Crochet hats for a cottage business

http://urbanmilwaukeedial.com/2010/03/08/baby-you-can-keep-your-hat-on/

Crocheted caps, in a variety of sizes, colors and styles, are among their best sellers. Stoeger figures they’ve sold at least 500 of them at the Skylight last season and so far this season. He or Rhode made every one by hand. They cost from $20 to $40, depending on the style. Their most popular, a sort of cloche with a crocheted flower attached, came directly from a Skylight production.

The couple are regular performers at the American Folklore Theater, in Door County, and sold over 500 hundred hats there last summer.

“We made an open-weave design,” Rhode said, “for summer.”

“We also made a Packer model for an actor to wear on stage in Guys on Ice,” Stoeger said.

Taking a cue from the success of the Boheme cloche, they’ve started asking costume designers to let them make hats if the show calls for them. The idea is you see it on stage, then buy it as a practical souvenir on the way out the door.

In this show, Rhode is busy singing and dancing in Act 1. In Act 2, she’s Masha, a servant girl. In theater, servants are the leisure class. But she won’t let her time waiting go to waste.

“I’m sure I’ll make at least one hat per night,” she said. “I can watch the play from the wings and do it.”

The hats have become a cottage industry for them. They’re always experimenting with new styles and colors and taking custom orders. When Rhode worked at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, she signed up their boutique. The couple are regular performers at the American Folklore Theater, in Door County, and sold over 500 hundred hats there last summer.

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images of hat designs

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