Halloween isn’t a season, it’s a way of life. Actually, I did make this hat for Halloween 2018, but haven’t made the time to post about it until now. I’ve always felt my costume collection was suffering by it’s lack of a proper pointed hat. Most of the things that I make are inspired in some way by paganism or witchcraft, but this is like a big neon sign to the rest of the world saying, “Hey! This costume? I’m a witch.”
Patterning and constructing hats is precision work and I am far from experienced. I have made one other structured hat before, and that one was using a pattern. This hat I conceived alone. I used a heavy PU faux leather which needed to be steamed and hung to let the wrinkles of storage fall out. The brim is two circles of this heavyweight leather with layers of felt interfacing sandwiched in the front half to provide extra support above my face. Floppy hats are fine, but everyone still wants to be able to see where they’re going.
The point of the hat is not lined, but I folded some extra black felt over the joint to make sure none of the white leather backing would be visible in the finished product. I chose not to line the point so that it would be easy to turn and more flexible. The wrinkles in the way that hat sits is artificial. The leather on it’s own is very stiff and stood straight up in a really magnificent fashion. However, I wanted to be able to fit through doors, so the slouchy look was more practical. I hand-tucked the back of the hat along it’s seam and tacked it into place.
The construction may sound simple enough, but sizing the hat to fit was the most difficult part. When it comes to hats, a very small measurement makes a very large difference. The trim of a seam allowance at the joining of point and brim was the difference between the hat being too tight or falling down over my face! If you ever make a hat such as this for yourself, take care to measure your cut-out carefully, start a little smaller than you think you need, and consider the bulk of your seam.
