Hen do season has started!

I did my first fascinator making hen do of the year yesterday in a beautiful cottage in Hove right on the sea front on one of the most beautiful early-spring days I've ever seen. The hen and her friends were all wonderful and made some truly fantastic headpieces. It will never cease to amaze me just how much creativity people have in them.

The location was perfect - I was able to set up on a long table, do a quick demonstration and get everyone started all together.

Before and after shots of our workspace:





Some of the hens working on their masterpieces:









And here are a few of the amazing creations they made in just one short morning:









And finally the whole beautiful group modelling their wares.



Thank you all for such a wonderful day, such a warm welcome into your weekend and all the cups of tea. I look forwards to hearing all about the wedding and wish the bride and her husband to be all the best for a happy future together.

Charlotte

I wanted something simple and stylish so I looked at simple shapes with a girly flair. This is Charlotte, named after Dick King Smith's clever spider as my husband immediately referred to it as my spider's web hat.

Charlotte is a gorgeous thick grey wool beret with off white lace hand stitched around the head fitting. When you see her lying flat she looks elegant but she's got a secret and when you put her on the lace frames her and your face.

What a Summer! And introducing Vivienne

Wow, what a summer, I think this may have to go down as the greatest summer in history! I’ve been so busy and seen so much and enjoyed the company of my amazingly wonderful friends. Plus the weather’s been far better than it’s been in recent years and I’ve spent the best part of most weekends outdoors. Life doesn’t get much better than this.

Apart from the fact I haven’t got as much ‘making’ done as I’d like. But there’s always winter to catch up with that.

Here’s one of the hats I have made though – Vivienne.

I bought this gorgeous dress from Monsoon for a wedding. It’s such a statement piece that it doesn’t want to be overpowered by the hat, the hat needs to feel like an extension of the dress. Then there’s the shape of the dress. A large hat would knock the silhouette right out of the window. The dress to me is elegance and style and sophistication. It needs a special something to feel right with it.

I decided on a ‘button’ fascinator (a small circular base) with a single statement quill. I didn’t want to go for feathers as I don’t feel they reflect the style of the dress quite right. I decided to keep to the same colour scheme and to cover the base in black lace. The quill was curled in a cone shape and curved slightly across the base.

I love the combination so much I’m going to wear it for another wedding next weekend (shh, don’t tell anyone!) although I may go for lower heels this time.

Mallory is going to Ascot

I'm so excited, one of my hats is going to Ascot tomorrow. I hope Mallory has a good time, and I can't wait to see photos of her there.

Lily

I had a dream of a jewel encrusted flower head-dress. Jumping out of bed the next morning I searched for a while for the flower I'd dreamed of. It was a lily.

When I had a think about it, I didn't want to cover the whole thing in sparkles - because this beautiful, simple flower should be BIG. But look at those lovely spots on it, those should be picked out in tiny gem stones.

I love silk flowers, but sometimes I want to play with different fabrics. I found myself drawn to some canvas. I felt that the texture of it was similar to how I'd expect the flower to feel. It looks sturdier than silk. I also liked the idea of the flower being a luxury item made out of a more traditional fabric.

As canvas won't hold a shape all that well, I made the petals out of buckram and wired them to give them structure and those fantastic curves.

The stamen are made from wire wrapped in tulle. Here they are in progress (the one on the left is completed, the other two need to be finished:

Now to the petals. I love the colour in the pink one above, but wanted to make it in blue. I painted the individual petals to make them darker in the middle and lighter towards the edges. I'm really happy with the result.

Now it was just a matter of assembling the whole thing, following the shapes of the petals I'd made. This was fiddly but the canvas was giving just the effect I was after. I added the gemstones at this point to.

Now to assemble the petals and the stamens to make the flower.

Being canvas, this is quite heavy for a headpiece so would need some pretty hardcore way of fixing it to the head. I opted for a hand made headband combined with a comb. Here's the headband, made to keep the flower secure:

It looks a bit weird, but the shape on there holds the stem of the flower firm so it can't rotate. Here's the finished piece and a lovely close-up.

I'll get some better photos later, I'm just so excited I needed to share this. It's surprisingly comfy to wear and feels really glamorous. I wish I were going to Ascot!

Minnie

This is Minnie. She reminds me of a grown up Minnie Mouse. I'd love to wear her with a red and white polka dot skirt.

Minnie is a bow formed on a millinery buckram base and covered in sequins. She's covered in deep black velvet on the other side to give extra depth.

