I got a box in the mail today from my sister in Pennsylvania. It was a fun one… with baby rick rack, a new paint brush from Miss Mustard Seed’s line, and hats…about a dozen doll hats. She found them at her Mission and was hoping they might fit the American Girl dolls.
[If you click on any picture, it will enlarge.]
Unfortunately, they were about a half inch too small in the head area… :o(
SO….I decided I would take one apart and see if I could rework it into a hat that DID fit the dolls heads…
I used a seam ripper and took all the stitching out…round and round and round and round…until I was down to just one long strip of the straw…
Then I began coiling it back again and was going to try and make it a flat crowned hat and see if that might work…
I couldn’t get the “straw” to bend at an angle to make that 90 degree drop off…so it sort of was a failure…
I took apart another one and tried doing it another way, but the results were just about the same. I know it would look better decorated and I could probably use these for a bonnet where a ribbon was run around it, but I’ll have to try again another day…
I wanted to get started on Kit’s new Valentine Dress. I did a little “fussy cutting” to get my “waves” just right on the front and the collar…
I managed to get her lace jacket finished…minus the buttons, and tried it on over the unfinished bodice…I used strips of bias cut fabric to bind the edges of the lace…
You can see the lace a little better in this picture…
I wrapped the fabric for her skirt around Kit just to give you an idea of what it will look like with fabric at the bottom…
…and I tried the pink hat on her…just hoping it might be bigger…
NOPE…it’s not gonna work…
Let’s hope I get some more done on it tomorrow…
See you then…
Blessings, Jeanne
Awwww Jeanne, So sorry they won’t work, I thought they were too small for the AG dolls but thought they would work for the smaller dolls. Oh well, you win a few & lose a few?
HI Cindy,
That’s okay… I still might be able to make them into something…maybe for the Little Darlings… or maybe just bonnets… who knows…
Thanks for sending them my way…
Love you, me
What a disappointment that the hats were too small. They do look like they would fit a Kidz N Cats doll. You need to add one to your doll collection! They are very popular, especially internationally. Kit’s outfit is looking great! Love the fabrics!!
HI Karen,
I was so excited to see the hats and thought of lots of Easter dresses with hats this year…not so…
Oh dear… another doll? I know of the Kidz n Cats dolls…but I’ll have to give them another look.
Thanks for your comments on Kit’s dress. It’s going to be very 30’s-ish…
Blessings, Jeanne
Kit and her outfit are looking great, Jeanne. You’ve chosen very appropriately colored fabrics for the beautiful Miss Kit.
Thank you Becky,
I appreciate your kind words about Kit’s dress. I hope I can get it finished today… but my hubby just presented me with a list of things he wanted to get accomplished today… it’s his day off… so I’m hoping to get a few of my things on my list done… too!
Blessings, Jeanne
I like the way the red reworked hat looks, Jeanne! It would make a cute bonnet, like you said. Kit’s looking pretty darned cute in her new dress too! Can’t wait to see her modeling the finished outfit. Those colors are perfect for her.
HI Cindy,
It’s pretty bad when you pick fabrics for your doll according to the color of her lips, but I did on this first one. I think the colors will look pretty good on her…
I just saw your little sweaters you were blocking and I’m going over to your website to leave some comments… adorable!!!
Blessings, Jeanne
Too bad about the hats. Like everyone has said, maybe you can re-create them another way. I love the pastel colors of the hats though.
And Kit looks so sweet in her pinks. Her lips look to be a great color. Can’t wait to see her new outfit.
I missed all the pretty jewelry yesterday. Beautiful pieces, Rebecca!
Have a great sunny day!
HI Paula,
I’m hoping I can figure out something for the hats… they are just too cute to not use in some way…
I picked this fabric because of her lips… that’s a “first” for me… :o)
Rebecca’s going to have to make more necklace’s. They are going fast!
Thanks Paula,
Blessings, Jeanne
HI
I really like the way the red hat looks…with the magic way you do trims and maybe a few trims under the brim it would be so cute!
Super cute fabric for the dress/jacket ensemble!
Good luck getting hubby’s list “and yours” done today 🙂
Hi Kathie,
I might be able to salvage the red hats and see if I can come up with some way to use them. I sure hope so. They are really nicely made hats.
So much for my list… his took most of the day… oh well, I’m off to sew now…
Thanks Kathie,
Blessings, Jeanne
I would think the hats might fit the Little Darlings as you mentioned or Betsy McCall. Maybe a beret hat instead in matching pink felt? I love the lace jacket. I was hoping you would make a jacket from the lace, and voila it appeared. Hope you accomplish a lot today.
HI Joy,
No, the hats are too big for the Little Darlings… I tried them as soon as I tried them on the AG dolls and they didn’t fit them. They either need to be littler or bigger… not what they are…
Thanks for liking the lace jacket for Kit. I’m glad you got to see it come to be…
Blessings, Jeanne
Oh gosh, I was just checking out your comments, and see that mine didn’t get put in. I had written something earlier, then when I posted the comment, I got a screen telling me the website was not available at that time. Anyway……here goes again!
