Millinery: Five Hats in One Day: Finish

Making hats is a lot of fun; but hats need to be worn to fulfill their purpose.
As one person observed, the best tip about how to wear a hat is quite simple:

First, you just have to wear them.

So here I am, wearing my hats that I created all on one day.

I've heard women say they feel like they can only wear a hat when they are wearing a dress, or going out to tea, or a wedding or some other la dee dah event.

What nonsense!

Hats look great with simple outfits; what could be simpler than a white shirt, beige slacks, a belt and a pair shoes? Wouldn't this be perfect outfit to run to the garden center, to the post office, and to stop by the pharmacy to pick up a prescription? I thought it was, so that's what I did the first time I wore it.

Oh, and it is also the perfect hat to wear while attempting to tame patio lions.

See picture below:

I'll confess, I have yet to wear this hat (above) in public, only because the veil is fragile. I would need to wear my contact lenses when I wear the hat so my glasses will not accidentally catch and tear the veil.

Since, alas, my contact lenses do not address my need for reading glasses, I won't be wearing this hat until I find a place where I will not need to read anything.

Oh what the heck...maybe I can just skip reading the bulletin and hymns at church just once.

I know most of the songs by heart anyway, and if need be, I could always just hum.

I'll have to think about this for a while.

I think this is a tad more dressy hat. It would be perfect for church, luncheons, bridal showers, and other social events. I'd feel comfortable wearing it with either a tailored pant suit or a lacy blouse.

Another pant suit suitable hat, or tailored skirt/dress. I wore it to work with a beige skirt, red top and navy wrap. I think the style is almost too young for me though, and think it would look better on someone with shorter hair and bangs.

Love this hat with a tailored pant suit. The ruffled wave design takes the serious edge off a black suit. Since the hat rests just on the top of the head, I can pull my hair back in a pony tail, or bun when I wear it on a hot day; that's a real bonus here in Houston.

I wore this black hat with the bright orange top that I bought in Switzerland, (with a black tank top under the top for a more modest look) and my black crop pants when I went to the grocery store the other day.
It was a pretty simple outfit really.
As I was strolled along, pushing a shopping cart and studying my shopping list, the butcher called out to me across the store:

"I love your chapeau!"

I wish I could have had a video of how everyone in the store froze, and turned to look at me, the men nodding in agreement, and the women with their pricey high heel sandals and full blown teased blond hair looking completely puzzled as to what this compliment meant.

I had never spoken to the butcher before, but I promptly thanked him for his compliment.
(In Southern style of course: "Why thank you! Aren't you just the sweetest thing to say so!"
Around here, compliments always require a return compliment. Isn't that a precious custom?)

The butcher then started telling me about his 52 year old wife who also wears hats, and how beautiful she looks in hats, and how much he enjoys seeing women wearing hats like his wife does.

What a pleasure it was to hear a man praise his wife!

The conversation lasted perhaps a minute, probably less, but both of us were smiling as I rolled on to finish my grocery shopping.

During that short conversation I could could see women listening in with their mouths hanging open in surprise. I know I would win if I bet that none of the women shopping that day had had a man pay them a compliment on their looks in a decade, and certainly not in earshot of other women!

OK, I know that sounds kind of like I'm blowing my own horn here.
But really, it is about the hat, not me.

I've gone shopping at that store lots of times, dressed nicely and neatly, and perhaps even dressier, and never had anyone compliment me, or even smile.

That day, everyone smiled as I went about my shopping, nodding, touching their head and mouthing "I like your hat!"
Each time I was able to say "Thank you!' and share a smile with them.

I like to think everyone was a little happier for the interchange. That is something hats are known for, inspiring conversation, giving a place to start. A man who compliments a woman on her hat has looked been looking at the woman's face and head. His eyes have stopped there; properly so. I sometimes wonder what women are trying to do when they make their shoes the focal point of their outfits!