The bow is reflected in a shaped headband, which is sculpted to the head and velvet covered for comfort and grip.

This method of holding hats on is unbelievably comfortable and secure. A comb is added for those windy days.

The bow sits cheekily off-centre and is a guaranteed conversation starter. When I show pictures of this hat, it makes everyone think of something and brings a smile to everyone's face.

This hat would be perfect for the races or a really special party. The black would look equally fantastic with a sexy black dress or a bright coloured one. I'd love to see what you would partner it with.

Loving the floaty chiffon tops at the moment - TUTORIAL

I am loving the floaty chiffon tops at the moment (although not when people wear them without a top underneath AT WORK and you have to sit and try not to look at their bra in a meeting...) - they're so elegant, easy to wear and smart.

So this morning, I decided to turn one of the beautiful printed fabrics in my stash into a stylish floaty top.

It was really easy to make so I decided to make a little tutorial of how I put it together.

I used 1m of fabric off the market. This is a cheap plastic georgette with a gorgeous print. I think it cost me about £2 or £3 a metre.

I folded it in half lengthways and then cut a slit in the middle of the folded side for a neckline. I cut it 10" long. Do check at this point that you can fit your head through the slit - mine only just fits!!!

I next trimmed 2" off each side of the fabric - this is to form the belt

I trimmed 12" off the end of each of these strips to bind the neck. I know I should make binding on the bias, but because the neckline's a slit I didn't worry about that. If your neck slit is longer than the 10" I used, make your strips 2" longer than your slit.

These two 12" strips form the binding for my neckline. I didn't make the binding up in advance as there's no way this fabric will hold a crease. What I did was to turn my top so the wrong side was facing out and pin a strip along the front and back edges of the slit.

This is the time to point out that you don't need to do this on a mannikin - I have used that to make the photos clearer.

Now stitch this edge with a normal 1.5cm seam allowance. As you go around, reinforce the corners of the slit by sewing a big rectangle (like a letterbox around you slit).

When you reach the edges of the strips, turn the ends over to give a nice neat finish

Now we need to hide those edges (in the following pictures the top's been turned right way out again although you can barely tell the rights and wrongs from these photos). Turn the strip over the raw edges then tuck the edges of it under to give a nice clean edge. If your fabric's like mine you are going to need a LOT of pins to hold this in place.

You can stitch this on the machine, but I prefer to do this by hand and hide the stitches.

At the corners, reinforce it by strongly stitching the two pieces of binding together

If your fabric will take it, you can press your neckline, but mine won't and I rather like the finish this gives

Next job is the belt. Pin the remaining fabric strips together

Stitch down one side and reinforce the end. Cut the thread from the machine a little longer than the whole belt. Lay this along the seam you've done and enclose it with the other seam. This allows you to pull the belt inside out really easily (sorry, I forgot to get photos of this bit). You can trim the seams before pulling through, but I decided I wanted to carry on that rounded look from the neckline so left all the fabric in there to create bulk. Finish the ends off neatly.

Either put your top on the manikin or on yourself and mark with pins the point directly below the arm pit a little lower than the natural waist line.

Take it off and check everything's lined up right. Replace the pin with a safety pin. Mark the same on the other side. Now check that you can get the top on and off with the pins in place. If not, move them out a little until you can.

Create a button hole where each of the pins is and open it up. Pop the top back on the mannikin or on you and tie the belt around it, lacing it through the button holes

You'll be able to see that your hem at the bottom is looking a bit wobbly (ok a lot wobbly)

Trim your hem to make it all straight (if you're wearing it get someone else to do this for you). I did this by eye. Don't worry too much about how neat you do it, we're going to sort that out in a minute.

Now take it off, lay it on the floor and try not to wince at how messy it looks - that's absolutely fine

As you can see, mine's very different on the left and right sides. Fold it in half down the middle, line everything up really carefully and neaten the edges up into a nice curve. This is where the see-through fabric comes into its own - you can see all the layers at once.

Open it out and make any adjustments you need to.

Finally, if you have an overlocker (serger) or the appropriate foot for your sewing machine, finish the edges off with a rolled hem. If you don't a zigzag stitch will do fine. And if you're really keen you could hand-roll the edge or do something else fantastic like that.

And that really is all there is to it. This took me less than two hours this morning to make, and that included the time spent on working out measurements, design and all that. This is a really easy project and I think it looks brilliant. I've been wearing it all day and it's fantastic to wear.