Research and Planning
Documentation
I used Angela Clayton’s YouTube tutorial as a guide to make my hat. I changed some steps and design to make it suitable for my project.
The materials I used were:
- 1 inch of cotton fabric
- 1 inch of linen fabric
- 1 inch of heavy weight interfacing
- M&S Schmalberg’s flowers
- Thread
- Needles
- Metal wire
- Wire cutter
- Sewing pins
- Scissors
- A ruler
- A marker
- The hat pattern printed
- A sewing machine
The types of stitches I used were:
- Medium length zigzag stitch
- A straight stitch
I used navy blue and white fabric because I wanted to make my piece formal and serious. As the issue of feminism was raising around the 1910’s I thought that making my hat with a color having masculine connotations would make it a better representation of a piece of the year 1911. Women fighting for gender equality is clearly represented in my hat.
Final piece
Three points of research
Point of research #1: Feminism
Feminist groups in New York objected to most of the women’s magazines of the day, but they decided on a Ladies’ Home Journal sit-in because of its sizable circulation (over 14 million readers per month at the time) and because one of their members used to work there. The leaders of the protest were able to enter the offices with her in advance to scout out the location.
Point of research #2: Welfare concern
The popularity of large feathers and stuffed birds on the hats caused concern for the welfare and population of birds. Many protective laws took effect and milliners (hat makers) used more ribbon and tulle and only the largest of feathers to decorate a hat. The largest plums came from ostriches, which were farm raised and their feathers collected as they fell naturally.
Point of research #3: Glue history
Super Glue was first developed during World War Two by scientists at Eastman Kodak who were trying to design products for the military products. Before the Super Glue was invented,Animal glue has been made from ancient times from bones, skins, muscles, and intestines of animals (fish, goats, sheep, goats, cattle, horses, etc.).
Animal glue industry almost completely collapsed in the decades after they started experimenting with synthetic glues.