Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s - Create a Summer Linen Hat with Raffia Flowers

Are you ready for summer? Are you ready to make your own summer hat? Find a cloche-style buckram frame on the internet and decorate it as Ruth Wyeth Spears describes here!

You simply cover the frame with a coarse pastel linen and edge the brim with raffia. Using Ruth's template for the flowers, you then create raffia flowers with centers of French knots, and add them to the crown. Can you picture Ruth's colors of blue, burnt orange and yellow? :) Have fun!

Home Sewing Tips from the 1920s - Trimming the Summer Hat

At the end of episode 7 of season 4 of Downton Abbey, there is the church bazaar on the lawn, and you saw the ladies of the estate wearing wonderful summer hats, like Lady Mary in this one.

 
Or this one, that Lady Grantham is wearing:

The summer hats have large brims and a big floral or floral-like accent, like this one in Ruth Wyeth Spears tip. It's a quick and easy tip for trimming the summer hat with a band of velvet. Enjoy your new hat!