I have a very adorable friend named Helen. She’s actually a former grad student of mine, but really more like a sister. If I had to use one word to describe Helen, it would be sunny. She is smiles, whereas the Selfish Seamstress is scowls. She is blue skies, while Selfish is drizzles and gloom. She is genuine and lovable, while Selfish is all deception and malice. She is violet and turquoise and emerald and daffodil, while Selfish is charcoal and black and navy. She makes people feel good about themselves, while the Selfish Seamstress cuts them down. It is nearly impossible to be anything but happy around Helen, and much like an impish singing and dancing orphan with a heart of gold who wins over the grumpy old loner against all odds, she can even tug the barest hint of affection from your crochety old Selfish Seamstress.
Helen and I have two things in common: 1) we are both rather obsessive about recycling and avoiding waste and 2) we are both quite small. A few months ago, Helen brought me a gift of a pair of very cute glen plaid pants that no longer fit her:
The manufacturer is Garage, and the fabric is cotton with a smidge of spandex. Unfortunately the pants were also much too small for the Selfish Seamstress, but Helen did not want them back, so they sat on the shelf for quite a long time.
Last night I pulled them out again and like the Grinch, post-epiphany, decided that environmentally passionate Helen would probably appreciate a little refashion job. I’ll call it a S.W.A.G. project for the sake of convenience, but it wasn’t really. After all, only for sunny Helen would the Selfish Seamstress cheerfully and willingly match plaids and topstitch with painstaking precision:
The pattern is from the Japanese hat pattern book I got from Kinokuniya some months ago. I added on the button band and reused some of the buttons from the pants as embellishments. The fabric covered button on top is new though. I was going to line the whole thing in pale pink Bemberg rayon, but after I started cutting the pieces, it occurred to me that what Helen would probably appreciate more is knowing that there is a rainbow inside her hat. So I went digging through my lining collection, which admittedly has a lot more burgundy and black than sunny yellow or indigo. I briefly considered cutting up the rainbow fabric from a broken umbrella that I salvaged from the trash a while ago, but then thought the better of it- umbrella nylon is probably not the most comfortable fabric to have on your head. What I came up with isn’t exactly a rainbow (unless your idea of a rainbow includes tan), but is perhaps motley enough to convey the feeling of a rainbow in one’s hat:
Clockwise from top- pale pink Bemberg rayon, leaf green cotton lawn, forest green (though it looks turquoise here) poly satin lining, silver blue rayon, tan jacquard rayon, and burgundy rayon (though it looks brown here.)
I have not given it to Helen yet, so you get grumpy old Selfish as your model for now. (When I give it to her, I will try to convince her to let me show you a photo. She is far more adorable and photogenic than I. It’s amazing that I show up in photos at all.) Wow, it is hard to a take set of close up pictures that both show the hat properly at different angles, and don’t make my face look way scary. These are the best I could do and they are intentionally small.
I pulled out my straightening iron and tried to make my hair look like the Japanese models’ hair in the book, with sort of mediocre results. (Did you know you can curl hair with a straightening iron? You can.) I do like the hat though, and it would break my selfish little heart to part with it for anyone but Helen. Current and prospective grad students take note- no handmade hats for you!
I may make one for myself, but it will have to be out of different fabric. With the plaid matching and long bands, the hat consumed a surprising amount of pant. All that’s left now is a bunch of oddly shaped scraps and strips, as well as a bizzarro plaid thong/holster/garter belt artifact:
No, I did not try the holster thingy on. I told you, the pants are too small for me.
50 comments
Comments feed for this article
August 2, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Sandi S
Fantastic hat – love the lining – that is also a great frugal use of remnants!
August 2, 2010 at 4:37 pm
beth
OMG. You have forever and ever and ever ruined your reputation. That hat is so stinking cute, and the adorable multicolored lining??? Too too cute. You’d better up your “Selfish” game to make up for this…..
August 2, 2010 at 4:55 pm
Peter
OMG, it’s adorable. I actually can’t think of anything critical, negative, or sarcastic to say. I love it!
August 2, 2010 at 4:58 pm
Carrie Luke
My daughters blog is The Sisters4SayMoreisMore We are all fans. I just think you are a genius. The Plaid Pants hat is perfection and delicious. Don’t give Helen the hat. Buy her ice cream.
August 3, 2010 at 8:18 am
selfishseamstress
Oooh, I like that blog a lot. They’re always up to something fun and pretty.
But trust me- if you knew Helen, you’d want me to give her the hat. And now I’m sort of craving ice cream….
August 2, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Gail
Cute hat and worthy reuse of fabric.
August 2, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Rachel
Your blog always makes me laugh.
