1920s Hat

Hi everyone!
I told you I had done some crafting and while it was not major, it really got me interested in sewing again :) Not I wasn't interested before, other things just got in to way. But once I finished this hat, I was so proud of it, I just had to make more and so more projects are on the way, on top of all of those that I am already working on. I really need some instant gratification projects ;)

My work had organised a 1920s Christmas party and everyone was supposed to come in style. Not easy let me tell you! The 1920s style isn't exactly flattering most of the time, and while Boardwalk Empire and Downton Abbey provided plenty of inspiration, as did the Chicago dress as the V&A exhibition which would have been perfect but imposisble to recreate in only a few weeks time. But after a few weeks of searching, I actually found something that was right for me while still having the 1920s style. I discovered that there is a clothing exchange in Notting Hill (around the corner from the book exchange) and I had to be in the area anyway so I thought I'd have a look. I found a lovely dress with frill, sequins, and a lower waistline for only £3! Yes it was pink but it also had a orangy golden shine so for one night I could survive the pink. I just needed some tweaking, and so the crafting started...

This is a part of the dress. The clear sequins were sewn on the lowered waistline, but as my gloves were black I needed to add some blackness to the dress. Luckily I still had some black sequins that I could just add to this :)

Having sorted the dress, the hat was next. This had to be the piece that pulled it all together so here is what I did. I used one of the puffy round thingies that I still had left from the Mombi dress (yes I keep stuff that long LOL) and used it as a base. I chose a brownish colour as my 1920s handbag was brown. I stitched on some cream lace that I leftover from a jacket I took apart, but only covered half of the bat with it. 

I added some leftover boning to the hat to try and create a shape that wasn't flat but more fitted to my head. Ignore the horrible sewing, I had about 4 hours to make all this and I was in a hurry.

During the day I had made these yoyos in peach, pink, orange, brown, and black, and added pearls to them. I did all this in the tube, you should have seen the guy when I shook the container with the pearls a little too hard and a lot of them came out... it was rather silly really hihi... I pinned the yoyos onto the hat until I had the design that I wanted and sewed them on.

Then I used smaller pearls to highlight  some of the lace and sewed them on randomly. All the pearls came from the wedding dress I used for Corpse Bride by the way.

I added a comb to the bottom (I only thought of elastic a few days after the party) and voila, my 1920s hat! I am extremely proud of this :)

By the time I had finished the hat it was midnight and the dress rehearsal was trying everything on my sewing doll. You can't see it properly, but I had a good feeling about it. The price was great too! I spent £3.50 on pearls (3 necklaces and 10 bracelets), £3 on the dress, £3.50 on the bag, and I had the rest. Not bad for a 1920s outfit!

And this is the final result :) The dress is longer on one side than it is on the other, but it had a flapper feel to it which was nice. I just love how the hat pulls everything together. :) Of course my hair is way too long for a decent 1920s look and as the party was straight after work, I didnt have time to spend curling and pinning for ages, so I just pulled it all to one side into a low ponytail (great for pinning the hat in as well) and used one of the bracelets as a pearly elastic to make it look nice. It's a real shame you can't see the handbag very well, it was a goldish brown crocheted/beaded thing and I added a cream lacey flowery brooch to it. It worked I think, considering I had a very limited time to get it all together. What do you think?

And off I went to party the night away at our lovely 1920s venue. Sometimes Christmas parties are great!