‘Tis the season for silly Christmas crafting! Can I take this pile of decorations from the dollar store and turn it into a very seasonal, very festive 18th Century placemat hat?
![A pile of crafting materials lies on a tiled floor: Place mats, millinery wire and assorted ribbons and christmas trims](https://www.sewwhathappens.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_3004-1024x979.jpg)
I’ve wanted to try making an 18th Century bergere from a placemat ever since I saw the tutorial by the Pragmatic Costumer some time ago, and when I saw a selection of silly Christmas mats in the local Jumbo supermarket, it felt like the right time to try.
I bought some Christmas-colored ribbons in a cordoneria in downtown Iquique, and made a trip to the Best Mart dollar store to see what sort of Christmas froof I could find for decorations. Back at home, O dug out my spool of millinery wire – and I was ready to go.
The placemats are VERY floppy, so I started by sewing two circles of millinery wire onto each of them – one circle about an inch in from the edge, to give structure to the brim, and another circle about 2.25 inches in radius around the center, to stiffen the “crown” of the hat.
IMPORTANT NOTE HERE:
When sewing millinery wire by machine, you need to be wearing proper eye protection. Millinery wire is solid metal, sewing machine needles move swiftly and safety goggles are cheap in any hardware store. Even slow and deliberate sewing can snap a needle – and when it does it will happen faster than you think.
![A sewing machine runs a zig szag stitch over a wire running along the edge of a gold place mat](https://www.sewwhathappens.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_3006-768x1024.jpg)
I set the sewing machine to a zig-zag stitch, of about medium width and about medium stitch length, and I stitched at a slow and deliberate pace – I wanted a zig-zag that would be short and narrow enough to hold the wire securely, but also wide enough that I didn’t have to risk the needle hitting the wire on every stitch.
When I came to the end of my circle I kept going and overlapped the wire by about 2 inches to keep the circle circular – and then I cut the wire free with a pair of wire cutters.
![Two circles of wire run around a place mat - one near the edge and one near the center](https://www.sewwhathappens.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_3008-768x1024.jpg)
I trimmed the hats with my ribbon, using the pleating to hide the wires.
![A row of box pleated red ribbon is being sewn onto the edge of a gold placemat](https://www.sewwhathappens.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_3013-768x1024.jpg)
The red ribbon was pleated in a box pleat, which sprang up in lovely puffs.
![A gold placemat is being decorated with two rows of box pleated red thread - one along the edge and one in a circle around the center](https://www.sewwhathappens.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_30171-768x1024.jpg)
The gold ribbon I pleated in wide knife pleats.
![A gold placemat is being trimmed with two rows of knife-pleated gold ribbon - one row along the edge and one row around the center](https://www.sewwhathappens.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_3031-768x1024.jpg)
I didn’t worry about measuring the pleats, I just eyeballed them to keep them relatively even, and let the small variations between the pleats give a happy organic feel to the hat.
![Gold ribbon being box pleated in a circle around the center of a gold placemat](https://www.sewwhathappens.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_3033-768x1024.jpg)
Once I had the ribbons sewn down, I tacked on dollar store Christmas-y corsages and other wintery floral bits until the hats looked pleasantly tasteless and festive.
![An 18th Century Bergere Hat is trimmed for christmas, with box pleated red ribbon and christmas berries and evergreen needles](https://www.sewwhathappens.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_3021-768x1024.jpg)
Lastly, I cut ribbon ties about 24 inches long and hemmed the ends so that they didn’t unravel. Then I flipped the hats over and sewed on ribbon ties. On these crown-less hats, you need to sew the ties about 2 inches out from the crown line, or you risk looking like the last pancake at the pageant.
![Tabubilgirl wearing a bergere hat on her head. The ribbons are placed so that the hat does not fold around her head but sits on top of her head like a pancake.](https://www.sewwhathappens.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_32092-768x1024.jpg)
The red hat is suitable for the 1750s and early 1760s when a single sprig of ornamentation, discreetly placed, was VERY chic.
![An 18th Century Bergere Hat lies on the floor - it is trimmed for christmas, with box pleated red ribbon and christmas berries and evergreen needles](https://www.sewwhathappens.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_3198-768x1024.jpg)
The gold hat is suitable for the 1770s and 1780s, when they said to hell with discretion and wore the entire kitchen sink.
![An 18th Century Bergere Hat is trimmed for christmas, with knife pleated gold ribbon and christmas berries and evergreen needles](https://www.sewwhathappens.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_3202-768x1024.jpg)
Voila! It’s an 18th Century Placemat Hat. And another 18th Century Placemat hat. Bold, Brassy, Cool and Classy – two fabulous Dollar Store Christmas Bergeres!
![Two 18th Century Bergere Christmas hats lie on a tile floor](https://www.sewwhathappens.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_3196-768x1024.jpg)
Extremely cute! Tableware chic! Festive as heck!