::La Femme Fedora::

First let me just say, Thank You Whiplash! (BTW: This is an entry in the Skill category for Whiplash September,) I realized a week ago I had a great hat pattern (Vogue #7460,) and wonderful fabrics - already on hand! That's right, this is a Finish What You Have project! That only took me 3 years to get back to and finish!

Alright, so I'm totally embarassed to admit I left it sitting that long... the thing is, I tested it with cheaper fabric, and screwed up the seam allowance; resulting in a non-fitting hat. Insert 3 years of total intimidation about sewing anything 3d. And then, something wonderful happened! I got back to it, and learned it wasn't so tough after all! I read all of the directions, twice. And measured my head, twice (LOL!) But the neatest part for me this time, was that I had already done all of the design work, all I had to do was construction.

Ok, so I'm going to skip back to the beginning here, but stay with me, it's worth it!

Ahhh, the fedora. One of my most favorite hat shapes of all time. This came about after noticing Peta Wilson wear one on La Femme Nikita, a tv show based on the film by Luc Besson. LFN was so beautifully costumed, and the sets and props were so captivating. The music was unbelievably amazing, and it's how I found Coldplay (among many other amazing artists/bands *see below for a few!) years before they got big! Anyhoo, Nikita's first fetish in the show was sunglasses. Her second was hats, and she had some awesome ones. Her oversized black fedora is my favorite, but she had wider brims & smaller ones all the way down to a tactical ski mask!

I've always wanted a fedora of my own, but thought it might be more fun in fashion colors. For this one I used cotton broadcloth (admittably too lightweight, but oh-so-gorgeous!) and turquoise silk charmeuse for the lining. I thought 1 layer of fusible interfacing wouldn't be enough to support itself, so I used 2 layers of (very lightweight) sew-in interfacing for the body, and 3 for the brim. The top & edgestitching could have been a little more even in some places, but I have to remind myself that nothing is totally perfect! It's my first-ever hat, and first contrast top & edgestitching, so I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I bought the fabrics on Ebay, and only had to pick up the gosgrain ribbon trim, for the inside. (It looks a little pink in the pic, but it was just a red-toned purple. Didn't quite match my main fabric, but I liked it better than the sky blue back up.) The band and brim were the first easing I've ever done. they're slightly warped, but I managed to avoid wrinkles. Sorry for the non-action shot, I've been too tired & head-achey this week to want to pose for this one!

Oh - and it fits perfectly! Thanks again Whiplash for the much needed sewing gusto! Now I have no fear of curves, or tricky fabrics, or something new! It feels so good, I wish words could really express it! (I'm not so great with them, so I'll just say another Thanks! to everyone participating in Whiplash from month to month. You ladies (guys?) totally rock my world!)

There are so many great entries already! Good luck to everyone, and thanks again for the inspiration!

*Music from La Femme Nikita - The Philosopher Kings, Artour De Lucie, Beth Orton, Massive Attack and Diana Krall were just a few of the artists/bands I listened to while crafting my entry!