AlisonClaire - Passion for Hats

Hen do season has started!

2012-02-26T20:46:00.002Z

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

2011-11-03T22:17:00.001Z

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

2011-08-22T21:35:00.000+01:00

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

2011-06-17T22:34:00.001+01:00

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

2011-06-12T21:19:00.001+01:00

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

2011-05-16T21:42:00.000+01:00

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

2011-05-07T15:31:00.000+01:00

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.

Vintage Vogue 1094

2011-04-29T22:48:00.001+01:00

I bought this pattern ages ago in a www.voguepatterns.com sale. I've been trying to find a good reason to make it up for ages and the wedding of one of my closest friends in the world seemed perfect, especially seeing as there was a bit of a mad hatter's tea party and I could see a little bit of Alice in it.

I love the design. The bands around the neckline are gorgeous and the big pouffy skirt is fantastic, but most of all I love the dropped waist.

The pattern is fantastic. I read up on the fantastic selection of reviews on www.patternreview.com, which mostly suggested that a third band is required around the neck as there's actually only two decorative bands. I'd definitely agree with this and did this on my dress.

I made up a toile of the bodice, which fits beautifully - I had made adjustments to bring it into a size 10 hips, 12 waist and 12 bust - pretty minimalistic adjustments but I usually expect to adjust further from there. I found the fit to be spot on (although when I made up in a softer fabric I found it a little large around the bust and waist, but not a whole size).

The fabric I used was a roll-end off the market. I got just over 2.5m of beautiful soft 100% cotton. It's cream with a brown, pink and grey pattern like leaves growing up it in delicate stripes. I also bought a brown cotton to line it with and with the intention of giving it a little more structure. I had intended to make a petticoat until I saw this at beyond retro and the colour match was just too perfect - just take a look at them together

Full Chiffon Petticoat Dusty Rose

The problem was that the pattern called for 4.4m of fabric. I had to work hard to get the pieces onto the fabric. I had to cut the back piece as two pieces and put a seam in the middle, and did the same with the central band. The skirt length was completely down to how much I could fit on the fabric. I knew I had some leeway as the reviews showed a longer skirt than I wanted and the pattern showed several inches of hem, but was nervous to cut a whole 6 inches off the bottom of the pattern! I did a lot of maths with the petticoat and skirt lengths and figured I could probably manage it.

I didn't get any progress pictures as I got really stuck in and didn't notice until I'd finished. The pattern itself is so easy to follow and goes together beautifully. It's strange - the lining and outer fabrics are stitched together at the start and treated as one throughout - this worked beautifully with my plan of building up the soft fabric with the thicker lining. It's strange to work with though as all your edges are showing and not hidden by the lining. I also like the internal belt, I didn't expect that to work so well.

The only other thing that I changed was to add a belt. The dress doesn't need it, but with current fashions I found that the dress looked a bit bland without it. I tried a few of my own, but with the dropped waist they just rode up and didn't look right. So I bought a buckle and copied the bottom of the bodice to create a belt in the same shape as the dress. I had no idea how that would work, but it was an absolute dream.

So here it is, with the hat I made to match it. And I've added a little bit of the bride and groom in there too as they looked fantastic. Congratulations Robyn & Andy - I hope you're having a brilliant honeymoon.

A royal wedding hat fest

2011-04-29T20:43:00.001+01:00

Oh boy did I have fun watching the wedding this morning. Firstly the bride and groom looked stunning and everyone looked really happy. It was a beautiful ceremony and it was great fun watching everyone arrive and leave.

But more importantly the HATS. Oh my word they were fantastic!!!

Kate's done so much for hats in this country - it's wonderful to see a young woman wearing so many beautiful hats and she wears them so well. It's only right that there should be so many beautiful ones at her wedding.

There's a good photo gallery at Vogue here which captures a lot of the outfits. Not my favourite one though...there was a beautiful simple grey dress with a fantastically clean lined hat and I have no idea who it was on - I've been searching for hours but I cannot find it! If anyone can help I'd love to see another picture - I'm pretty sure I saw it while the 'lesser' royals were arriving...

Either that or I'd love to be a bridesmaid in Pippa's dress...

I was so excited by hats watching it that I had to make a little something while I was watching (well, I never can sit still) so here's a little fascinator inspired by the royal wedding, in a nice regal purple.