August 2, 2010 at 5:16 pm
Colleen P.
Sasa is clearly bored with the proceedings and wishes you’d get back to being selfish so she can sleep in the hat.
August 3, 2010 at 8:15 am
selfishseamstress
Sigh. Sasa is actually sleeping on a Lord & Taylor cashmere sweater that is draped over a Mongolian lamb fur coat right this minute. I think she’s been indulged enough for one day :)
August 2, 2010 at 5:16 pm
Marybeth
You made that hat out of PANTS!! So cool… Your hair looks really pretty in those pictures :)
August 2, 2010 at 5:24 pm
Toby Wollin
More hats!More hats! Great looking hat. I will now have to rustle through all the old decrepit blue jeans with gigantic holes and steel the idea. that should make you feel a bit grumpy.
August 3, 2010 at 8:13 am
selfishseamstress
Grumpy? Or ridiculously powerful? You’re a puppet in my hat-making game! Mwahahaha! :D
August 2, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Eva
It’s adorable. Helen is one lucky lady!
August 2, 2010 at 5:29 pm
TOS
That matching is meticulous, I’m so impressed by the results!
August 2, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Misty
That hat is awesome! I’m starting a position as a TT science professor in a few weeks at a state university, and your backstory about Helen makes me hopeful and happy to start my new job (instead of nervous and uncertain like I have been feeling). I hope she likes her hat, but I’m sure she will. :)
August 3, 2010 at 8:12 am
selfishseamstress
Ooh, good luck! I have to say I got really really lucky with Helen, but so long as you develop your abilities to instill fear and terror, you should do just fine :)
August 2, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Sherry
Cute hat – I am sure she will love it!
(You are going to give it to her I presume…!)
I had my hair curled like that at the salon once, and loved it! After a lifetime of straight hair I went home with a spring in my step feeling transformed and gorgeous with bouncy hair and 15mins later I looked in the mirror and it was…
flat!!
Not meant to be :(
August 3, 2010 at 8:11 am
selfishseamstress
Awww. Would a setting lotion help? I know nothing about hair styling so I’m grasping at straws here :)
August 2, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Jacinta
Looks great but your humour is better! :)
August 2, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Kathi
I am quite impressed with the amount of work you put into this! Very nice!
August 2, 2010 at 7:37 pm
Bernadette W
Selfish, when do you sleep? You work, mentor, design, sew, Blog, dish and now presumably are planning a wedding?
August 3, 2010 at 8:11 am
selfishseamstress
Sigh. I’m running on about four and a half hours right now. But usually I get more than that. As for wedding planning, um yeah. That will start at some point I guess :) I’m kind of hoping the whole wedding planning thing can be done in 2-3 hours. After that my attention is going to wander.
August 2, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Trudy Callan
This is an awesome refashion. Never thought of making a hat out of a pair of pants. Great idea.
My daughter uses her straightener to curl her hair. Your hair turned out really cute.
Trudy
http://www.sewingwithtrudy.blogspot.com
August 2, 2010 at 11:03 pm
Carolyn
This is magnificent! You’ve done a really beautiful job with this hat. Just so beautifully constructed. And you look lovely in your photos and the hair effort was worth it.
August 2, 2010 at 11:44 pm
lin3arossa
Lucky Helen! You should wear your hair open more often :)
August 3, 2010 at 1:06 am
Ana
Love the hat!
August 3, 2010 at 1:33 am
The Sew Convert
I love the hat! What a fab idea for a refashion.
August 3, 2010 at 3:43 am
Fourth Daughter
OK .. the similarities between us just seem to grow… we’re both little and Asian (well, at least half Asian) and grumpy and love cats and sewing and now I find out you hate to throw stuff out too?? Have you ever visited my blog and seen what I’ve made out of things I’ve bought from op shops or had sitting around my house for 18 years (tablecloths, sporrans, shawls, jackets from year 12)!? Although I’m nowhere near as meticulous or skilled in sewing, the thought of reusing an umbrella would probably run through my head too!!
August 3, 2010 at 8:09 am
selfishseamstress
I *have* visited your blog and I love it! But I can’t read it too long because you look like a model and look gorgeous in exotic textiles and then I get jealous and want to throw things at my screen.
August 3, 2010 at 4:24 am
senaSews
Perfect use of fabric. The hat looks great!
August 3, 2010 at 5:03 am
Fran G
This hat is so cute and your recycling of materials is very impressive! As Bernadette asked (in effect) just how do you accomplish so much? I need to take a rest after reading your daily blogs!
August 3, 2010 at 5:06 am
woolcat
So you sew a fabulous, eco-thrifty hat; you have a really lovely friend and you can make your hair do that cool thing.