I hope seeing the pictures of the hats from start to finish and fulfilling their purpose will inspire you to don a hat as well, and bloom in new ways as the essay "Go Bloom" by A. Rose suggests:

The Philosophy

Women have been hiding out for a long time, even dressing to hide as if to say, don't notice me, let me blend. We have developed the ability of blending into our surroundings and being unnoticed. This was a powerful gift at the time. This ability has allowed us to observe and gain the ability to know what would happen next. It has also allowed us to feel safe. Blending has taught us the art of oneness. Women understand camouflage.
But new times require new strategies. It is time to drop our camouflage and take on our power as women. Anais Nin said, “There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom”.
When you wear a hat it is like medicine for the soul. The hat is the expression of who we are as women in every moment! The hat is your dreams of who you can be. It facilitates the different parts of who you are. With the wave a the hat, viola, you are mysterious, no you are sexy, now proper and now playful.
You cannot hide in a hat. You will be noticed-especially by men. To men you become a lady when you don a hat. One which they rush to open doors for. To women you become an inspiration, reminding them that they have a closet full of hats that they have not had the courage to wear.
When you wear a hat you now become the dream that started when the hat was conceived. The original energy that was put into the hat does not die, it only changes forms and owners. The dream doesn't die, it is passed on, sometimes from generation to generation. And when you see a woman in a hat in the next car on the freeway the dream grows and we as woman acknowledge each others growth. It is the symbol of the feminine which is so needed for us to share such a vision. For I tell you, thus is how you will “GO AHEAD AND BLOOM”

A.rOSE

Millinery: Couldn't have said it better myself...

The Aristasia Knowledge Base posted a vintage article about hat wearing and hat collecting that says it all...so I didn't have to!

Oh my, how right the article is...there is such joy in a psychological make over via a visit to the millinery shop.

It is no wonder that there are so many troubled women in the world today; there simply needs to be more millinery shops around and all would once again be well amongst womankind.

Think about it. Doesn't "Gee, you look swell! What a beautiful hat" sound a lot nicer than "You seem to be depressed/obsessive/angry/hostile/anxiety ridden?"

Why yes it does.
It certainly does.

Here's a bonus tip for hat owners: Create collages of hat trims to co-ordinate with your frocks and outfits from silk flowers, ribbons, pins, feathers, lace, buttons and anything else that is too slow to make an escape.

The picture at the top of the post is an example of a collage that a friend and I created awhile ago. The blue hat at the top of the side bar has a collage as well.

Do not stitch the collage directly to the hat.
Instead, stitch everything to a bit of scrim or a bit of felt or stiff interfacing. Use enough stitches to stablize the design. Trim the scrim so the edges don't show, then you can easily either pin the collage piece to the hat, (as I have done with the side bar blue hat) or stitch it to the hat with just a couple of quick stitches. This looks much neater inside an unlined hat.

When you want to wear the hat with an outfit with a different color scheme, it is a snap to simply remover the collage, and replace it with another creation and head out the door.

Millinery: Inspiration

I love this hat!

(Must make this hat...)

Don't know where I would wear this hat.

I'll figure that out later.

After I figure out where I am going to get three strands of pearls for my neck.

I already have the pearl earrings.

What I really need is a place to where to wear this hat.

Any suggestions?

Where would you wear this hat?

Happy Hat Day!

In case you are wondering, every day is hat day around here.

(giggle)

You should have known that!

Speaking of L.G....

There is a Lo*ise Green hat on ebay on ebay right now (a couple actually.)
Starting bid on the one in the picture is $9.99.
No one has bid yet...could be a real steal!
It has the patented head sizing band, so it will fit everyone's head size.
I'd bid, but I already have two white hats in this look.
Check it out here, to see more pictures and to place a bid.

(About the *...just to keep it a secret from blog searchers!)
Let me know if you bid and win!

Millinery: Five Hats in One Day: Brown

*There is an update on this post at the end...

Waaayyyyy last summer I sent away for this peculiar looking hat block from Hatshapers.

It is actually a block shape used to create the hats in a famous movie that featured a girls school, where all the girls wore this shape hat in light blue. Does anyone out there recognize the hat shape and can name the movie? (*Hint: The movie has a sequel out.)

While the Hatshapers website states emphatically that their product can not successfully be used to block felt or straw, I beg to differ.
It just takes a little ingenuity, instead of push pins, to get the hood to stay stretched on the block.

I'm sure by now everyone reading this blog understands these are the hoods that I used on the day I blocked five hats at once.
This is how the brown one turned out.

The secret to using this block was self clinging tape. It is a plastic tape that when stretched, clings to itself without any adhesive. I used it to hold the straw to the block and also to hold the concave curves in the back tight. I just folded the edge under, and I did need to to make a secondary fold between the crown and the brim.

