2015-03-29

I hadn’t relaxed the cording by heat before I used it, and then I didn’t store my hat in a hat box to keep its shape eta: (I hung it on a hat hook with my other hats). So the brim is twisted now, and since it’s acrylic I can’t heat block it to straighten the cording.

edit to add

I was going to take and upload a photo of how it curves funny, but I guess I partially fixed it by leaving it lying scrunched in a pile over the winter. It was curving the wrong way on one side, but it seems to almost all curve right again. LOL

Well obviously I can’t consistently scrunch it to fix each time. :-)

And as I noted when I made the hat, when worn it doesn’t have that nice dip over the eye, it just flattens into a cone shaped circle. If I had used millinery wire, I could have reshaped the brim to suit my face better.

Anyway, I think it works much better to be able to shape the brim on your own head. This cording can’t do that because it can’t change shape at all without heat.

After I made the violet hat, I cut some lengths of weed whacker cording, and then heated them in a 200° oven to relax the coil. So they’re still circular, but flat and not twisty like an uncoiled spring.

In order to fix any problems in a future hat, I plan to only use plastic cording when I’m using natural fibers that can be heated to reshape the brim. Otherwise, I’ll use millinery wire.

P.S. The two middle gauges of millinery wire at http://www.judithm.com can be purchased by the yard, and they only cost 95¢ a yard. The heat shrink plastic joiners are $1.75 for a dozen. Their website has basic instructions on using them both. I’ve ordered a bit of everything I needed to restock my sewing supplies a little, including some Petersham ribbon, also very inexpensive.