And you selfishly post it all on the blog to excite our collective envy.
Humph.
August 3, 2010 at 5:31 am
Alethia
I love this hat!! Great idea for refashioning your pants.
August 3, 2010 at 7:12 am
Joanie
In my 5+ years as a grad student, nobody has ever made me a hat from my own re-gifted pants. I might even be described as “sunny.” Selfish, what am I doing wrong?
August 3, 2010 at 8:08 am
selfishseamstress
Well, I’d say your first mistake is *grad school*. Mwahahaha! Grad school joke! Second, have you actually tried giving old pants to your advisor and asking him/her to craft a hat for you out of them? Give it a shot. Let me know what happens. I’m eager to find out how that goes over :)
August 3, 2010 at 7:17 am
Elizabeth
Love the inner rainbow. Embrace the sunniness (huh? is that a word?) Great hat. I think you need to be my friend and make me some swag. Not going to happen though, because I am just as grumpy as you. Hmmm… must think of plan B.
August 3, 2010 at 7:56 am
Sabrina
My first thought was how nice your hair looks! Doesn’t look mediocre to me.
I love the hat too! What do you use to make the visor sturdy? I haven’t been able to find a material that works for some of my projects.
August 3, 2010 at 8:02 am
selfishseamstress
Thanks! The stuff in the brim of the hat is not my ideal choice, but it works. It’s the heaviest interfacing I could find at my fabric store. I don’t know what it’s called but it’s sort of the weight and thickness of craft felt, but stiff. It’s fusible on both sides, but I’m not using the fusible properties of it. Instead I sewed the brim up, leaving it open at the edge where it meets the hat, and then cut the interfacing for the brim and shoved it inside. (If they had had this stuff as a non-fusible, I would sooner have gotten that.) I used a double layer of it too.
August 3, 2010 at 7:10 pm
selfishseamstress
I just checked the receipt- the stuff I used is called “flexiform.” But I don’t think it’s the greatest.
August 3, 2010 at 8:38 am
Cennetta
Kudos to your pal, Helen. Love the hat and the rainbow lining.
August 3, 2010 at 10:56 am
Angela
My jaw just dropped… that is some amazing topstitching and pattern matching and rainbow lining creating! I’m totally jealous of this Helen… she’s very lucky to have a friend that is so thoughtful!
August 3, 2010 at 2:38 pm
Victoria Baylor
That hat is too cute for words!!!
August 3, 2010 at 3:38 pm
valerie
Hat-tastic! What great idea and what a great job. You need to have a hat for you–you look mahvelous in it.
August 3, 2010 at 4:50 pm
sisters4saymoreismore
i want you to know that my mother totally screamed because you answered her comment… like, i literally can’t hear out of my right ear… you made her day… and ours! we sort of can’t believe someone of your awesome-ness even knew about our blog… my mom is STILL freaking out… we are known to tell random strangers (sewing and non-sewing alike) about how freaking hilarious your blog is…
~selina
August 3, 2010 at 7:12 pm
selfishseamstress
Hahah, thanks for spreading the word, Selina! And tell your mom I know her too- if I recall correctly, there’s a photo of the four of you with her somewhere on your blog and it’s pretty much impossible to tell that she isn’t a sister herself :)
August 4, 2010 at 7:44 am
Replenishing the stocks « The Selfish Seamstress
[…] button sets in different sizes (I love these things! I already broke into one pack for the plaid pants hat), denim needles, hook and bar sets for pants, and just because I figured I would eventually need it […]
August 4, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Helen K
No, I am not THAT Helen! I do think that your hat is very cute. Very interesting scraps you have left!
Helen K
August 9, 2010 at 2:32 pm
amber
That is so cute! And step aside hat models, I think you’ve got some competition. :) (I’ll officially put in my two cents that I want more pics of you with your hair down and curled. Kthxbai.)
August 16, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Sharrin
Hello Selfish – Sorry for the late comment – I have just discovered your blog and am catching up! I have been looking for a hat pattern like this (for a lovely coffee/pumpkin plaid wool piece in my stash) but have only encountered versions more suiting a pimp or a ‘fro wearing 70’s throwback until I saw your version. Can you give more info on the book you got the pattern from? I would like to try to track one down. p.s. I must say you described Helen so perfectly – I had been trying to describe her to my husband and could never quite capture her true elfish essence! p.p.s. I am Helen’s Adam’s aunt in case you are wondering about the three degrees of separation.
August 24, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Tasia
Oh how innovative! Not only is this an eco-friendly project but it turned out brilliantly. (Unlike my last hat attempt..haha.) Looks great on you! Love the curls too :)