Mallory

2011-04-02T20:06:00.000+01:00

I'd like to introduce you to Mallory.

Mallory is a mini beret in the most fantastic blue-teal I've ever seen.

She is hand blocked on a one of a kind block designed alongside the lovely guys at Boon and Lane in Luton.

She is decorated with hand-pleated petersham ribbon, held in place with tiny, almost invisible hand-stitches.

She can be held on the head with hat elastic or can be mounted on a hair band, whatever suits your wearing style.

Mallory can be made up in another colour of your choice, just contact me on alison@alisonclaire.co.uk.

Mallory is named for my cousin's fiancee. Welcome to the family.

Fascinator Making Class at Robyn's Hen Do

2011-03-30T21:17:00.000+01:00

This weekend I held my first fascinator party at a hen do. It was fantastic fun, both for me and for the hens.

I wanted to do something fairly quick but also following current trends. I wanted to do something to capture shape and form and not just to stick a ball of feathers onto a hair clip. I wanted to enable the hens to make something they were proud of and not something they could just pick up in any high street shop.

I settled on a combination of crin and sinamay with biot and coq feathers. I picked out two colour combinations which could be mixed and matched.

Crin is fantastic fun to work with. It's easy to sculpt into some really striking shapes yet always keeps to gentle curves which flatter the face and give a feminine touch. On seeing my demonstration, all the hens chose to make the base of their fascinator this way.

We used the sinamay and feathers to emphasise the shapes we'd made.

I was amazed at the variety of creations, with some uses of crin I'd never even dreamed of. I loved watching the characters of the hens reflected in their designs. There was big and bold, colourful and discrete, flowing shapes and controlled, tailored designs. But most of all there were fifteen smiles around the table.

The class was held in a beautiful cottage in Derbyshire. And without further ado here's some photos of what they produced. The hens are all planning to show off their masterpieces at the wedding in a few weeks so watch out for an update then.

If you are interested in holding a fascinator making party, please contact me on alison@alisonclaire.co.uk

Hats for hair loss

2011-02-26T19:05:00.001Z

I was recently approached by a family friend recently to make her a couple of hats after she lost all her hair to chemotherapy.

We designed the hat together. She had a couple of hats already but they slipped down over her face without hair to hold them in place, they were itchy or they were too warm to wear indoors.

We chose a super-soft jersey - 100% cotton to ensure it was breathable. It's got about a 20-25% stretch in four directions which allows it to fit really nicely.

The hat's formed of three rings and a circle to top it off. Each has been drafted to follow the exact contours of the head. The front is actually a different shape to the back. Each ring is formed of two pieces. All the seams allows it to form really closely to the shape of the head.

The first was produced in a dusky pink with contrast purple stitches. She was so happy that she requested another three - in a fantastic selection of colours.

So here they are - the colour choices are all hers - she's got a great eye for that. I hope you'll join me in wishing her the best for her further treatment.

A surprisingly Hatty Friday night out

2011-02-19T15:24:00.000Z

I'm going to start this post with a photo of the fantastic business card holder I got last night:

I got this last night while out with Rich. Due to scouts meeting on a Friday it's rare we get Friday night in London, but we make the most of it when we can. We went to see the FANTASTIC St Albans Scout and Guide Gang Show with the kids on Thursday (check out their website here).

On Thursday night, Rich drew me a map as a clue to where we'd be going

I had no idea, but my colleagues quickly identified it as Aldwych and one of them pointed out that there's no tube station where he's marked, but there is a closed tube station nearby.

We met up and had a look at the outside of the tube station and a little wander around the area (if you're there, take a walk down some alleys as there's loads to see that's set back off the road).

Rich told me we had to get back to Aldwych for 6pm. I guessed that we were taking a guided tour or something, but at a few minutes to six, we were standing in front of a church all alone. He gave me a little print out and told me the church was St Clement Danes - the famous church from the song

The bells rang a few times, we could hear other bells in the distance and we were starting to think 'is that it' when suddenly the famous tune rang out. It was brilliant! Rich didn't know the rhyme before hand so we sang it along to the bells (when we weren't falling over laughing). Great fun.

I was told that this wasn't it - there was more to come so we headed towards Green Park. We looked in the windows of all the shops down Jermyn Street and past Fortnum and Mason. Neither of us had ever been in so we went in to have a look around. It was brilliant - almost as good as Liberty's! We loved the food and chocolate and tea sections, but as we wandered something caught my eye - the hat section.

