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Beret blah...

5/5/2020

3 Comments

 
Picture
After finishing this skirt, I had a bit of leftover fabric, and thought I'd made a beret for myself.  I found a tutorial on YouTube, and whipped the thing up in an evening. 

In the end, I didn't like it and stuck it straight in the Goodwill pile.  Nevertheless, here's the making-of documentation, so I can do better next time! 
The video instructs you first to cut two circles of 26cm diameter.  One circle is the top of the beret, but under that you need a ring of the same diameter that has a hole in the center for the brim to be sewn to.  So the second circle needs to have its center cut out. 

Math was my first hurdle.  I found the equation in step 10 of the video (timestamp 1:34) super confusing because it's not written the way algebra is taught in US schools. Apparently, in some parts of the world, commas and periods are used opposite of how Americans use them.  For instance, "one thousand two hundred thirty-four and a half" is written 1,234.5 in the US and a few other places, but written 1.234,5 in other places.  I don't know where they do what, but it threw me for a loop in the video because I couldn't figure out why there was a comma in the equation.  

This is what the video said: "circumference/(2*3,14)-1==57/(2*3,14)-1=8cm".  Yikes!  After a few minutes of refreshing my memory of 
 ̶5̶t̶h̶ ̶g̶r̶a̶d̶e̶ ̶m̶a̶t̶h̶ 7th grade math, I translated it to "[circumference/(2*3.14)]-1" where the circumference is in centimeters and the -1 at the end is -1cm (for seam allowance)

My own head is 57 cms, and you do Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction, so the math breaks down thus:

[57/(2*3.14)]-1
[57/6.28]-1
9.076-1
8.076

Round to 8 cms.  (After all that, I got the same numbers as the example, and followed their instructions.) 

My brim, I cut on the bias because that's how the pattern piece fit on the fabric.  I could have cut it on grain had I been willing to cut it in two pieces and seam them together, but I thought bias would look cool. 

Picture
hat top and ring
Picture
hat brim
Then, because bias cut fabric stretches funny, I stabilized the brim by cutting a piece of muslin on grain and flat-lining the gray fabric with it. 
Picture
muslin flat-lining brim
Berets can be floppy or crisp.  I wanted a slightly crisp look, so I flat-lined the ring part with some plastic mesh I have. 

Then, I used some more scraps to embellish the brim and ring pieces.  Just some pleasant hand-sewing while watching a BBC drama about Edward VII of England! 
Picture
plastic mesh for structure
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I put the hat together the same way I did my niece's berets, where the lining and hat are sewn in one step, then the brim sewn on.  Easy!  
Picture
Picture
The results?  The hat was cute and fit my head perfectly... but the 26cm diameter was not wide enough, and the hat looked like a kids' hat on an adult head.  Very awkward.  So I am giving it away, and I will make another, later, with larger circles. 

At least I figured out the math! 
3 Comments
The Sister
5/6/2020 07:48:55 am

Gosh, if that's 5th grade math,I'd better brush up before my kiddo gets there! *face palm*

Reply
Karen Roy link
5/6/2020 03:26:36 pm

Gosh darn it! You made me look it up: Common Core Standards, http://www.corestandards.org/Math/ , and sorted by geometry, http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/G/ .

It's a little vague because nearly every grade is taught "algebraic thinking", so I did further google searches like "When do kids learn pi?" and "what grade 'order of operations'" and such. Here's the result of five minutes of laborious compilation of data:

1st-3rd grade - operations and "algebraic thinking"
4th grade - order of operations (Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally)
7th grade. pi, geometry of circles, circle-related math:
CCSS.Math.Content.7.G.B.4
Know the formulas for the area and circumference of a circle and use them to solve problems; give an informal derivation of the relationship between the circumference and area of a circle.

-----------------

Honestly, I have no head for numbers, so I sort my schooling by location: "stuff I did at school" (K-4), "homeschooled stuff" (5-9), and "community college stuff" (9-12 in high school, and after high school). I knew I learned pi at home, so I guessed fifth grade, but now I see it was seventh.

Reply
The Sister
5/7/2020 10:27:54 am

Ah, that's comforting! Truthfully I haven't ever used any math above... oh, about 5th grade in my adult life! Honestly, the most useful math I remember learning is multiplication tables, which I use all the time.

Reply



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    Karen Roy

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