Post-WWI Day Hat

I'm back!

Yup, I took yet another hiatus from this blog to take care of "stuff." I'm back for at least for the summer, though, and hopefully free to do some fab costuming and crafting.

Before I delve into the latest update in my costume collection, I'd like to make an announcement: last March (yes, it's been that long), the hosting for my website, claudinedemontigny.com, was up for renewal. Since I have practically no time to maintain the site, I let the hosting expire. There are still links from this blog to the website, and I'll change those eventually, but in the meantime don't be surprised if you get a "page not found" error.

Ok! Back to the business of costuming. My latest costume thing is this gorgeous post-World War I hat, not made by me but by Lynn McMasters.

It's based on her "Post WWI, Late Teens / Early 20's" hat pattern. You can find more information on that pattern here.

I don't actually recall the genesis of this hat. I think at the time she had just released the pattern, and suddenly she says: I'm making you a hat! That was quite a few months ago.

I forget what exactly the fabric is (charmeuse, I think), but the lace is vintage and I'm pretty sure she made the cord and tassels herself.

Anyway, 'nuff said, I'll just be quiet now so you can enjoy the photos.

Let's call it a 1920's Ribbon Handbag

Jumping back in time again, to the beginning of March 2011: I found a really cute vintage handbag on etsy.com. The seller said it was from the 1920s, so I'm just going with that.

It sold while I was waffling over buying it.

Hmph, well I WANTS, it. I have a ton of 1 and 1/2" wide, blue double-sided satin ribbon leftover from another project. I paired it with white double-sided ribbon, and made this:

 

My version is taller than the original (I like to have plenty of room for my crap). The base of the original looks egg-shaped to me, but mine is just an oval.

The ribbons in the original were probably stitched together by hand. I used a stitch on my machine that resembles a feather or fern stitch:

Now, dummy me used a tearaway stabilizer for this; tearing the stabilizer out caused the stitches to distort! Lesson learned: I could've used a washaway stabilizer. It's poly ribbon. IT CAN GET WET.

P.S. this last photo also shows that I completely flubbed making french knots. Sheesh.