Writing a Top Hat Tutorial

Ever since I took a course on costume construction at our local community college, I've been wanting to write a tutorial on how to make a top hat, but doing a traditional version using traditional techniques seemed like, well, old hat. 

Recently, I tried using one of my top hat patterns with old felted wool and cashmere sweaters. I gifted the first to a friend, kept the second for myself, and then there's the third one pictured here. I really love these hats. 

Felt Top Hat

Warm and fancy without being over the top (like, maybe, my fur hats with ears and horns). I've been taking careful notes of my process and drawing lots of little pictures. I typed up my notes, printed them out, and made another hat.  I've redrawn all of my little sketches at least once.  Now, I'm well on my way through a tutorial on how to draft a pattern and make top hats with felted wool and cashmere sweaters that will fit adult heads from XS to XL.

Felt Top Hat

If you like top hats, but aren't the crafty type, check out which hats I currently have for sale. If you are the crafty type, well, I hope you'll look out for my tutorial, so you can enjoy making and wearing these as much as I do. 

Cashmere Lining

Making a Sweater Coat Part 11 Sewing Lining and Hem

SEWING THE LINING

The lining sews together easily.  The only hard part is attaching the sleeve lining to the lining armhole.  I do it just like the coat sleeve and it works great. Notice how the lining doesn't meet in the front because that's where the front facing will be.

To sew the lining to the coat, I need a larger horizontal space, and you know what that means… It’s time to mop the kitchen floor again. I lay the coat down on the floor, right side up. 

 I lay the lining over the coat, right side down.  Pin them together around the longest seam in the coat.  

I love this seam.  It’s so satisfying to complete because after it’s sewn, the thing feels like a coat.  Even though it won’t be completely done yet, if there were some sort of natural disaster, and I had to run out of my house wearing nothing but this coat, I’d be covered and warm. Working on this seam plays right into my fantasy of beating the odds of mortal doom through sewing.

SEWING THE HEM

I watched Martha’s Sewing Room today, and there was a guest segment on how to hem a baby dress with a lining.  They showed a trick of sewing the hem right sides together, finishing it through a hole in the side of the lining.  This is the method for me! I like the idea because I can sew the hem on my serger, which makes it strong.  I don’t normally finish my hems this way, but with the sweater fabric, I’m concerned that it might stretch a bit over time, and with this type of hem treatment, the coat will still drape properly.  Other methods for hemming can mess up the drape if the lining is too short for the outside of the coat.  Ask me how I know.

I lay the coat on the floor to determine if the coat hem is the same length as the lining hem.   The lining is a little too long.  You can see the extra fabric on the right side of the photo below.  I cut off the adjacent seam, removing 2 inches of fabric there.  Because I’m going to leave a hole to work through, I finish the edges of the lining on my serger separately.  That way, the hole won’t fray while I work and when I sew it up at the end, the edges are already finished, so I can just use my regular machine and still get a nice, strong finish.   Interestingly, when I sew these edges on my serger, I sew it in one long row of stitches with a u-turn in the middle: up, around and down.  I wasn’t expecting that.  Nifty.  I was too lazy to rethread my machine for this step, and it appears that the chain stitches are less stretchy on one layer than they are on two.  So, I rip out the two threads that make the chain stitches. If you start from the ending end, and unlock the first stitch properly, they pull out easily in one quick zip.  I sew the bottom part of the seam together, leaving about a 7 inch hole. The two pins in the middle of the lining show the top and bottom of the hole placement.

In doing the hem, I decide to error on having the lengths match rather than the patchwork.  The difference is only about a half inch anyway.  I flip the coat and lining inside out.  I pin ¾ of the hem right sides together and sew.   

Flip the coat right sides out.   

Pull the unsewn quarter hem through the hole in the lining.  Pin right sides together and sew.  The front bottom corners are a wee bit too pointy, but they match well enough so I leave them.  When I try on the coat, the lining hem is a bit shorter than the coat hem, just like it’s supposed to be. 

HEMMING SLEEVE

Turn sleeves inside out.  Pin lining to coat under arm pits (the bottom half of the arm hole).

Hand sew the lining to the coat using a back stitch sewn from the lining side.  This tacking will help hold the lining in place without affecting the drape of the coat. 

I put on the coat and see that the sleeves are much too long.  That was my mistake in the pattern, but better too long than too short.   I pin the sleeves in place.  I have 4.5 inches in the sleeve hem.  I reduce it to 2.25 inches and serge the edges with a 4 thread overlock stitch.  Turn the sleeve inside out, and hand stitch the sleeve hem using cross stitch. 