I'm afraid there's no photos (I was too excited to even try to take some) but I tried hats by Stephen Jones, Philip Treacy, Adrian Howard and Caroline Sinclair. There were a couple I absolutely fell in love with and lots of fantastic inspiration. If you want to see some phenomenal headpieces then pop in and try them out. Fantastic.

Finally, we moved on to 'the last part'. We wandered down back streets and suddenly there was a beautifully lit hotel - Duke's Hotel, home of the martini that inspired Ian Fleming when he was writing the James Bond books.

Now that is a martini. They bring a trolley out and make them in front of you and they can best be described as smooth, perfectly formed and incredibly strong. We only needed one each and sat back and chatted about our fantastic evening.

OK, not as hatty as it could be, but I woke up this morning with a head full of hats and I really need to get off the computer and make them...

Photo Shoot and Etsy Listing

2011-02-02T21:42:00.000Z

I've put the sinamay headpiece I love up on Etsy - it's inspired me to make so many more and I'm running out of space for boxes under my bed!

It's listed here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/67295613/sculpted-sinamay-headpiece

And here's the photos Rich helped me take (isn't he brilliant)

The Big Christmas Presents

2011-01-30T21:24:00.000Z

Finally, onto the big Christmas presents I've hinted at over and over and over again.

Rich and I have a blanket I made when I was at uni. It's toasty warm and fantastically cuddly and in the run up to Christmas was in almost constant use in the cold evenings. It was incredibly simple to make - two layers of fleece stitched together - one is black, the other is yellow smiley faces on a black background. It's lasted really well despite being incredibly cheap fabric - at least 8 years of frequent washing.

So we based our Christmas presents for family on wanting to share that cuddly winter evening warmth. We wanted to theme each blanket on something that was important to the people we were making it for. We decided to appliqué a pattern onto each and to back it with a relevant printed fleece.

We hand stitched the appliqués with the blankets (1.6m x 2m) laid out on the floor. We then attached the front and back on the overlocker with strong blue thread to bring out the pale blue background we'd used for each.

We're really pleased with the output, and by WE I mean WE - Rich helped out loads on these - he was chief cutter and did some fantastic stitch work!

First we have one for his parents - a scale appliqué of their boat, Boing. The back is a panel of pirates stitched onto a plain black background:

Right, next onto my parents. There's a story from when my Dad and I went walking in Wales and we found the PERFECT PATH. I mean, this path was amazing - bouncy, every so slightly uphill (down's bad on the knees), the perfect place to enjoy hiking and each other's company. We've searched for years for something to beat it, but nothing ever will. So anyway, here's the perfect path, with sheep on the other side:

Next we have my brother in law and his girlfriend. They're both really into their planes (he's an air traffic controller and she's a qualified pilot) and I'm reliably informed that this is their favourite. It's to scale again and it's a Cessna 182. Rich really took control on this one and his attention to detail really shows in just how fantastic it is (and in the fact that they knew exactly what type of plane it was). The back is a gorgeous print of helicopters and aeroplanes.

And finally we move onto my Aunt's gift. She took a fantastic photo of one of her dogs, Rockett for her Christmas cards. We used T-Shirt transfer paper to transfer it to white fleece and then stitched it onto the background. I did a knot every 4 or 5 stitches in case any of the dogs catch their claws in it. I hope that does the trick. The backing is paw prints.

So there we go, it's been an epic job (although finished a month ago - bad me not updating the blog) but I'm thrilled with the results. Christmas day was magical - we wrapped them up with the patterned side out and watched in joy as they realised they were really personal. They barely believed we'd made them. One of the greatest joys in putting this much effort in is seeing the joy on faces as they see how personal they are. Even thinking about it a month later I'm grinning about it.

More Christmas Stuff

2011-01-27T21:34:00.000Z

I'm determined to get all my Christmas stuff sorted by the end of January as I've been a very bad blogger this year so far. I'm trying to get the photos sorted for the BIG PRESENTS I made such a deal about in December - they'll come soon.

But for a bit of a giggle, here's the fancy dress costume I made for our Scout Christmas party. We usually get a lot of Santas and another leader is always Santa so I wanted to go for something different.

