Imperial Officer's HAT instructions

Imperial Hat instructions
(a 12-step plan)
by KvanB (aka Nostradamus) March 30, 2002


Supplies and Imperial Materials needed:

--sheets of heavy paper/newspaper/brownpaper bags (to make your pattern)
--1/2 to 3/4 yard 60" wide fabric** (black or olive)
--1 yard of medium weight fusible interfacing***
--~4" x 12" piece of heavy-weight sew-in stabilizer
--masking tape
--tape measure
--Exacto knife or seam-ripper
--paper scissors / sewing scissors
--paper pencil / fabric marking pencil (I use a white grease pencil so I can see the marks on the black fabrics)
--sewing machine
--thread
--iron & ironing board
--straight pins & safety pins
--3 different sized washers (1" / 13/16" / 5/8" diameter, flat nickel)
--a pea-sized amount of silver sculpy III or an other color and then you can paint it with a silver paint like a silver Testors paint marker)
--"GOOP" adhesive (or an other super-adhesive)
optional supplies:
-- a serger

Everyone will have to use their imagination for a while, since the only pictures I have for this are here at my house.
Eventually, I will get the "illustrated" version of this on-line.

**fabric tip--look for a fabric that is EXACTLY IDENTICAL (the same) on both sides. This way, you don't have to worry whether you are sewing on the 'right' or 'wrong' side. You will save yourself hours of time & frustration not having to worry about this and not having to rip apart your project. I have used several different fabrics --gabardine--synthetic blends medium weight suiting.

***I highly recommend the fusible interfacing for shirt collars and cuffs. This is very easy to fuse and stands up very, very well!

STEP #1: MAKE YOUR PATTERN

There are 6 paper pieces to the pattern.

(1) "TOP" --this is the 'egg'-shaped piece that is the very top of the hat

(1) "VISOR" --this is the 'crescent' -shaped piece that is the hat's visor

(2) "FLAP" pieces --these are the 'football'-shaped pieces that are the front and back outer pieces of the hat

(2) "CROWN" pieces --these are the 'curved rectangle' shapes that make the left and right inner pieces of the hat
(if you have trooper armor, the CROWN pieces look just like giant aerator cover stickers from the decal sheet that came with your armor)

Trace out your pattern shapes onto a heavy newspaper or brown paper bag because you will be handling the paper pieces quite a bit to get the pieces to fit correctly.

Cut out all 6 paper pieces and fit them to your own head by loosely taping them together with masking tape. Always make sure that all your pieces are symmetrical and that both pieces of the crowns and flaps are EXACTLY the same.

Your paper hat should fit you slightly loosely, but not too loose. There will be about 10 layers of fabric and interfacing at the finished edge when the whole hat is done.

Keep trimming the pieces as necessary and start over if you have to until your paper pieces look exactly like an imperial hat.

Do not overlap your paper pieces, cut them exactly to a hat shape. YOU WILL BE ADDING SEAM ALLOWANCE AS YOU ARE CUTTING YOUR FABRIC.

STEP # 2: CUTTING

This is what you will need to cut out:

TOP = cut 2 of fabric including your seam allowance*; cut 1 of fusible interfacing to the exact shape of your pattern piece

VISOR = cut 2 of fabric including your seam allowance*; cut 1 of fusible interfacing to the exact shape of your pattern piece; cut 1 of heavy-weight stabilizer ~1/8" all around smaller than the exact shape of your pattern piece.

FLAP = cut 4 of fabric including your seam allowance*; cut 2 of fusible interfacing to the exact shape of your pattern piece

CROWN = cut 4 of fabric including your seam allowance*; cut 2 of fusible interfacing to the exact shape of your pattern piece

*remember to add your seam allowance to the fabric pieces you are cutting out. I add ~ 3/8" to mine, because I am using a serger and I have already made a dozen of these..... I would suggest to add a 5/8" seam allowance in any case, so you have room to adjus

 

I expect to see everyone wearing their hats at Celebration II and you all owe me drinks bigtime.

 

Nos, you are nothing short of miraculous in your utter coolness and willingness to share info.

I was actually thinking that I needed to ask you for your hat info one of these days... I have no particular plan to make an imperial officer costume, but it might be fun to have the hat. Heeheehee.

While we won't be at CII to buy you drinks, rest assured you'll get a few next time you're in Atlanta!

-sg

 

As always, great instructions and info for costuming, but i implore you, make some PICTURES of SOME kind, PLEASE. Written tutorials are great, but pictures/diagrams are ESSENTIAL for making other people understand. The written instructions probably took the same amount of time it would take to scan, photograph, or draw ANYTHING.

 

I have had these instructions written out on paper with illustrations for a couple months. My problem is server space.
Ever since photopoint went down with the souls of 2,000 of my photos and drawings (and countless hours of work) I have been reluctant to spend a lot of time and energy on something that will sink to the bottom of the electronic ocean again.

I typed this out, finally, yesterday, with as much description as possible without having any pictures.
I know it seems like a lot of gobbledy-gook, and I may not be 100% accurate in my sewing terminology. (ask surliegurlie if these directions make sense as written) (do I mean a whip-stitch or a slip-stitch?)

I think a lot of folks have a misconception that sewing is easy. Some things are easier to sew than others. A lot of folks have been asking me for these hats. I may have time to make some more eventually, but if I sell any of them, the price I would be willing to charge would reflect the ammount of work that has gone into making the hat.

