Rococo "Bergère" hats - the basics

Ikea currently providing an ample support of round place mats made from natural fibres, I have also taken up rococo hatting again. Getting the right shape for one of those flat Bergère-style hats out of a round place mat is easy, you treat the piece with steam or hot water at the centre and the part that's going to be the back, and shape it over or between whatever is at hand and gets you the desired shape.


The basic shape

Moisten the centre of the place mat thoroughly either with steam or with a spray bottle (spray both sides thoroughly) and press it between a round lid and a jar - at least that's what I'm using and it works perfectly. I used to shape the centre over a little glass bowl but the result was nice but not completely satisfactory. The lid of a round metal noodle jar (diametre 10.5 cm, depth 2.5 cm) and a matching honey glass gives perfect results. Put the moistened part over the lid and gently press it in with the jar to get an even crown with relatively straight sides. Let set for an hour or so and gently remove to dry thoroughly (I put mine on the heating). This works for the Ikea straw placemats. Paper placemats are a bit different to shape, as the material won't stretch that much. The brim will inevitably turn wavy due to excess material which you put to one side and use for the turned-up back of the hat.

Dome-shaped crown with a glass bowl as model.

 The procedure works well with any kind of natural fibres, be it paper, straw, reed, or other grassy stuff. The hat will keep its shape pretty well, provided it doesn't get too wet.

I used to shape the turned-up back of the brim also with water, but as it needs wire framing anyway I left this away and just shape it after the wire has been put in along the brim.


Wiring the brim

How to put wire along the edge of your hat depends on which material the place mat consists of. If you have a woven paper mat you will have to line the hat, sew the wire into the edge of the lining, and add the wired lining to the hat. That's because the paper mats have nowhere to hide the wire, whereas you can conveniently put it between the woven layers of Ikea's normal straw place mat. To facilitate this, bend a little o into the end of the wire (.6 mm steel works nicely), thread a very thick, blunt needle with sturdy thread and attach the thread to the steel. You can now work your way around the brim from straw pleat to straw pleat without damaging anything, gently pulling on the string regularly to ease the wire in. It gets a little fiddly towards the end because pulling wire 360° around the hat doesn't work without some gentle pushing and you'd need three hands, but it's by far the most convenient method I've found.

Lining and hat

Wired lining, ready to be sewn into the hat.

The decoration

When you decorate the hats I strongly advise NOT using hot glue. Everything once glued on can't be taken off without damage to the hat or the decoration. Sew stuff on or, in very exceptional cases, use normal household glue to keep stuff in place. I usually glue on the lace around the brim as I want absolutely no stitches to be seen on the reverse side and it makes no difference to how the lace behaves afterwards. I sew all the ruches on by hand with invisible stitches. If you have to line the hat, you can forget about the invisible stitches, they won't be seen through the lining. But otherwise you don't want stitches to show on the reverse side. Push the needle down through trim and straw at an angle, aiming to slide it a few millimetres or so between the two layers of pleated straw to the reverse. Going up from the reverse, use the same hole where your needle just came out to push it in again, at an angle, back up. Thus you'll be sewing the trim to one layer of straw while the visible layer remains more or less intact. It's fiddly, but worth it!

Invisible stitching, nothing visible from the hat band on the upper side.

I usually put lace around the brim, then ruching on the upper side and some coverage on the reverse, like simpler ruches or braid or something. It covers all mistakes you may have made when inserting the wire and is just so much nicer to look at. The turned-up brim at the back of most of my models requires the "below" to be just as nice and neat as the "above", even without lining.