December | 2015 | Made of Rags

Time for a crazy derby-hat?

A crazy summer-derby hat so close to Christmas ?

Yes. To publish a derby summer-hat at this time of the year may be weird, but I see it as a symbol and a small protest against the racy world we life in.

You can find winterclothing in the shops at the end of July or summercloth in February, Santa Claus Ho-ho-ho´s at you from every department store in October, long before Thanksgiving and what about the Easter Bunny? That poor creature shows it´s long chocolate-ears in the first days of March.

I think, THAT´s really crazy.

So here it is, the most whimsical hat I ever made, untimely, but who cares today?

There is a reason for a season….So why can´t we celebrate at the right time?

And buy winterclothes in winter?

I made the hat with some vintage two-tone ribbons from the 1970s. As you can see, it has no back or front, it´s wearable from both sides.

Fluffy plum-hat

Some time ago I catched this vintage melousine-hat body for a small price. It has a fantastic, intensive color and – lucky me- I had a matching petersham ribbon in a shiny violet-blue tone. Usually I avoid feathers, but this one is vintage and was a gift.

The passementerie-trimming is selfmade. I copied an art nouveau embellishment I possess with vintage soutache. I could have used the original, but I think I keep the precious piece for another occasion.

Back to off-white …

Oh no…. not off-white again so soon after the Metropolitan- Project!

But there´s a good reason. Whenever I buy a lot of vintage lace , among the sought-after things are others, I´m not so fond of.

In this case it´s those rough bobbin-lace, meant for bed-and table-clothing or towels. I have enough bed-or table-clothing in my cabinet, so I don´t need more. And usually I´m the one to cut them up and not to sew new ones.

But the pile of rough bobbin-lace got slowly higher and higher, until I couldn´t close the cap of my lace- box anymore. I had to do something!

I couldn´t donate the lace to my usual group of sewing girls. To old fashioned for teens. And nobody else wanted it.

So what to do with that nasty, rough bobbin-lace?

Then I had an idea….I remembered a scene from Emile Zola´s novella “The lady´s paradise” (Au bonheur des dames). In that Scene, he describes a display window in a department store, overflowing with yards and yards of white lace…..Could I do something flowing, airy? With rough lace?

Maybe not exactly, but a long, fluent lace-poncho could be a thing for a spring occasion. Or a Christmas evening. And I could also sew some scarfs or stoles.

So I went to my sewing machine and did it. I think, it went good and what I have in the end is ok.

Of course I could dye it, but I like the two-tone shade one of the lace in the poncho has and it all matches perfectly. So it will remain off-white…..

A real “scrapy” thing!

This three-piece-ensemble I made from a pile of scraps. Some of them came from former projects, some from a rag-box in a second-hand-store. Most of them needed a new color. But it´s solid linen, wool-embroidery and machine-embroidered cotton, so dyeing was no problem.

For such a tunic-trouser-vest-ensemble you can use every kind of bigger scraps or old clothing. Just let your scissors fly!