Remember, I don't do this for a living. I wish I did. I can figure out how to make anything, and how to make it work better.
Maybe someday I can get a job doing this, but until then, everyone will have to be patient.

I will try to make a short numbered picture guide to go with this soon and also pictures of the pattern. Right now I can copy the pattern in two sizes on 4 pages of normal paper.

There was no pattern before I ever made the first hat. I just woke up one morning with a pile of newspaper, a pencil, tape and my paper scissors and started drawing and cutting until I had what looked to be a hat.

It took me an hour to get the pattern to the fabric cutting stage, but I had made one whole hat in one morning. A few days later, my husband, Vince wore it to DragonCon. Everyone saw it, liked it. That is exactly how I made it.

Like I said, you will have to use your imagination for a while.

 

That was incredible! Thank you for sharing your talent with us.
Buzz

 

Up!! **drink round for Nos #2**

Um, Nos, I really don't think I'll be running into you in person anytime soon. Should I ship something to you instead?

 

So, I decided to make one of these last night. I drafted a pattern, using the guide very graciously provided by Nos. And then I put together a prototype.

This is the pattern I came up with. Feel free to use it for yourself.
Also, feel free to ask for clarification on anything. I uploaded this on the fly, so it's not exactly a finesse job.

Thanks go again to Nos for taking the time to write this up for all of us. She's so fabulously cool.
Nos, does this look more or less like your pattern?

-sg

 

Yes, that looks a lot like it.

sg-send me an email with your snail mail address and I will mail you a paper copy of my pattern.

I would scan & post my pattern, but my site is having a bandwidth problem.......

My hats have the line of the back flap continuous with the line of the visor.

(it's one of those things that only the costume police would notice)

Other than that, your hat looks like mine.

 

Ahhhh, yes!
I didn't even think about that continuous line!

I'll email you my address poste haste.


-sg

 

It's in the mail!

 

Nostradamus sent me written instruction sfor this hat a while back-and she is absolutley right. While a hat like this to an unexperienced sewer looks easy-IT IS BY NO MEANS SO. A lot of people who can construct lightsabers and other props assume something as simple as a hat would be a cinch to make. Sewing is rather difficult, and very dificult to do well. Nos has been awesome helping out so many people on these boards.
You have a true gift girl, and a great attitude as far as helping those around you!
Nos asked me a while back what I would charge for making one-easily anywhere from $75-$100 each. They are very time consuming, and every little detail shows! I have constructed an entire pair of pants or an Amidala doubled skirt in less time than making one of these!
I have my first trial run done, and I am going to be doing the second, "good" one for CII for my husband.
The hardest part for me is attaching the crown to the top sides...the trial hat got tossed to the ground many times! ha ha
Keep up the good work! There are many of us indebted to you!
QS

 

Thanks qs.

That's why I typed out all these detailed instructions.
Anyone who has asked me to make them a hat and then balked at what I would charge based on the time it takes to make one can now see what the heck is involved in doing it.

More power to you if you can make one yourself.
But if you did make one and then someone else asked you to make an other one for them, that is what it takes to make a hat that looks good and is relatively accurate.

I wouldn't say that a saber is cheap or easy to make either.

Actually, none of these custom costume pieces are that easy to make.

 

I must have not typed that right...I didn't mean a saber was easy to make, I meant that someone who usually makes props like sabers or something involving more mechanical like who has never sewn can see a clothing item and think it would be a cinch to make because of the simple style and lines...not realizing it can take over an hour just cutting out pattern pieces or not noticing how many pieces are in this little hat...if I remember correctly there are like 20 some pieces to this hat including interfacing and lining. Then like you said, they balk at how much you would charge to make one.
I must honestly say, I have sewn a lot of clothing items, and I have had the most trouble out of this hat and officer tunic because of the simple lines...they are items that need to be perfectly made to fit each individual-so its not like you can make a bunch of them with the same pattern-each hat or tunic needs to be fit to each wearer-so not only are you a seamstress-with this costume you must really act as a personal tailor!
I am glad you typed the instructions on this thread...I think you will get a lot more appreciation for your talents when people see the work that goes into a seemingly simple item.

 

uppers

 

Hi! Just wanted you all to know that this tutorial has been added to the Rocky Mountain FanForce costuming page

Imperial Outfitters

The tutorial is under the Costuming Tutorials link.

 

cool

 

I just scanned my hat pattern as jpegs.

PM me if anyone is interested.

 

Now along with the hat pattern and instructions, I have also written and drawn out a tutorial for making the modifications to the officer's uniform jacket.

Again, contact me if you wish to receive these via email.

 

upping for recent query

 

Thanks Surlie!

I have a load of information on my site right now too.
The link is in my signature.

 

Here is the legondary Officer's Hat instructions . Now I just need to get a hand on some patters.

 

Read the pages on the site, send me an email.

 

Unlocked for recent query.

 

Thanks for the unlock.

I'm going to be making a hat soon, but there's one thing I'm not sure about. I've got patterns, instructions and I can buy a greeblie from somewhere on-line, so that's all ok. Does anyone know how I should attach the greeblie to the hat? I don't think I have any glue that would be suitable (as suggested in the instructions), so does anyone else have any tips or suggestions?

Oh, and I forgot to ask, there's this list of hats, are they hats for sale?