This took me just an hour or so to make:

It's made from a cardboard box. I opened out the top and cut a hole in the bottom. I used the cut out parts to hold the flaps out at 90 degrees to the box (so that it's open like this:)

I used a grey packing bag wrapped around and pleated to take the shape of the box to make the 'foil case' and stuck brown packing paper all around the outside edge. I used duck tape to make a channel at the top with some scrap fabric in as a draw string.

Finally I made straps out of more scrap fabric (I've found a use for all those bits left over when you use the overlocker!), jumped into it and voila - I was a mince pie!!!

Christmas gifts - cushions

2011-01-07T21:57:00.000Z

Most of November & December were spent making Christmas gifts, and now that they’ve all gone to new homes I can write about them on here.

Firstly, my mum gave me the remnant of the fabric used to cover some of her chairs and asked me to make her some cushions with it. The fabric’s a large weave in blue and beige (way prettier than that sounds). I decided that the best style to suit my mum’s tastes in decorating was understated and stylish. I decided to create two 40cm square cushions with blue piping round the edge and fairly discrete zippers.

I’ve not made a cushion cover since school – one of the first things we made in textiles – so my first port of call was the Reader’s Digest sewing guide. It confirmed the approach I was considering and showed me the best way to make and insert piping (which amazingly I’ve never tried before).

I took a little sample of fabric to my local fabric shop but couldn’t find the right colour bias binding to make the piping. I could have bought some fabric and made my own, but when you see how much I made for Christmas you’ll understand that I had to cut some corners. I was looking around the shop when I found pre-made piping!!! I didn’t even know that existed! The colour was almost perfect and it was only 55p a metre!!! I bought zips in the beige rather than the blue as that helped them blend into the background.

My cushions were from Dunelm Mill – 38cm square. The Readers Digest book suggested cutting that size plus seam allowance, but that made me nervous – I didn’t have spare fabric so couldn’t cut too small. I decided to add 4cm for seam allowances and do a 1cm seam. I’ll say straight out that this worked perfectly for me.

So, I cut 4 42cm squares. Due to the weave (and wanting things to be perfect for my mum) I cleaned up two edges, cutting along the weave of the fabric first. Then I measured along and cut the squares using the weave again. I then manipulated the fabric (iron and steam) into a square. I did this as the fabric had been sitting around for a while and had got a bit wibbly.

I used the large weave to line up the piping around the edge of two of the squares and stitched it on. Then I set the zip onto one edge of each square, making two long pieces each with a zip in the middle and one end with piping on. I wanted the zip to form part of the back of the cover rather than sticking out so I folded them along the piping line and pinned them together (inside out). I stitched the three remaining sides including stitching over the zips and trimmed the excess. Obviously I left the zips open, ironed the seams, turned them the right way around and popped the cushions in.

Here they are. I’m rather proud of them...

Happy Christmas - some hatty gifts from my generous family

2010-12-28T19:39:00.000Z

I was as excited as a little girl on Christmas morning. My husband and I were hosting and cooking delicious venison lunch for both sets of parents as well as his brother and his brother's girlfriend.

But more than that, there were some gifts to give and my new hat blocks wrapped up under the tree waiting for me to see them for the first time. I'll get onto the gifts for giving in another post.

I've shown you the two I bought myself in this post.

Firstly the dome block: apologies for the shocking photos - must have been after lunch when I was full of wine and food!

Next, we have the exciting one - the mini beret - and it's even more beautiful than I imagined (even if I can't get a decent photo of it)

I can't show it on Ermintrude properly as the block is solid - I'd have to remove part of her head!!! But you'll see once I've finished using this block just how it sits on the head

Finally I received a tremendous surprise from my parents. My Dad had picked up the blocks for me as he was working in Luton one day. Apparently he was chatting to the guys at Boon & Lane and asked them what I'd really really want. They were making something and said it would be perfect. I unwrapped a rectangular box that was heavier at one end, looked inside the box and squealed 'oh my god it's an egg iron!' I was shocked and overjoyed. There's nothing like a magical surprise on Christmas Day.

So here it is, my very own egg iron. Expect many exciting projects to follow

My 100th post - getting excited about hat blocks again

2010-12-23T20:26:00.006Z

Wow, just noticed on my dashboard that up until now I've posted 99 times!!!

