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!