ATTIFET! Part Deux

Earlier this week I went on a pilgrimage to Janesville in order that I might acquire some additional materials, for Etsy shop merchandise as well as to finish off my attifet.

I found some nice ivory chiffon at Hobby Lobby for 50% off, which was awesome. I also found THE perfect lace. I wanted something simple, but everything else I'd seen looked like it was made from cotton thread and I wanted something a little more upscale.

I cut the chiffon to exactly 1 yard square and hemmed all the edges.  That was a joy.  There was spray starch involved.  Also, were you aware that chiffon is the World's Most Perfect Dog Hair Magnet?  It totally is.  Especially when it's ivory chiffon and you have black dogs with tons of really long hair.  That's your Fun Fact for the day.

Then I went through the laborious process of pinning the lace all way the way around, and mitering all the edges.  I lined up the bottom of the lace to just cover the hem stitching, and then machine stitched the lace on.  The texture of the lace hides the stitches that hold it on, and the lace itself hides the hem stitches, so it looks altogether quite seamless.

The machine did get a little wonky in several parts as I was sewing the lace on.  There were spots where the lace slipped up and the hem stitches showed, which also made the lace edge uneven.  So I had to pick out the stitches in those spots and set everything to rights.  That was a little time consuming.  Eh.

Once that was all done, I lined up one corner of the chiffon veil with the pointed brim of the hat and pinned it in place about 1/2" from the edge.  Then I pinned it down along the brim on both sides, down to where the brim meets the rest of the hat.  I hand stitched the veil in place, with a tiny stitch through the lace.  I fed the needle down in between the two layers of the brim and poked it back up about an inch from the previous stitch, rinse, repeat.  That made it so that the veil is securely attached, but there aren't any stitches showing on the inside of  the brim.  Nice and neat.

And so, without further ado, the long-awaited and much fabled attifet!

So that's done.  I bought a little extra lace, and pinned it on the front of the brim, but I didn't like the way it looked...too busy.  I thought about putting some pearl beading on there, but decided against that as well.  I'm just going to leave it plain.  This outfit isn't a noble's outfit.  It's more upper class/gentry, so I don't want things too ornamented.

I sewed a plastic hair comb to the inside of the hat to help hold it on, but I quickly realized that this particular piece of headgear is going to require some really specific hair treatment to stay on.  I'm not sure if that's just the nature of the beast, or if there is something I could have done to make it fit better.

I will be putting together another one of these in the not too distant future to list in my hopefully soon to be opened Etsy shop.