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I can't seem to help myself. Even with dresses that are already designed and done I want to tweak them. The mind of a creative person is never at rest, I guess. The September Great Plains Renaissance Festival will be my first with a baby in tow, so I knew I didn't have time for a whole new outfit for myself, but I wanted to make a few hat updates FOR LEGITIMATE REASONS, I promise! Kate and I decided on the Always Winter Never Christmas dresses and the Falling Leaves dresses for the fall time - the colors seemed to be begging for it. And while I LOVED the hats I made for the Always Winter dresses, wearing a stuffed tube around my head got hot quickly. After looking at paintings and with some linen Kate found on sale, we decided on a simple wrapped style with a feather pin for an accent.  Trying to emulate the paintings in angle...even with my pink summer pajama top on. The other dresses we reserved for fall have some seriously awesome hats. They are my favorite out of the 5 I've attempted to sew or worn with outfits. The research was great, and before this we'd been wearing the steuchleins from under the hats for our green dresses. It was fine, but no where else did our outfits have white fabric. On top of that I had attempted to purchase yet another vintage silk sari in a neutral color to use for another project. The neutral beige this time turned out much darker than I anticipated, and the finish of the fabric was thicker and smoother than I wanted.  There was more than enough for Kate and I, and adding the ties to the rectangle of fabric was easy too. It's a small addition, but to me it makes a big difference.
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I've posted a couple times before, but we have a baby in our lives now! He has no escape. He will be exposed to all things geeky and creative. I was itching to expose him, and at two months old we scheduled his first costumed appearance at the Great Plains Renaissance Festival. My parents were watching him for the weekend anyway while we volunteered in costume. It made sense to present him at court. I wanted to be as historically accurate as possible, but primary sources for the dressing of infants under about 18 months is scarce. The information I could find indicated infants were pretty much swaddled 24/7 until they were ready to learn to walk. Easier to keep an eye on them that way, I suppose. After that their dress resembled miniature versions of their parents' clothing.  Portrait of Cornelia Burch, Aged Two Months, attributed to the Dutch School, 1581 I decided on a compromise. I would make a shirt/bag and a little vest. I made it about a month before the event, and based the sizing off some of the baby clothes I thought would be the right size. The shirt is muslin. The vest is embroidered silk with a cotton lining.
They turned out soooo cute! And my baby was eating sooooooo much! I ended up putting 2 inch side panels from arm to hem in the shirt and stretchy knit side panels in the vest. Crisis averted!
And now to introduce Xander! This is his first fitting for the outfit, right after I made it. I realized it was too small in this picture. He wasn't sure about this whole endeavor, but I love his expression of long-suffering here. I'm sure I'll see this expression much more in the coming years.  Xander's introduction at court went great. The Queen herself is expecting - and their son will be just a few months younger than Xander. I'm sure they'll get to know each other over the years.
So Kate has given you a taste of the German dresses we're wearing this fall in this post and this post. They're only delayed by about a year from when we first planned them. Dang life and commitments outside of personal hobbies! I have been tasked on working on the hats. When we were planning these dresses we planned to wear both a steuchlein and wulsthaube under the hat. The steuchlein and wulsthaube are already done(Great news to my over-committed schedule!) so that just left the hats. I already had Pinterest inspiration going for me, with both historic drawings and modern day reproductions.
Even better than these pictures for inspiration, I have step-by-step instructions! Hurrah! Here they are for you too - and it's easy enough to get the basic hat done in one night.  The major difference between the above instructions and my attempt at this style of hat is that I would be using polyester, not wool. But, the fabrics will coordinate with the dresses! Without further ado, here is my process for making these hats. (Alternating between each hat in process.)
The ties for the hats could be worn under the chin or around the back with the wulsthaube helping to hold it in place. It really is quite secure - I could turn my head upside down with no movement.
I can't wait to see pictures of everything together! |
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