Straw Hat Making for a BJD Doll

Todays Plan A Straw BJD Hat


I have made hats from hat straw using a form before but I only have one which is a small bonnet shape. It worked well but would make a hat too small for my 16ins Dream of Doll Leya who is going to be the lucky recipient (or not if it did not turn out too well).

I started out by cutting a circle from cardboard the size of the hat brim I wanted.  Then hunted around the house for a suitable lid or container to make the sides and top of the hat.  After a few rejections, too deep, too small, too curvy a settled on a jam pot lid.  Which might sound a little too shallow but I was aiming for a 18th century country/Gainsborough style of hat, which did have shallow crowns.

 I put double side sticky tape around the outside brim to hold the first row of straw. Then put little blobs of glue (I favour the putting glue in the corner of a plastic bag tying with a metal bag tie then piercing a little hole in the corner method) on each following row and pressed the straw in place trying to keep the over laps as even as possible.

 The tricky bit is trying to persuade stiff hat straw that it wants to bend as you come to the brim and crown join.

But I think it worked out OK even if a do say so myself.  I got the look I was aiming for which is always a good thing. Then the best bit of choosing the embellishments.  I tried to keep it simple as sometime less is more. And I think the hats of this period were simple that was their charm.  A few years later and all hell broke loose on the hat scene and decorations and sizes went wild.


And the lucky lady for this restrained chapeau is...........

The rest of her clothing to match is still in the making.