Cut lining to same length as finished sleeve. 

Serge edge of lining.  Hand stitch lining to sleeve hem using itty bitty cross stitches.  Press.  Hang coat on dress form and steam bottom hem. 

Next time, I add fasteners and show the finished coat!

Making a Sweater Coat Part 9 What I have learned about how to sew lined coats

RECONSIDER LINING AND POCKETS

Now all of my patches are sewn into panels, but before I can assemble the coat, I need to consider the lining and pockets.  I buy deep black 90% cotton 10% spandex knit.  It’s not slippery like I’d like a lining to be, but it’s nice and stretchy, but still natural feeling.  I’ve learned that I prefer mostly natural fibers, but with cotton, in particular, a hint of synthetic fibers help the fabric keep its shape.  Since the sweater fabric is stretchy, I need a stretchy lining to match.  If I had all the money I wanted, I’d use a silk jersey knit for the lining; that would be so luxurious, but an extravagant expense, to be sure.

To pattern the lining, I would normally use my same pattern pieces minus the hem, but I want to try on the coat before I commit to my sleeve hem length.  I check my patchwork against my large pattern pieces, and the patchwork pieces are all about an inch longer than the paper pieces.  Hmm.  I think my fabric stretched?  Or was I systematically off on my piecing?  Considering the error is only in the length, I think the fabric probably stretched.

The lining pieces on a coat are similar to the fashion fabric pieces with a few notable differences. Here are a few things I have learned about lining coats:

1. None of the collar pieces have lining.  In other words, they have fashion fabric (felted sweaters) on both sides.  In the case of the hood, I essentially made a huge, head shaped collar, and like most collars, the top and bottom are made from fashion fabric. 

2.  Linings are cut shorter at the hemline than fashion fabric for the corresponding pattern piece.  This is to create a hem that has the fashion fabric on both sides near the hem.  In my case, the main coat is already an inch longer than my pattern, so, I decide NOT to shorten my pattern before I cut the lining. It’s better to error on too long of a lining than too short of one.

3. front = front facing + front lining – overlapping seam allowances.

In other words, if you sew the front facing to the front lining, you get a piece that’s the same size as the front piece.

Since I ended remaking most of the pattern pieces, I’ll be using those instead of the lining pattern pieces that came with my pattern.  I will however, use the front lining piece from the pattern since I didn’t alter my front piece.

4. back = back neck facing + back lining – overlapping seam allowances.

The only piece I have to alter is the top back piece to allow for the back neck facing.  To do this, I trace the back neck facing at the top of the back piece.  I move the traced line one and a quarter inches up since that’s twice my seam allowance.  Then, I cut slits in the paper and fold it into place.  The lining pattern is ready to go after I add a little tape.

CUT LINING

I need a big horizontal surface to cut my large lining pieces.  It’s better, easier and faster if you cut them all at once.  So I vacuum and mop the kitchen floor.  I lay my fabric out folded in half lengthwise so I can cut my pieces two at a time.  I lay out my pattern pieces on the fabric, and pin them in place.  I cut two of everything, plus an extra 2 pocket pieces, since I need two pieces per pocket.  

The pockets will be stretchy. I can’t decide if that’s a bad idea, but I can’t seem to think of anything intrinsically wrong with it, as long as they’re used mostly for hand cozies and not to transport pounds of cr@p.  I mean, it’s not luggage, it’s a coat.

SEW SIDE SEAMS WITH POCKETS

I sew the shoulder seams of the front and back panels together.  I try it on to decide how high on the side seams I should sew the pockets.  I sew the 4 pocket pieces to the side seams. 

I pin the side seams (including around the pocket),

and I can see that there is no way I can sew that sharp corner under the pockets on my serger.

I sew the side seams as well as I can, smoothing out the offending corners as my serger allows.  Remarkably, the loopers catch the edge of the fabric at that corner nicely.  I resew one of the points on my regular sewing machine, the first time overdoing it.  I can tell because I try on the coat and there’s a nice pucker right where the pocket meets the side seam.  So I rip it out and do it again.  Fixed.  The second one is easy.  See pin head for placement.

The side seams come out alright, but again, there are bulky spots where the loopers didn’t catch threads, and I have to hand whipstitch to fill in the bald spots.  I also broke a needle.

