XXIII
RAFFIA HATS
Many of our little girls have made any number of dolls' hats by just braiding raffia and sewing the braids together.
If you were to make a large hat (by this I mean a hat large enough to wear yourself) by sewing braids of raffia together, it would be entirely too heavy and also would fall into any shape, perhaps not a very desirable one.
The only thing to do would be to procure a wire frame and to make the raffia hat on it.
In order to do this we will have to braid enough raffia for the whole hat before doing anything else.
For this kind of braiding the raffia will have to be soaked in water and then rolled out so that the strands will look like pieces of ribbon about three quarters of an inch wide.
You may use a five, seven, or nine strand braid for this hat. Take one long strand of raffia and place it horizontally on a flat surface. Tie seven long pieces to the horizontal piece as shown in [Figure 210].