Kit’s outfit is just adorable,— well, it WILL be! I really like the colors and pattern of the material on her. I would have had no clue that you could take apart those hats, but you seem to jump right into things most people would not fathom doing! You’ll get something out of those hats, I’m sure! The pink would go wonderfully with the dress and jacket. It would make a sweet Easter outfit too!
I also wanted to mention to Cindy Rice that she has such a cute picture of herself! How do you get to her Etsy shop or blog?
HI Linda,
If you’ll just hover your mouse over Cindy Rice’s name where it says “Cindy Rice says:” and click on it, it will take you right to her website. If you do that to anyone’s name and they have a website, it will link you to them… If you do it to Linda Doyle, it won’t do anything because you don’t have a website. The names that have a website are just “slightly” a different color.
Thanks for liking Kit’s dress…I think it will be cute in the end… I know the dresses in the depression were a bit on the skimpy side and that’s the hardest thing for me to do…make them less full than I really want them to be.
Thanks Linda,
Blessings, Jeanne
How about steaming the straw and see if it softens and stretches a little. You can test for color fastness doing this too. kit’s lace jacket is truly great!
Hi Jan,
I thought about soaking the hats in hot water to see if they would shrink, but they aren’t made out of a natural fiber, but a plastic like fiber. I was hoping to either shrink them or stretch them…but I don’t think that will work…but I might try anyway…
Thanks for your comments… I’ll tell Kit you like her jacket.
Blessings, Jeanne
I have a book called Eleanor Roosevelt’s My Day, and on the front she’s wearing a hat a lot like the new version of Kit’s red one. Cindy is right — it has possibilities. Mrs. Roosevelt’s has a veil, which is too old for Kit, but with a little more thought and a flower or a bow or something, it may yet work. I wonder if the material in three of the original hats would make two for the AGs.
Otherwise the outfit is coming along beautifully, and I like the A-line look of the skirt, which may not be at all what you planned. Tomorrow is another day, and then I may find out what you planned.
HI Marilyn,
I’ll have to look up that book and see Eleanor’s hat… I’m hoping I can do something with the hats… surely I can…
If I could get the hat to curve I thought I could do just that…use several hats to make one, but it just sort of stretches and won’t hold its shape. I wanted to make a flat crowned hat, but it would not bend to make the sharp angle on a hat with a flat top… *sigh*
As far as the S-line skirt goes, that was just a wrapped around look at Kit’s dress. I am actually looking at skirt patterns right now, trying to get the skirt right, but I will probably have a skirt with gathers. The jacket will come to where the skirt adds on.. we’ll see…
I’m sorry, but I just missed the mailman on getting your necklaces out today and it was George’s day off, so we didn’t go to town…I’ll get it in tomorrow’s mail… sorry…
Thanks Marilyn,
Blessings, Jeanne
Hi Jeanne
I have one of Nelly Valentino’s hat moulds, they use the plastic type straw but it is glued rather than sewn. I have made a hat for my Little Darling using one of the kits and it turned out beautifully. You start at the brim gluing as you go and fitting it into the curve and ending up in the centre of the crown. She makes them in lots of styles and sizes and you can also use them for wool felt hats. I know it is an expense but once you have the mould you could take any hat and reuse the straw for your dolls.
Lorna
HI Lorna,
I have seen those hat forms and debated many times about getting one. I’ve looked for something around my house that I could use as a mold for these hats, but so far I haven’t found anything yet. I may just have to break down and get one of Nelly’s forms. Which hat form did you get? I may look at them again…
Thanks for the tips…
Blessings, Jeanne
Hi Jeanne I have Nelly’s hat form No. 25 D with a head circumference 6-7 inches.I know Nelly makes them to order so I told her it was for a Little Darling and this was the size she advised. I may have a go at making one with air drying clay and a coat of varnish.
Lorna
Hi Jeanne,
I read thru everyone’s letters to see if anyone has suggested this, and they haven’t, so here goes: How about using the hat material to make an open-crowned hat? Often in summers past, an open-crowned hat with a wide brim was worn with a sundress.
Another possibility would be to use it to make a visor–use a little elastic in the back with a band of the “straw” (or, alternately, overlap and add a velcro closure), then more straw to form the visor.
The hats, as they are, would probably fit the Magic Attic Club dolls and the 16″ Julie Good-Kruger dolls of years past!
Charlotte
HI Charlotte,
I like the idea of the open crowned hats…hmmmm…I might have something new to try! Thanks!
Someone suggested the Kidz n Cats dolls…maybe it would fit them, but I can’t buy another doll right now… in a different size… so I’ll try some other suggestions…
Blessings, Jeanne