The Sun

A friend of mine in Fairbanks is basically bedridden, and I wanted to give him something to look at… He is pretty into astronomy, so it seemed kinda obvious to make him a sun. Originally it was going to be a flat, round piece, but hey! The sun is 3 dimensional! And I’d made an embellished felt ball (it’s gotta be 13 or 14 years ago… how time flies!) so it should be pretty easy to make a 3-D sun, right?

And actually it is pretty easy! I started out by using a small baseball cap pattern, traced the pattern onto muslin, and started embellishing. I’ve put some stars, suns, and moons on since taking the photos, but you’ll see those later on. I am at the point where I need to add seed beads (always gotta have a little sparkle!), and then I can start sewing the sun together!

There are 6 sections; embroidery is done.

All 6 sections.

I made a thin tube in muslin, to slip a piece of heavy duty fishing line into. This will hold the shape of the sun, once all 6 pieces are sewn together.

Here are 2 sections of the sun; the fishing line is on the back side of the embellished pieces.

After I’ve added the seed beads, I’ll trim the muslin, and then do a blanket stitch around the edges with quilting thread. Quilting thread? Yeah, because I have a hard time manipulating and sometimes seeing, regular sewing thread. I just find it easier to use a slightly heavier thread for basting and sewing down patches for crazy quilting.

After much hemming and hawing, I finally finished the sun! It took me quite a while to figure out how to make it stiff enough that the sides weren’t all squishy. The heavy duty fishing line did not work at all-in between the fishing line, the fabric sagged or poofed irregularly; it was awful. I ended up using a very heavy weight interfacing that I got in Ireland. It isn’t perfect, but at least the sun isn’t all squishy.

The sun did end up going to Alaska. It resides in a cabin co-owned by my friend and another family. I couldn’t figure out how to light it from inside; I was really afraid of the fire danger. But I think you could attach battery operated lights to the outside… so might try that on the next iteration.

It was a really fun project and I would like to make a set: the sun, the earth, the moon, and a couple stars, for a mobile. Maybe I’ll make a couple stars to go to Alaska too!

Oh my! Hats, hats, hats!

Many thanks to David Osaduke of The Internet Millinery Hub for commenting on my organza baseball caps, leading to my discovery of a good number of hat resources and hat makers. David’s Fashion Coverings blog has a YouTube video of Ralph Lauren’s spring 2008 collection, which includes a number of hats – yay!!

One of the links I found while wandering around is Penny Rieck’s Hats by Penny. She has had several hats in the Kentucky Derby Museum over the last few years, as part of the museum’s Derby Hat Exhibit. And the rules state: “All hat styles are needed and creativity is encouraged“. So wouldn’t it be fun to enter one this coming spring! Hm, somehow I have to work a Quarterhorse into this hat, and dedicate it to the five years I spent at the tracks in CA, CO, MT, NM, and AZ.

And this display of Dayna Pinkham’s mens’ hats at Into the Hatter’s Domain, and Dayna’s website, Pinkham Millinery, are both pretty cool.

And Philip Treacy – well, you’ll have to see for yourself! This is sculpture, not hats!

Keep in mind that these people are all milliners, “… the profession or business of designing, making, or selling women’s hats and hat trim.” And for the most part, their hats are just gorgeous, frothy, frilly little (or in some case very broad brimmed!) numbers that decorate a woman’s head. I don’t aspire to this type of hat-making, but I do enjoy looking and oohing and aahing. And there’s quite a bit I could adapt to my baseball caps – someday!

Hats, organza hats!

They’re done! I made 9, count ’em, nine organza hats. And discovered yet again, that I am really not a production seamstress. I tried to streamline my process, and made them assembly-line style. It did not work for me; by the time I got to sewing the brim on, I hated those hats!

Fortunately, I had the sense to call on a friend for some help, and Jenny sewed all the brims on for me. What a relief! And she did a great job, as well as buying one of the hats. I wish I had a better picture of them; they are so attractive in real life.

Putting the cap section together was fairly easy, and still a learning experience. I love the flowers but I was happy to find that I liked the flowerless blue hat in the front, which is a very lightweight blue star fabric layered over an equally light weight solid blue fabric. I’ll be making one of those for myself! I have pink stars too, and I layered that over a pearlescent white fabric. Maybe I’ll make a pink one for me, and a blue one for my sister.