More or less as soon as I said, “I don’t know what to make next,” I remembered a comment earlier in the day about a fabric in my collection looking like something that Sherlock Holmes would wear. A deerstalker cap is an ugly thing, and I didn’t much feel like making one. But it occurred to me that this fabric, which had earlier this week gone into a pillow, would make a very nice starting point for a Birka-style viking hat of six panels. Turns out, my head is huge, and I need to make an eight-panel hat. Ooops. So, that’s what I made.
Except my head isn’t quite an eight-panel head. It’s a seven and 2/3s hat, apparently. Maybe 3/4s. So there was quite a bit of finagling at the end, and the result is not ideal. Needs trim, too. But it’s a good starting point for a newish plan or design. And I like the way the resulting hat sits on my head.
I’ve made hats before. I know, from personal experience, that they’re tricky to get exactly right. But I now have two hats, in two different forms, that I more or less know how to make not-badly. It’s a start.
I saw something recently in the context of teaching, which I recognized as the correct attitude for sewing. It defined the word “Fail”, meaning to not-succeed, not cross the bar, not achieve, as an acronym. Instead of standing for something ruinous, it stood for this:
- First
- Attempt
- In
- Learning
So, this hat is not a fail, but a FAIL. A First Attempt In Learning. By that measure, it’s succeeded very well. My next hat in this style will be brilliant and great.
I think I have enough of the fabric left, to try again.