Here's the finished hat...with the back brim up as in the movie. I had forgotten about that part until I went to post this! I had to go grab the hat, steam a bit, and shoot another picture.
Maybe you will like it better the way it was before:

The secondary fold was actually rather nice and sculptural; I wouldn't have minded just leaving it, but I wanted to use some vintage veiling that I got awhile ago. The veiling has shiny gold pallets, and the veiling has tiny six sided honey comb-like openings.

The dragonfly is one of my favorite creatures. I sometimes think I like them even better than butterflies during the summer months. There are lots of them by our lake right now, and they seem to enjoy zooming along beside me while I take my walks.
They come in lots of colors, and their gossamer wings always make me think of fairies. Or maybe even fire lizards, from Anne McCaffrey's Dragonrider series.

But I also like dragonflies because they eat baby mosquito. The first hat I made with a dragonfly on it (an olive green silk teardrop shaped pill box, with cream roses and peacock swords) I named "Tribute to West Nile Virus" because of the dragonfly's work in containing the mosquito population that spreads the WNV.

Let me know what you think: back down, like this, or back up like in the first shot
Since the netting is tacked down, it won't be used as mosquito netting. That would have made for an interesting option though.

I had to make three small pleats in the straw to take up the fullness under the peak. I think it wound up being a nice decorative design element.

But if this mosquito season doesn't get better, I may be tempted to take out those tacks!

May hats and dragonflies happily surround you this summer!

*Update: My fellow librarian Olia looked up the Beauxbaton girl's school offical hat. The girls wore the hat with the peak going sideways like in this image:
I'll be posting pictures of myself in all five hats...and promise to wear this hat the proper way!

Millinery: WIP

I've noticed on a lot of blogs there is much talk about WIPs...that is, Works in Progress.

Last night Bernie caught me mid-WIP.

He likes to play with lighting, and never tells me when he is going to click the shutter.

Just me, as he sees me, scowling in concentration as I work.
I'm so glad he loves me just the way I am.

Oh Louise Green, sigh.....

Kate in Switzerland posted a Youtube video of one of our most favorite milliners, Louise Green (sigh....)

Louise Green's website can be accessed here. Click on the picture of the girl with the hat to see the rests of the collection.

The video is here.

It's about eight minutes long. Too short!
Love the music too.
And want ALL the hats.

Louise, you TOTALLY rock!

Millinery outbreaks around the globe

I think something is going on...Kate in Switzerland and Cristina in Spain have both posted some FABULOUS new millinery creations.
This is good. This is VERY good.

Catch Kate's work here and Cristina's work here.
Kate recruited two young girls into millinery madness with a hat making party and Cristian gave some excellent tips on felt hat making.
Just click on their titles on their blogs and you can scroll to see those posts.

More good news: Including yours truly, there were four ladies in hats at church this morning.
I slid into the pew right next to a lady wearing an amazing Panama straw with black edging threaded through brass eyelets. The other two ladies were wearing brown straws with mid sized brims.
I was in my new grey number...take a look at the photo shoot below. (The silk sweater was belted with one of the long lace pieces from Switzerland. LOVE that!)

I'm also branching out on the Picasa picture editing tools. The black and white, sepia, and film grain tools are really fun. Big secret...if you don't like how you look in a picture, just switch over to sepia or black and white. Suddenly old and wrinkled looks arty cool.
Cheaper than plastic surgery!

Mail Call!

We got a small package in the mail the other day.
Since we weren't expecting anything, it was a bit of a surprise.
We were even more surprised to open it and discover it wasn't for us.
The boys have apparently made the mailing list at Sheba Cat Food Company.

The boys always get a can of Sheba as a special treat on Sunday morning.
Guess word got out...and now they not only have Sheba sending them deluxe black packages with gold trim (very classy!) but they also now have a menu to consult.
A menu of the "Premium Cuts" meat selections for their consideration.

Is this going to be something like the fruit of the month club?

Will a different cat food flavor be delivered each month?

Sheesh.
What next.
Kobe beef?
Shushi grade tuna?

Wish someone would send Bernie and me a sample package of premium cut meats.
Where do we go to sign up?

And when did the boys sign up?
And where?

I think we had better start keeping a closer eye on those two.
They may look like they are just lounging around.
But I think they are doing more than that, and we just don't know it.

I think I'm going to go hide the postage stamps right now.

Millinery: Five Hats in One Day: Gray

For Christmas my daughter gave me six straw parasisol hoods.

