The Rest of the Story

Several years ago I made a hat. I made a calculated guess as to size, and yes! I made a paper, and then a cloth pattern. I spun some silk (warp, weft and pile yarn), dyed it, planned a design, and executed it with, if I do say so myself, a certain bit of skill. The hat top was, I thought, particularly nice:



The whole thing was lovely, in fact: nice, colors, it felt nice to the touch (well, silk pile!), had soft velvet lining and edging. Hat maker, I am not, however, and I did not calculate enough ease. It was a very small hat.

While not useful as a hat, per se, it was useful as a sculpture, a show piece, and in classes, a cautionary tale.

One day, I took it apart, to see if, without the thick lining, it could fit. It fit better (the thing could always be shoved on my head) but really? Still too small. But while it sat there in its un-lined state, I thought Bag! And began to plot its next incarnation.

No fabric I wove ever came close to looking like the colors of the hat-now-bag. Dilemma. So I over dyed it. Hmmm. OK, and maybe it goes with ....etc. you get the picture and the result is this post. I posted a glimpse of it here, but, as can be guessed, it did not work in its second incarnation (third?) either.

The colors, still quite rich, were too homogenous to show the pattern. The hat-now-bag was plain. I could remove the overdye, perhaps; the colors underneath might change drastically, but really? What did I have to lose? Time? So I threw it into a discharge bath. I added some of the yarns left over from its construction, in case I needed them for finishing.

It came out quite well! I like this muted palette, and I happened to have leather and velvet that would go nicely with its new look. I used the discharged silk yarns to make a band for the new bag:



It's now a good size for a project bag, has a silk lining and gathered top, and a new band with which to carry it.

Everything changes with time. Some changes are good, some not so much, some planned and self-initiated, some forced on us by circumstance. It just takes a little time before we can tell how it all will turn out in the end.

Hats are personal too, and can be serious or funny. One day, this little boy might be tormented by the way we dressed him up for pictures: