Serpentine Rain Hat

Pattern/Technique: Serpentine Hat by Elbe Textiles

Modifications: No mods

Materials: 1/2 yd black waxed cotton canvas for exterior. 1/2 yd natural cotton army duck canvas for lining. Both purchased from Klum House.

New skills: None

Lessons/Notes: I graded the lining seams in order to prevent them from getting too bulky. I still had a slight issue where the needle got stuck while topstitching one of the seams, but was able to use the hand wheel to disengage it.

I didn’t have any issues with a floppy brim given the stiffness and weight of the materials I used, but if I made this with fabric that’s lighter weight (e.g. the red and grey asanohi fabric I purchased as a potential lining) I’d interface it to add stiffness.

What I'd do differently: If I have any issues with dirt/spots getting bad on the lining, I plan to try ice dyeing the interior, or painting on black dye for a watercolor ombre effect.

Care: Spot clean

Sculthorpe Pants 03

Pattern/Technique: Sculthorpe Pants by Muna & Broad in size ii

Modifications: added 3 in of length to pant leg

Materials: 2.75 yds Kaufman essex (cotton linen blend) in Navy.

New skills: n/a

Lessons: Be careful to read where to attach interfacing. I fused the interfacing to the pocket piece instead of the side pants panel. I was able to work around the mistake thankfully.

While stitching the folded waistband I used the following technique:

• Inserted pins parallel to the waistband in the ditch to gauge overlap. Sewed pants on my janome machine using aurifil 40 weight thread to prevent any skipped stitches.

I did a lot of dialing in on elastic length on this set of pants, using previous pairs as reference:

• Grey Ikat Ninni Culottes: 34”, no topstitching. Elastic feels good, not too tight or loose.

• Black Sculthorpe Pants: 32”, topstitched. Elastic feels a bit tight.

I cut the elastic for these to 37”, which would give a 36” waistband with 1” of overlap. The elastic feels really comfortable and I skipped topstitching because I didn’t want the waistband to stretch any more. I think with topstitching I’d go down to a 35” waistband to account for expansion.

What I'd do differently: I’m happy with the elastic on these and I want to continue to dial in the correct waistband elastic size with zigzag topstitching.

Care: Machine wash cold, lay flat to dry.