Awhile back I blocked five of them in one day.

This is the story of the fourth of the five hats that I blocked in one day.

Remember what the hoods looked like before they were blocked?

The gray one in the middle is the hood that this story is about.

When I first began to make all those hats that day, I took each of the hoods and dunked them one by one into a bath made from hot water and unflavored gelatin.

Here's the subject of today's post, the gray hood, lolling unsuspectingly in the tub (grin!)

In the cabinet below where the gray hood bathed sat a plain old wooded salad bowl.

It had been a wedding gift to me back in 1976 and it had seen a lot of salads, lots of potlucks and a whole lot of family dinners over the years.

Thirty years of same old, same old.

But on that hat making day, that salad bowl was about to have an adventure.

Swooping it up out of the lower kitchen cabinet, I tried the salad bowl on my head.

And it fit!

Sorta...more or less. Anyway, it was big enough I could stick my head inside of it.

Quickly I wrapped the salad bowl in saran wrap.
That really surprised the salad bowl. Usually saran wrap just went over the top, to cover the salad.

Saran wrap all over felt...well, a bit odd.

The saran wrap had to be done this way this time because I knew I was going to pull the gray hood out of the bath and pop it onto the salad bowl turned upside down, and I wanted to make sure that they wouldn't stick to each other as the hood dried.

Now if you are sensitive, you might want to avert your eyes at this point. The next thing that happened to the hood and the salad bowl was a little bit painful.

I'm sure the salad bowl didn't mind too much that I stuck him on his bottom with tacks.

He is a very brave salad bowl. He's had toddlers roll him around, and people knock inside him with salad tongs.

This was probably the hardest thing he has ever had to face.
At least the little holes won't show when he goes back to his regular job.

Knowing how much it must have confused the straw hood to be pulled from a nice warm bath and then suddenly be stretched over a wooden salad bowl, I didn't fuss with the edge of the hood; I just rolled it back in a loose fold.

Then I left the bowl and hood alone for awhile while the hood dried. It's always hard to tell when a hood is dry just by looking, the best way to tell is to feel it. If it feels cool, it is still damp.

After awhile, when the hood was no longer wet, or cool, I took the dried straw hood off that big old salad bowl.

Then I folded that gray hood a bit, added a piece of lace from Switzerland and an old button from my grandmother's button box, and suddenly, with just a few stitches, I had made a hat.

This hat looks different from every angle, a "Robin Hood" style from the back, a cloche look from the side, and a touch of riding cap from the front.

The lace from Switzerland, and the button from Grandma.

I think the top view of a hat is important too, because often you are sitting while you wear a hat, and the first view a person approaching you might get is from the top.

So there you have it, the story of a hood, a salad bowl, a piece of lace and a button.

Stay tuned for the last hat in the series, coming soon!

Flapper Girl Hatstand

Look who just blew into town.

A Modern Miss, who still looks pert after all these years.

These were my grandmother's hat stand and hat brush.
My mom just sent them to me, she remembers them in her mother's closet from when she was a girl in the 1930's. Hasn't Modern Miss sailed through the years with her beestung lips and penciled eyebrows looking winsomely coy?

She reminds me a bit of the oldest of Nancy Drew illustrations. I mean to catch the new Nancy Drew movie, just to see the wardrobe. One reviewer noted that each generation has their own idea of what Nancy looked like, thanks to different illustrators. I like Nancy as a Roaring Twenties gal, with a cloche. Now that girl, and Bess and George all had the greatest hats!

There must be a trend going here. Lately things from the 1920-1930's have really caught my attention. Depression glass, silk lingerie, hats and books seem to be the objects of my attention. It was a time when there was a very strong cultural shift from long and leisurely to short and fast moving.

Last night I came across a newish blog dedicated to the writings of the author Grace Livingston Hill, who wrote over 90 books between the late 1880s and the late 1920. She is a pretty "sweet" author, but her writings grew from the dilemmas of the day; old fashion values of purity and honor which were rapidly being replaced with the new thinking that "Anything Goes."
It was true then as it is still today, actually just "anything" doesn't always go well.

If you haven't had a chance to read Mrs. Hill's writing, take a moment and savor a few passages from the blog "Neat and Dainty as a Flower" as posted here.

And girls, do remember to gently brush your hats after wearing to keep then neat and dainty as a flower before you place them on a hatstand.