Remind me . . .

Pretty Japanese linen

. . . not to go into millinery. A few weeks ago I came across this endorsement of a sunhat pattern from the book,  Craft Challenge: Dozens of Ways to Repurpose a Pillowcase and thought it might be the perfect pattern for this beautiful Japanese floral linen I have been holding onto for many years. I checked the book out from the library and that was where my troubles began. The first thing I had to do was enlarge the pattern pieces 400%. This never works out for me, but the price was right (free) so I spent some time at the copier one afternoon. I never got a full pattern piece, but figured I could manage. I figured wrong.

It looks wearable, but . . .

The next issue came when I cut out the wrong size for the band of the hat and compensated by cutting out a larger size piece for the back of the band. This resulted in the crown piece (which seemed small, did I really blow up those pieces 400%?) not fitting. To top it off, I am not really sure what size piece I cut out for the brim. Yikes. This was a disaster! Thank goodness I was not using the precious linen and instead chose to start with a remnant of heavy brown linen that I picked up at SCRAP.

Lessons learned:

. . .wonky.

1. Muslins are NOT a waste of time, especially when you have no idea what you are doing.
2. That thick linen frays like the dickens. Does all linen do this?
3. If the crown piece looks too small, it probably is too small.
4. My head is bigger than I think it is.

I am counting this project as done and throwing it in with my kid's toys. One point earned.

No, seriously, it's sewn like that