The Floppy Toque

Making Up a Soft Brim

A Soft Brim is simply two layers of fabric, sewn together and finished as a complete oval. This is the simpler of the two brims we will go through here.

To make the soft brim, you will need your Basic Brim Pattern With Seam Allowances, enough fabric for you to cut two basic brims with seam allowances, a yard of thin single fold bias tape, and of course thread, sewing machine, scissors, and pins.

Lay the pattern on a double thickness of your fabric (so you can cut both pieces at once.)

Trace around both sides of the pattern (ideally on the back side of the fabric and with chalk, rather than the ink pen I'm using here). Be sure to tranfer the Side and Front/Back markings, as these will help you line up the brim and the crown later. It is very helpful, at this stage, to be working with the right sides of the fabric together so that you will not need to manipulate them later.

Pin the layers together inside the brim and cut around the outside of the piece only. (We cut the center oval out later. We want to hold off as long as possible to minimize the chances stretching, as most of an oval is technically on the bias.)

With right sides together, machine stitch the two layers of the brim around the outside edge of the oval at half your normal seam allowance. Use a slightly larger stitch than normal to reduce stretching, and do not pull when you sew. Let the machine do the work for you.

Sew a second line of stitch at the normal seam allowance (if you used my drafting directions without modifications, that's 1/2"), with normal stitch length. (Note: I use a 2 - 2.5 setting for stitch length.) It's still important not to tug on the brim while you sew it, but you can be a little rougher on it this time.

Trim the seam allowance back to just next to the first line of stitch (1/2 the seam allownce).

Clip small triangles out of the seam allowance, being careful not to snip the inner line of stitches. This is to reduce bulk when you turn the brim right side out.

Turn the brim right side out, and smooth the outside edge into a nice oval. If you're prone to ironing and/or using a fabric that can be ironed, now would be an excellent time to iron the brim.

Sew around the inside brim at your normal seam allowance.

Check point: At this point, you should have an oval with a fully finished outer seam, and one seam around the inside edge. If this is what you've got in front of you, you're ready for the finishing steps.

Trim the inside seam allowance down as far as your farbic will allow. I'm using felt, which doesn't ravel, so I've trimmed it to 1/16" or less. If you're using an unstable brocade, then a) you're totally insane, and b) a little fraycheck will be a huge help for you. You need to get the seam allowance to under 1/4".

We're going to seal the edge by applying thin single fold bias tape. The most important thing to know about applying this stuff is that the fold is slightly offset -- one edge actually sticks out past the other. You want to put the long side down, so that you are looking at the shorter side while you sew. This radically increases the odds that you will succeed in sewing down both sides of the tape at once, instead of sewing the side on top and having the bottom side sewn intermittantly or not at all.

Note: I'm using a contrasting color bias tape for this demo so that it's easier to see. I'd really recommend not doing that in your own hat, because it's too easy to see.

Sew the bias tape along the edge, short side on top/long side on bottom/fold at the edge of your trimmed seam allowance. Sew slowly, few stitches at a time, about 1/8" away from the inside edge of the bias tape. (You'll notice there are no pins in this picture. I find that it's actually harder to get thin single fold on when it's pinned -- it get's pulled slightly out of line when you pull the pins out before sewing over them (you do pull your pins out before sewing over them, right? Of course you do). If you're really, really worried about your ability to line this stuff up while you're sewing, you can baste it, or dab a little glue stick on the fold and press it firmly over the edge of the brim to hold it temporarily.

If you're like me, you'll probably find that you missed a titch of the bias tape here or there on the back side of the brim. You can hand tack those. (Or if it's late and you're in a huge hurry, you can stick a little drop of fabric glue in and call it a day, but it's probably best to make sure no one finds out you did that.....)

This is what your finished, fully bound brim should look like.

On the head form, you can see the brim sitting about where it's meant to. It's not too floppy, because I'm using a double layer of felt. If this were made of a thinner fabric, you'd see a more exxaggerated floppy effect.

The Large Crown Pattern

These crowns start with your Basic Brim Pattern without Seam Allowances. You will also need a piece of fabric (the size depends on, or may determine, the size of the crown you make), a ruler, a marking device (chalk is preferable to the sharpie I use in this demo!), sewing machine, scissors, thread, and three hand needles and strong buttonhole thread (these last two are for the cartridge pleated hat only).

Place the brim pattern on the fabric. We're going to enlarge it by marking out from it with a ruler. I generally enlarge by no more than twice the width of my brim. In this case, my brim is 2", so I am adding 4.5" (2x2" + 1/2" seam allowance).

When you finish marking, you'll have a great big oval. Using your ruler, transfer the Side and Front/Back marks to the outside edge of the oval you just marked. Cut this oval out.

For the Cartridge Pleated Crown

Turn up the seam allowance around the oval and machine stitch it down at 1/4". You will use this stitch line as a guide for your cartridge pleat stitches.

I find it easiest to work all three lines of stitch simultaneously. Thread three needles each with a long doubled piece of buttonhole thread. Starting at the outer edge of the crown, sew large running stitches (about 3/4" long) for 10" or so along the stitching line. Start the second needle 1/2" in from the first, matching the stitches up with the first line. Here's the tricky bit: these stitches will be a hair shorter than the first row. Since we're working with an oval, think of these stitches like they're hitting on the edges of thin little pieces of pie -- the closer they are to the center, the shorter they are. Start the 3rd needle 1/2" in from the second. Repeat in 10" segments around the crown.

After sewing, pull up the threads to bring the crown into a standing shape, instead of a big flat oval. Use the Basic Brim Pattern without Seam Allowances to check the size. When you've got it, knot the gathering threads securely inside the hat.

You should end up with something that looks a little like a popover.

Bonus hat: This is also a basic pleated mob cap pattern.

Attaching Crown to Brim by Hand

When you're joining up a Brim and a Crown by hand, you're doing it because the seam is quite bulky or will not pass flat through the machine. That in mind, I find that it's often helpful to pin the brim to the crown (top of Brim to outside of Crown) at the Side and Front/Back marks.

To sew the Crown and Brim together, you want to take small stitches that pass through the very bottom of the Crown and the very edge of the Brim. The easiest way to accomplish this is to press the Brim down against the side of the crown while you pass the needle through both. Keep your stitches small and tight, and knot every 1-2". Remember, the join between the Crown and Brim is the part of the hat that takes the most strain.

When you've finished sewing, hide the tail of the thread by pulling it through the seam allowance inside the crown.

Yay! You're done!