this colour of blonde, we chose to go with a colour palette that was a little less yellow than the character is normally. I think it is technically listed as a Vocaloid wig, and it required a large amount of styling to get it to work as an Isabelle wig. First I put it on my sister's head and determined what part I wanted up in the ponytail. I tied that out of the way while I worked on hiding the part at the back. 

The problem with wigs it that when you pull the hair in pretty much any direction it reveals the gaps between the wefts. In order to prevent this you have to add in extra wefts to mask the part. Now, if they had had them in stock I would have bought extra wefts when I bought the wig, because I knew I had to pull the top of the wig into a ponytail, which would leave a gap about 1/2" wide. Unfortunately they did not have any in the colour I needed, so I resigned myself to some serious MacGyver-ing.

I selected 3 separate rows of wefts from the back of the wig--far enough down that they wouldn't be noticeable, and far enough apart that they wouldn't leave a bare patch--and I carefully picked them out with a seam ripper. I sewed this into a mega-weft (3 rows of wefts stacked on top of each other). That was then hand stitched onto the wig along the bottom of the gap. Using a pin I parted the wefts, making 2 go up into the ponytail and 1 go down into the back. Had I had more wefts at my disposal, I probably would have done 4 wefts, with 2 going down as the area under the part is a little bare. But it was still much better than when I started, so I considered it good enough!

At this point I tried it on my sister and gave the bangs, sides and back a little trim.

Then I was ready to permanently secure the ponytail--I double checked on my sister first and foremost, because her head is a different size from the wig head, so if the ponytail was pulled too tight it would look weird on her! Ensuring it was in the position I wanted, I then carefully dabbed/mashed some white glue in around the base of the ponytail. It dries clear, but I was still careful to not be messy during this process. (This is similar to the process of stubbing a wig except that this ponytail was not getting cut off!)

Normal white school glue is good for styling wigs, it dries clear and is washable; if you make a mistake, you can wash it out and try again.

Then my sister dyed the gradient into the ponytail. She did the colour to match the ears I made. She used a combination of brown india ink and rubbing alcohol (70%) to dilute it. She also apparently didn't look up any instructions before doing it. :/ This is the approximate method if you are interested!

After letting that dry sufficiently I artfully arranged the bun the way I wanted it, securing it with another hair elastic. The I hair-sprayed the bejeezuz out of it. (This is a technical term of course! ;D) I let it sit and air dry for several hours. Occasionally spraying it a bit more. Once it was fairly solid I added a touch more glue around the base to hold the ends of the bun in place.

The hair accessory is a piece or red ribbon folded in half length-wise, with 2 silver bells attached. These were simply hand stitched on, and the ribbon was fixed around the bun with a hand stitch. I got the bells downtown and they have little hearts on them, which I think suits the character so nicely. :)

The ears are fleece which was bagged out and lightly stuffed. I closed the stuffing hole with a hand stitch and then stitched them to the wig.

For the tail I made a paper pattern of the approximate shape I wanted and cut out a piece that was a lot wider at the widest point. This was so it would be nice and round I made an inner tail piece in a cream colour, and an outer tail piece in my yellow/gold. The yellow one ends in an open spiky end, which is different on each side. The nice thing about fleece is it isn't neccessary to finish the edges because it doesn't fray.

I bagged each of them out and stuffed the inner tail to be nice and round.

The gold/yellow colour matches the blonde wig and the tights, and the brown ears match the bun gradient like on the character. It was a bit of a challenge finding 2 complimenting colours that both matched the wig, and tights that would match the tail. But we managed it!

Then I slotted the outer tail over the inner tail and sewed them together at the tail base.

This piece was then attached to an elastic waistband, which was just slipped on over the skirt, under the vest. And presto! A cute tail!

Bean Bag Warmer

Need an idea for a quick, easy, and practical homemade gift? This was my gift for a Secret Santa exchange this year. A microwaveable bean bag warmer.  It is great for muscle pain and cold toes. ;D All you need is cotton fabric and some rice!

I made a 3-sectioned one that sits well on the neck.  With cute owls. Hahaha

Remember to pick a cotton fabric, as synthetics should not be put in the microwave. Flannels are a good choice as they are soft! I used a little less than 6 cups of rice for this project. There are other things you can fill them with, there are lots of good suggestions floating around online. I would recommend putting dried lavender in them if you can find it, it makes them smell really good when you warm it up. Just remember: dried ingredients only!

First I cut a rectangle of flannel that was 13"x22". I folded it in half lengthwise (patterned side together) and lined up the edges, pinning them in place. Then I stitched around 2 sides leaving one end open. 

 Then I clipped the excess fabric in the corners and turned it right way out. I poured in a little less than 2 cups of rice, then did a line of stitching about 1/3 of the way down the rectangle. This ensures that the rice doesn't just all slide to one end of the bag. I repeated the process with the middle section. I poured my last 2 cups of rice in the final section and then folded the unfinished edge inside, top-stitching it closed neatly. 

Then I folded and decorated with ribbon!

Here is 2 more I made for other gifts. I love the striped flannel. 

Asuna Kagurazaka - Harisen (Paper Fan) - Negima

The much more compact and travel worthy version of her giant sword! This prop was made in record breaking time with whatever leftover materials I had on hand as a sort of last minute prop idea. The weapon really helps make the character more recognizable.

I had been debating whether or not to bother making it at all, seeing how I already had a weapon for this character. However as much as I love the sword form, it's really heavy and I couldn't take it to the States because it is just too large to fit in the car. So I made this the day before I left, entirely from scrap materials. Not bad for a rush job, eh? ;D

For anyone who doesn't have the confidence, time or materials to make her sword, I highly suggest making the harisen (fan) as it is a great beginner level prop, and it doesn't cost much to make!

I cut out 4 pieces of illustration board that would be the fan. (Ideally I would have liked to have more, but I only had this much board left.

I taped them together in an accordian pattern. Using a marker I neatly wrote the inscription "Ministra Magi Asuna" on the outward faces.

I made the handle in the same way as the large sword, minus the sculpted piece. I left a socket in the end where the fan pieces would attach.

Then I hot glued the fan accordian in place. I put some small wedge pieces to keep the fan slightly open, so it didn't look like flat slats sticking out of the handle.

I must have had this in mind (somewhere in my subconscious) when I was making the sword, because I made the ribbon detachable by using a carabiner instead of an actual chain link. This means I only need 1 ribbon, which I can attach to my weapon of choice, instead of making 2.

The fan part is very bendy, and doesn't stay rigid, but I rather like it that way, seeing how it is kind of the "fail" version of her sword. Hahaha