 

At this point, I realize that I should have used one of the thicker, sturdier fabrics on the shoulders.  I chose to use cashmere because it’s soft.  Unfortunately, it’s also much stretchier than the wool felt.  I think the coat might sag a bit in the sleeves because I used cashmere all across the shoulders. I learned that next time I should use the sturdiest (heaviest) fabric across the shoulders rather than using the softest.  I’m a sucker for soft; so I had to try it.

Next time, I sew the hood and sleeves to the coat.

Making a Sweater Coat Part 8 Sewing the Hood and Facing

SEWING THE HOOD

I lay out my hood pieces.

I sewing patches starting with the center front and working my way back. 

At this point, I realize the order I should have used to piece together the back of the coat.  Start at the top, piece like a Log Cabin quilt block, make alternating strips that are sewn, left, right, left, right, … until you get to the bottom of the coat or the back of the hood.  After sewing together four patches around one of the points of intersection (corners), I find that it bulges out and looks completely absurd.  (Forgive my blurry photo; it was about 2AM when I snapped it.)

This corner was the one on the top of the head where I made dart-like adjustments, but I didn’t cut away nearly enough fabric with my wimpy darts.  So, I pinned it the way I wanted it, drew in some lines with pencil, ripped the seam open, and sewed them again to make all four pieces smaller.  I took off about a half inch on each piece, and it worked like a charm.  Remarkably, all of the other corners sewed together well, and fit smoothly around the head.  Here is the side of the hood pinned to the pieced top of the hood.

 I had some problems with the spot where seven different patches meet.  It’s not so perfect.  

Actually, I would have been quite impressed with myself it had been.  Any time you have four or more patches meeting at a single point, it gets harder and harder to match everything up correctly. I knew seven was a long shot when I designed it, but what the heck?  I liked the way it looked.  Although the corners slipped and I didn’t achieve perfect symmetry, the seam is strong and it doesn’t ripple or bulge oddly, so I left it as good enough.  The teacher in me reminds myself that you only need 94% correct to get a straight A. So far, the worst of my mistakes that I haven’t fixed was a slipped corner here and there.

I noticed that the upper looper on my overlock machine doesn’t always work properly over the bulkiest seams.  It skips stitches, but no thread breaks, and it sews properly on the flat, smooth parts.   

To fix this, with doubled thread, I hand whipstitch over the bulky seams where the overlock missed.  I can catch some of the loops with my needle and sew them into my stitches. 

I use my regular sewing machine to add some darts on the hood lining, two on each side.  I snip the top darts open a little to reduce bulk.

I sew the hood to the hood lining on the seam around the face and set the hood aside.

PATCHING FRONT FACING

I decide to make the front facing as patchwork because I’m down to scraps without a lot of extra to spare.  I use the cashmere for about the top third, and then run out of all but the lime green, which is really thin.  I blend the colors from top to bottom, while I use my pattern piece to check how to add each patch.  I use the thin lime cashmere on the bottom to reduce bulk on the hem.  Only after I get all but the last patch attached, do I cut out by two front facings for my scrappy patches. The facing is done after I sew the two front facings to the back neck facing.

Next time I discuss and cut the lining and add the side seam pockets.

Making a Sweater Coat Part 1 Inspriation and Vogue 1266 Pattern

Some inspiration and my new sewing project...

I’ve seen so many beautiful reconstructed sweater coats on Etsy lately.  I think the most notable designer is Katwise.  She pitches her work as “Original Elf Coats made from Recycled Sweaters” and I think that her work is amazing.  A few other designers whose work I’ve admired are Green Oak Creations, Amber Studios and Enlightened Platypus.

With so much inspiration, I decided that I love the idea and wanted to make an up-cycled sweater coat of my own.   Rather than copy the designs of the artists who inspired me, I am designing my own pattern.  However, the materials will be the same, lots and lots of old sweaters.  I'll tell you about the sweaters later.  Since I started this blog to encourage myself to write about what I learn from creating art, and I’ve never made anything from old sweaters before, I decided to blog my way through this project, and away we go...

THE PATTERN

To start, I needed a coat pattern that fits my body.  So, I figured where better to start than with a purchased coat pattern.  Yes, I’m using a pattern, but I will to alter it significantly before I cut any sweaters.  I just need something to start because it’s easier for me to alter a pattern than to draft my own.  I’m not there yet, but I hope someday…  Anyways, I chose Vogue 1266 (12, 14, 16) because I already had a copy of size (6, 8, 10) but I purchased this pattern before I figured out that my dress size in the store is not the same as my dress size in paper patterns.   

