My costumes are now complete for my upcoming Der Schauspieldirektor photo shoot. I have created all the costumes for this shoot myself. Previous Posts in this Series:
- My first post follows the making of the corsets for both ladies.
- The second post takes a look at my embroidery process, and brief reviews of some of the movies I viewed while sewing.
- The third post shows how I put together my Jacket and Gilet.
- My fourth post shows the inspiration and final pigeon breasted drawstring-front jacket.
I spent the last week making hats, wigs, accessories and padding. In this post I would like to share with you the hats and wigs I created. For my first hat, I drew mainly upon the image below for inspiration. But I also visited a charming site dedicated to historical hats with many great pictures called Hats From History!
Redingote gown — Velvet jacket and sash with tassels, satin revers, cuffs and train-lingerie tie and jabot-gauze with scalloped edge and checked embroidery. Gold buttons, powdered hair, hat of dotted gauze, ostrich, embroidery and flowers. Cane with carved bird and ribbon 1787.
I took a straw hat that I already owned, added milliner’s wire to the edge and covered the bottom of the brim with silk to match the drawstring bodice. I made a little buckle for the hat and adorned it with feathers.
My upcycled straw hat. I used a gardening hat and adorned it in the 1700s style! It is placed on top of a wig I styled myself.
As for my second hat, I documented the process for you! I used Butterick Pattern B4210, the Turn of the Century hat, with no alteration to the structure (Buckram, Milliner’s Wire, size, etc.) However, I did not follow the directions on how to decorate or line the hat.
My silk hat pieces cut out. The top of the hat has already been constructed in this image.
I put together the brim, sewed the wire to the buckram, and then decided the lining side of the hat should be pleated silk! So I took some ivory silk and laid it out on the buckram form to see how much I would need.
I laid out some ivory silk over the buckram brim, and did a rough pleating to see how much silk I would need.
Once I had figured out how much silk I would need, I stitched two lengths of fabric together and pleated them around the brim. I left excess fabric on both edges, because it is easier than making a mistake that can’t be fixed later if you come up short.
I pleated and pined the silk to the buckram form, then stiched the center and outer edges to hold them in place.
Once the pleating was stitched on, I trimmed the edges and cut out the center circle.
I trimed the outer edge and cut out the center circle.
Next, I sewed the blue silk to the opposite side to be the outer brim of the hat. This silk has a fusible interfacing to keep it forever flat.
Next, I sewed the blue silk on the opposite side.
It was then time to add the bias strip to the outer edge. I made the strip out of the same blue silk to match.
I used some bias tape that I made from my silk fabric to bind the edges and cover the milliner’s wire.
Next, I sewed the top of the hat to the brim. When you trim the seam allowances, you can turn them and stitch or glue them down so that there is extra hold inside the brim. The picture below shows the stitched and glued tabs. The pins hold the glued tabs in place.
Next, I sewed the top of the hat to the brim, and glued the notched tabs in place.
I cut a little circle of lining, and used an off-white grosgrain ribbon for the sweat band on the inside.
Finally, I added a lining and a grosgrain ribbon hat band inside the brim.
Now the finished form of the hat was complete, and I could choose how to decorate it. 
I used ostrich feathers, a ribbon bow and a cameo pin to decorate the hat. However, the main reason I pleated the lining was because it was always my intention to show it off. I shaped the hat over the wig, as you can see in the images below.
My completed hat with feathers, etc. on top of the wig. I also styled the wig myself.
The way the hat is bent allows you to see the top and bottom at the same time! It’s very pretty! I used Epic Cosplay Curly Mid Part Wig, if you are interested.
UPDATE: You can also visit my steampunkmonsters.com hat tutorial if you’d like to learn how to cover an already existing hat form!
Another view of my finished hat from the front.
I also made some accessories. All the dresses from the 1790s have little tabs hanging from the bodices. I knew their history but not what they were called, so I asked Alisa. She used her Google Ninja skills and discovered that they are called Chatalaines, Equipages, Fobs or Macaronis! After looking them up to price them, I quickly discovered that it was necessary to build my own. I found a metal frame at Michael’s (Scrapbooking Section) and used a portrait of Mozart from a little book I got in the mail. I also bought some ribbon clamp ends, which I was so relieved to discover existed! (I always had a suspicion, but had never had my suspicions confirmed until now.) I bought mine from thunderrockalley21 on Etsy. I covered the portrait in a thick varnish to make it look like a painting.
My Mozart Portrait Chatalaine (Equipage, Fob, Macaroni or what you will!)
I used a basic grosgrain ribbon for the attachment as well as a pretty little hook to clip it to the skirt. That’s all for today! Next time you hear from my, my photo shoot will be done! Der Schauspieldirektor, here I come!
Tags: 18th Century, Costume, der schauspieldirektor, Design, hat, jewelry, Mozart, Pouf, Rococo, Wigs
One Delightful Day 