Keeping the Sun
At Bay...

I'm a huge, huge fan of Amy Butler, particularly her fabrics, sometimes her patterns, which seem to be mostly accessories like handbags and totes, which I don't dig. I don't make purses, I botch them. Yes, I destroy them - I stitched up a little handbag in a School of the Art Institute of Chicago class last week. I forgot to put the tab until the end. Oops. I had to cut open the seam, insert the missing piece, and resew. Now the interfacing shows. It'd be a designer touch if I liked that mistake, but I don't so that little experiment is either going to a niece or in the garbage.
So I'm glad Ms. Butler has branched into millinery. I'm thrilled to sew a chapeau; it seems fairly mistake-proof. And this one looks fairly simple, although it also resembles a pattern put out by one of the Big Four pattern companies, where you know it will cost a fraction of what Ms. Butler charges for her instructions, particulary when Jo-Ann Fabrics or Hancock's has one of its sale days. So I'd just as soon snap up a yard of Amy's pricey paisley print and make up this hat with another pattern, maybe even a vintage one from eBay. Yeah, I'm a hypocrite because I'll pay mere pennies for the how-to and pattern pieces, but then I'll spend big bucks on designer fabric? Here's my warped reasoning: it's easier to find Guinness on tap that it is discover another textile with those larger-than-life bold designs that Amy uses on her cottons. I constantly troll Vogue Fabrics and I don't find cheap Amy Butler wannabee cottons. So I'm willing to buy a yard of her stuff and transform it into a floppy hat just so I can have her aficionados come up and ask me, "Aren't you....?" And I can say, "Yes, I am. Don't I look great?"