My New Pirate Hat

Hmmm...Now, where did I bury that treasure? :)



For Scarborough Ren Faire's Pirate Weekend, I wanted to whip up a new pirate hat. All this time has gone by, and I hadn't made myself one, yet. Finally, I got it somewhat wearable just minutes before we headed out.



Though, I didn't have the trim finished til just yesterday. Now, I need some feathers and other decorations to top it off. Can't decided what color the feathers should be. I'm thinking red to go with my corset. The flat cap that I originally made to go with the corset just wasn't doing anything for me. :)



I made this hat slightly shallower than my mom's hat that I posted about here. The weight keeps it firmly in place even on a significantly breezy day. I also decided to pin up the back on this one, as well. I tried painting some of the tabs black at the tip to reduce the amount of shiny silver showing. I also used some metallic gold shoelaces for the trim.



If you'd like to attempt your own tabistry pirate hat, I provide the pattern for my mom's hat with instructions for constructing hats (including taking measurements) in my POP TOP tutorial with 4 patterns available on Etsy.com. A tricorne is basically a wide brimmed sun hat that is pinned up to form three sides.

BTW, this month seems to be brimming with hats. I'll be posting some made-over felt hats and a paper mache one on my general crafting blog (mieljolie.blogspot.com) very soon. The SO has also just finished a red leather top hat. Feel free to come check those out when I get them posted.

New Bodice

Inspiration struct me the other day, so I started one using the corset pattern maker at: http://www.elizabethancostume.net/custompat/index.html. Just wanted to see how accurate the measurements would be with the tabs. Wish I would have found this before I started the first bodice for mom. Much easier. I've also created my own can tab pattern in Adobe Illustrator where I superimposed the tabs over the image created by the online pattern maker. Still working on little tweaks like the spacing, but, now I don't need to guess on the shape. Yeah!! Here is the front so far:



I've removed the AI pattern I posted here. If you would like to acquire it, please pm or email me. Sorry for the inconvenience.

I've been told the style looks like something from the Nutcracker Ballet.

As you can tell in the pic, this horizontal tabs are spaced much to far apart in AI causing it too be to wide. This is actually as good thing because of the stretchiness of the bodice. Anyway, I wanted to try adding variety by making a subtle pattern in the weave by turning the tabs over in places (as you can barely see in the above pic). Didn't show up that well, at first. But, it gave me another idea to run a contrasting cord through the upside-down tabs. More color! Look closely in the far left corner of the bodice in the first pic in this post.

I'm running into some problems with the victorian-style experiment I mentioned because I used nonstretchy shoelaces and weaved them too tight, I think. The lacings under the arms will not line up straight. Argghh!

****************UPDATE******************

Pic from TRF with flat cap hat

Pirate/Cavalier Hat

This hat has evolved a lot since I started it. Originally we wanted a tricorn hat. I used black shoelaces with skull/crossbone print, hence the spotty-look.

Sun hat-style before I pinned up the sides:





Hat at the present moment with Dr. Pepper can flower pinned to side and ostrich feathers:



Here's mom modeling her hat.