Book Review: Sewn Hats

 

I recently taught a guest masterclass on vintage sewn hat patterns for Pattern Place members of Creative Costume Academy, and I wish I'd learned about this book beforehand rather than after-the-fact, because I would have recommended it.

In fact, it was published in 2012, and I can't believe I've only just learned of its existence! I've been seeking a book on sewn hat styles for ages, albeit not actively. Perhaps it's more accurate to say I've been wishing one existed while remaining ignorant of this one. (I ought to cut myself some slack though, since I learned to make hats back in the early 1990s and can't possibly find out about every book released on hatmaking topics as they come out).

This is a great book for complete novices to hatmaking, but who have some familiarity with sewing other garments or accessories in fabric. It might be too challenging if you don't understand basic sewing terms, but you don't need to know anything about hatmaking or even basic hat vocabulary--the author explains concepts like  the difference between a brim and a visor.

The book is arranged in chapters that pertain to specific kinds of hats, like several warm hats to make for cold weather, several vintage hats (mostly sewn cloches), summer sun hats, hats for children/babies. The step-by-step directions are clear and the patterns themselves are available online as a PDF. What I find so exciting is the potential to use these patterns as essentially hat slopers, to alter and make other various sewn hat styles. Last season I drafted a sewn felt cloche pattern from scratch, and while that wasn't difficult, if I'd begun with one of the patterns in this book I could have cut a couple hours/mockups out of the process.

The full-color photos illustrate examples of each style on human models (as opposed to canvas heads or mannequins), and the vector-art pattern layouts are clear and easy to read. I'm thrilled to add this to my millinery library.