I’ve been flirting with this coat pattern for over a year, so I bought a second copy, in the medium size.  I’m a medium size.  I know this because I measured my bust, waist, and hip measurements, and figured out my size by looking at the chart on the flap.  It also comes in size (18, 20, 22, 24), and so that’s the large.

I chose this pattern because it has princess seams, which make for a nice fitted bodice.  That also makes it different from most of what I’ve seen on Etsy.  Amber Studios has made at least a few coats with princess seams, like this one, which is awesome, but I’ll be sure to try to make mine different. 

I pulled out the pattern instructions, found the list of pieces by name and number, and identified which pieces I needed.  I’m making version C.  So I marked all C pieces and facings with “C”.  I marked all C lining pieces with “L”.  At this point, I don’t know if I’m going to line my sweater coat (probably not), and there is plenty of time to think about the lining later since you add that at the end, just before hemming.

So I pulled the tissue paper pieces out of the envelope, and I unfolded, and they just kept unfolding more and more. They were INSANELY HUGE, giant rectangles of tissue paper at least five feet on a side.  I used to be scared stiff by giant pattern pieces, but I took a deep breath and cut out all of the “C” pieces, snip-snip.  I refolded the other pieces and shoved them back in the envelope.  At this point, it’s not important to cut exactly on the lines, so I left a little margin to make life easier on myself. 

I pressed all of the pattern pieces with a cool iron, no steam.  It makes a satisfying crinkle sound when you press the paper and the wrinkles smooth out.   

This is exactly how far I made it through the size (6, 8, 10) before I figured out it would be too small in the shoulders.  For some reason, I decided that if the shoulders fit, I could probably make any other adjustments I needed to make the whole thing fit, and I would be better off starting with a larger size.  I’m not sure if my intuition is right on this point.  We’ll see.

After cutting all of my C pieces, I made sure everything was accounted for. There are so many pieces that it’s easy to miss one.

There are four pieces that make up the bodice of the coat, front, back, front side, and back side.  I’ll need two of each in fabric.  The sleeves have four pattern pieces: upper sleeve, under sleeve, cuff and sleeve facing which provides and edge for the sleeve hem.  I’ll need two of each of those in fabric.  I’m not sure if I’m going to use the cuffs yet, but I’m keeping them for now.  The collar has two pieces, the upper collar and the under collar.  I’m ditching both of them in favor of a hood.  Hoods are cozy.  I like hoods.  I’ll talk more about my dealings with the hood later.  There are two more facing pieces, the back neck and front facing.  The facings are the pieces that give the coat some of its structure and finish the edges around the neck and front edge.

ALTERING THE PATTERN

Before I cut any fabric, I need to alter the pattern a little.  The coat in the pattern is ankle length, so really long.  I like my coats to fall just below my knees, so I shortened the pattern by a clean foot.   I shortened 5 pieces: front, back, front side, back side, and front facing.  I shortened the pieces by folding the hems up and using itty bitty pieces of scotch tape to secure them. I don’t like cutting pattern pieces if I can just fold the alteration.

I’m removing the collar and adding a medium wide hood. Here's how the collar fits on the front of the top front of the coat.

I have one hoodie in my closet, but the hood is too small and fits a little funny, so I traced it for my first draft, and made some adjustments for a better fit.  Then, I measured my around my head, out and wide like I want the hood to fit, and adjusted the size of my tracing, a little hear and there, to better fit with my measurements.  I also compared the bottom edge of my hood with the bottom edge of the collar pieces.  

I made the hood edge similar but with a deeper curve to add some extra fullness near the neck.  I noted that the collar leaves about 2.5 inches to the edge of the collar (measured on the seam line, not the edge of the pattern pieces.

I also wanted to remove the notch in the collar, to make the hood join smoothly with the front edge.  So I folded the front facing and front pieces by one inch which removed the little flap (and consequently the notch). This fold subtracted one inch, and I added 1.5 inches to the hood bottom edge. That's why the hood piece is longer than the collar piece in the photo above.

To finish my hood piece for now, I made sure the corners at the top and back of the neck are right angles (they're marked in the photo). They have to be so that when you unfold the pieces at those places, you get a straight edge.  I’m still not sure about the exact size and shape of the hood so I’m using a full inch seam allowance on my pattern piece for now. That will leave me some wiggle room if I need to let it out a little when I try it on later.

