Millinery Course - Week 2

Week two and I had even more fun than week one! This is my hood I mentioned last week:


And this is the band I'm making to support it while I'm working on it


Today we started blocking the crown of the hats. This involves taking the stiffened hood, spraying some water in it then steaming it until it gets soft. It is then stretched over a block. My block is the one on the left:

I like it because it's a little squared at the top, but not too much. I like a slightly masculine edge to my hats.


Here's the hat stretched over the block after the first pull:


Then you steam sections of the hat and pull them down to stretch them over the block. You use pins to hold it in place. Here's a photo of me doing just that:


And finally here's the hat all pulled into place. It doesn't sound like we did as much today, but it was really nice sitting there chattering away and getting to know eachother as we pinned our hats into place. Next week we will block the brims and get started blocking the straw hats. No rest for the milliners!