Brain Bleach!
Last weekend I remade a hat in preparation for having fun with joycebre. We've been talking forever about renaissance hair bleaching (and where the bleep is that woodcut with the woman with the broad-brimmed hat bleaching her hair?) and I've been saying that i needed to make a bleaching hat. Well, I finally did it!
I started with a straw hat that I already had, since the crown had gotten smooshed down to about 2" tall. First, I soaked just the crown in a bowl of warm water. I weighted it with a jar of peanut butter (unopened), which stretched it back out nicely. After about half an hour, the straw was soft enough to manipulate.
I started by cutting the top of the hat out at the first obvious place where the hat had been widened. (Sorry for the blurry photo.) This was where the weave on top stopped being a square and went to a round shape.
From there I stretched the edges until I found the next level where more straw had been added to increase the size. I snipped those corners, since they were stopping me from stretching it farther.
This went on for a little bit until I figured out where the last increasing row in the crown was. I cut the crown down to that point, which left me with about 2" of crown.
At this point, I enlisted someone else to take photos. I put the hat on upside down and started working the loose edge up towards the brim.
On my second pass around, I was able to fold the crown flat up against itself.
I then needed to let it dry so it would set. I tied a piece of wide twill tape around the fold to hold everything in place. I could have done this on a hat form, but doing it on my head was easy and more exact.
Yes, baby nose beeps are part of the technique.
It took about 2 hours for it to dry. I could have said that is was done at that point, but I wanted to bind that loose edge so it wouldn't snag on my hair.
I just happened to have a 1.5"-2" wide piece of linen bias strip hanging about the place, so I used that. I slid it under the raw edge of the straw.
I folded it over so that I had a neat edge to the bias strip and pinned it down. I used some linen thread I had lying about and did a wide herringbone stritch through the linen and a single layer of the straw.
The finishing seems to help it hold its shape a bit, which is good. I would hate to have it stretch out.
It appears to work as designed.
Under the weight of my hair it shifted some, so I sewed/wove in two rows of fingerloop braid, taking care to run the needle between the straws, not through them, and only catch one layer of the crown. I just tied off the ends of the braid, which should let me tighten it as needed. If that doesn't work, I'll add twill tape inside the fold of the crown.
I'm looking forward to experimenting with medieval hair bleach next... on someone else's hair.
I started with a straw hat that I already had, since the crown had gotten smooshed down to about 2" tall. First, I soaked just the crown in a bowl of warm water. I weighted it with a jar of peanut butter (unopened), which stretched it back out nicely. After about half an hour, the straw was soft enough to manipulate.
I started by cutting the top of the hat out at the first obvious place where the hat had been widened. (Sorry for the blurry photo.) This was where the weave on top stopped being a square and went to a round shape.
From there I stretched the edges until I found the next level where more straw had been added to increase the size. I snipped those corners, since they were stopping me from stretching it farther.
This went on for a little bit until I figured out where the last increasing row in the crown was. I cut the crown down to that point, which left me with about 2" of crown.
At this point, I enlisted someone else to take photos. I put the hat on upside down and started working the loose edge up towards the brim.
On my second pass around, I was able to fold the crown flat up against itself.
I then needed to let it dry so it would set. I tied a piece of wide twill tape around the fold to hold everything in place. I could have done this on a hat form, but doing it on my head was easy and more exact.
Yes, baby nose beeps are part of the technique.
It took about 2 hours for it to dry. I could have said that is was done at that point, but I wanted to bind that loose edge so it wouldn't snag on my hair.
I just happened to have a 1.5"-2" wide piece of linen bias strip hanging about the place, so I used that. I slid it under the raw edge of the straw.
I folded it over so that I had a neat edge to the bias strip and pinned it down. I used some linen thread I had lying about and did a wide herringbone stritch through the linen and a single layer of the straw.
The finishing seems to help it hold its shape a bit, which is good. I would hate to have it stretch out.
It appears to work as designed.
Under the weight of my hair it shifted some, so I sewed/wove in two rows of fingerloop braid, taking care to run the needle between the straws, not through them, and only catch one layer of the crown. I just tied off the ends of the braid, which should let me tighten it as needed. If that doesn't work, I'll add twill tape inside the fold of the crown.
I'm looking forward to experimenting with medieval hair bleach next... on someone else's hair.