A Red Silk Capote

I decided that I needed a hat to go with my embroidered drop-front dress, and since there were no patterns for what I wanted, I decided I'd make a hat pattern up for myself. Most of it I figured out for myself, with a little help from Kendra's page about her capote.

It's made of red silk, cotton sateen (to prevent the buckram from shadowing through the silk), buckram, millenary wire, cotton batiste and netting.

First, cut a shape as sewn above and sew the back edges together.

Next, sew wire on both the top and bottom edges. Then cut interlining (I used cotton sateen, but have come to prefer cotton flannel) the same size as the buckram and sew it to each side of the brim.

Then cut the silk for the top brim. Cut this with a seam allowance on each side. Sew it to the brim by folding the edges under and taking one running stitch at a time through all the layers.

Do the same for the lining, only fold the edges under and whipstitch them to the seam allowance of the top layer of silk.

To make the crown, cut a circle (mine was 18 1/2 inches in diameter) of silk, netting and cotton batiste and gather it. I initally didn't gather the lining with the crown, as seen above. It worked out well since my first circle was too big and I had to redo it anyway!

Pull the gathering stitches in to fit the hat and bind the bottom of the crown.

Whipstitch the crown to the brim, and you're done. Well, except for decorating. I just tied a bias strip of red silk around mine.

And don't forget to find a cat to chew your wire--they make it more pliable :)