My pattern is now ready for a mock up in scrap cotton fabric.  That’s next.

Until then, I leave you with some yellow Rosebud Beaded Bead Earrings, which I sent off to Texas, of course.

Continue on to Part 2 in which I make and fit my muslin sample.

Two Tone Faux Fur Playa Coat

Here's my latest faux fur coat, in deep purple and black.  I started with McCalls pattern 5092 (medium), but I altered it enough that I'm not sure you'd consider it the same pattern anymore.  

The purple is much deeper and richer in person; my camera just can't seem to photograph this color right!  It's got two pockets, a wide hood, and two pairs of hooks to clasp the front.  It's fully lined in black and oh-so comfy and warm.  The cut is a full swing coat with dolman sleeves.  Because I designed the hood from scratch, I had to cut the hood three times before I was happy with it.  The first hood was totally the wrong shape and the nap was going straight down which made it look funny in the front.  The second one, I fixed the shape, and I cut it with the nap pointing straight back, which created this funny duck-butt looking seam in the back.  The third time, I finally got the right shape and the nap going down and back diagonally. 

I also sewed the hem twice to get it to drape properly, but in the end, it turned out just as I envisioned it.  I'm shipping it out to it's new owner today.

Fuzzy Hoodie Suit with Ears Horns and Tail

I just finished my first full body suit.  It's made out of faux fur with a polyester cuddle fabric lining. With all of its furry goodness, it reminds me of a cross between an abominable snowman costume and something from "Where the Wild Things Are." It has a hoodie-type hood with horns and ears.   This was a commissioned piece, completely made to order.

I started with a muslin mock up made from Simplicity Pattern 2853, size small, plus I added a two piece hood.   I also lengthened the sleeves and pants to be too long for the fitting.  My client and I arranged for a fitting of the mock up.  With him dressed in the muslin suit, inside out, I added a bunch of safety pins to fit the suit to his build.  I pinned the cuffs and pant hems, I took in the width of legs significantly, and also in the hips, waist and a little in the chest.  I drew on the placement of the side seam pockets and the inside patch pockets exactly where he wanted them.  I also marked where the bottom of the opening should start.  Then he got out of the suit, and I penciled where the seam should be as identified by the pins, removed the pins, ripped the muslin apart into its component pieces, transferred the markings to the paper pattern, added seam allowances back in, and my pattern was ready to go.

With the pattern in hand, I cut out the lining and fake fur, trimmed all of the fur out of the seam allowances, and serged all of the pieces including the lining.  I sewed the fur pieces together and all of the lining pieces together.  Then I added ears, horns, and a tail.

Normally, with a fur coat, I machine sew the lining to the fur, right sides together, up one side of the front lapel, across the shoulders, and down the other side.  This leaves just the bottom hems and cuffs to finish by hand.  However, because the particularities of this suit, I decided to finish everything entirely by hand.  It's more work, but I have much more control when hand sewing, so I could finish all of the corners neatly.  Adding the lining by hand required that I cross stitch all of the hems of the fur around both cuffs, pant hems, and the whole front opening (including hood).  You can see the cross stitching in many of the photos below.  I also added five extra-large hook and eye clasps along the front opening. It took me a few tries to figure out a good way to start adding the hooks, but if you look at the photo below, you can see the first two stitches that are adequate to anchor the hook efficiently.

Here's what a hook looks like after it's sewn, before it's covered with the lining.

I was worried that the fabric would rip at the bottom of the front opening, so I added a patch of flannel (it matches the pockets) with multiple rows of stitching across its width, an a tons of knots.

I also cross stitched down the seam allowance where the hood meets the neckline, under the arm pits, and at the crotch.  I did this to reduce bulk.  This photo shows an armpit.

Then, I added the lining.  In addition to stitching all around the openings, I also tacked the lining to the fur in the bottom third of the arm hole seam, on the crotch seams, and where the hood meets the neckline.  I added my tag and it's done!  Here you can see where the lining meets the fur at the front opening.

Today, the suit's new owner came over to try it on and he let me take photos.  Yeah.  We were both very happy with the fit, and he was amazed that the seams blended right in.  He couldn't even feel them.  I really enjoyed this project and we are both super happy with the results.  I put a little piece of my heart and my best workmanship skills into making this suit, inspired by the vision and enthusiasm of my client.  I joked that it's industrial strength, a family heirloom, so he can stay warm on the Playa at Burning Man, in his new fuzzy suit for many, many years to come.