I can't think of anything better for my 100th post than to share pictures of two of my new blocks (the ones my darling husband isn't giving me for Christmas - the ones I'm giving me for Christmas and I've given them to me early!!!)

Firstly I have to say they are absolutely beautiful. So much care and attention has been put into them - they've even stamped my name in them!!! The brim is suitably massive that I will be able to make anything on it and the shape of the crown is just what I asked for. They've also supplied a collar for the brim, which I completely forgot to ask for and which is charged as extra elsewhere.

Most importantly, here's some photos for you to enjoy - they're even better in real life - sitting next to me on the sofa begging to be stroked again...

These are made by Boon & Lane and I cannot reccommend them highly enough - lovely guys, beautiful blocks.

2010-12-22T07:30:00.000Z

My new blocks have been picked up today. I can’t wait to see them. I’ve ordered four from Boon and Lane in Luton. Rich and I had such an adventure when we went to order them – I’ve just checked back and I never told you about it!

I phoned the lovely guys at Boon & Lane on the Friday to ask about the process for ordering blocks. They suggested that seeing as we’re so local we popped down to see us and that they tend to open about 7:30 so we could go before work. We got on the train to Luton at about 6am on Monday morning. It had been snowing (the first time) and the sun wasn’t even thinking about coming up yet. The factory is on a little industrial estate near the station. We entered around the side and as soon as we walked through the door were welcomed by the sweet smell of sawdust.

I’ve never been anywhere like it and found it incredibly exciting. There were blocks EVERYWHERE, every available space was in use. We were shown around and then went up to what I guess you could call their sales room, shelves and shelves of samples. No wonder they don’t have photos of stuff up on their website – there’s just so much!

I was after some fairly basic stuff to give me the basis for making more commercial hats – a simple crown, a large brim, a dome (to take the fascinator/headpiece stuff to the next level) and something a little special for my Christmas present from Rich. The first three were easy, but picking something out from amongst the rest was nearly impossible – there was just too much choice! These things have to be seen to be believed – they’re all works of art in their own right. I eventually (with help from my wonderful husband) settled on a mini beret. I requested a few minor alterations (this bit taller, this bit smaller, etc) to make it 100% my own and then left that amazing place and ran off to work.

A few weeks later (they had said at the time they were very busy and might not be able to complete the order before Christmas) I got a phone call to confirm the order and to take payment and today my wonderful Dad has gone to pick them up (he is in Luton anyway so I don’t feel so bad, but thanks Dad, it’s really really appreciated). I can’t wait to see them (some of them, I guess I’ll have to wait until Christmas day for the others) – I’ve got so many ideas ready for them, including a black and white version of my yin and yang hat and a mini beret in teal inspired by the Gina Foster hat I fell in love with almost a year ago. I have the three working days off between Christmas and New Year and intend to spend most of that time blocking, stitching and enjoying my new babies.

Lots of secrets - just a quick peek

2010-12-12T20:14:00.003Z

I’ve got a little further with the home-made hat block, but I’ll do a full update on that when it's actually started to look different. The last two weeks have been chocker block full of gift making and Christmas parties.

I’m really pleased with the Christmas cards Rich & I made together. We’ve embossed a star on the front and written Christmas wishes around it with felt pen. Not the most exciting cards I’ve ever made, but at least this time we made them all in an afternoon rather than making half a dozen, getting fed up and going to Woolworths (actually, what WOULD we do this year now Woolies is no more???)

But I’m afraid the rest of what I’ve been doing is a secret. All I can say is there’s a few people out there who are going to be very happy on Christmas day (I hope).

And on the hat front, I finally got an all-over sparkly sequined beret. We are joined at the hairline. I’ve wanted one of these for so long...and it goes so well with my coat...

Inspiration - 20s Cloche

2010-11-29T19:34:00.004Z

This weekend I watched Changeling. A very moving film that had both Rich & I hooked the whole way through. Do watch it if you haven’t seen it.

But it wasn’t just the film itself that caught my eye. It’s set in the 20s and 30s and I was HOOKED by the hats! The shapes of the cloches are divine. They hug around the hairline then flare out into tiny brims that set Jolie’s face off beautifully. Here's an example:

As I blinked my way through the tears, eager to know what happened next, I was getting fidgety. I NEED one of these cloches. As the credits rolled, I was straight onto the computer and into my millinery library to find out one thing. How do I make a hat block? I haven’t wanted something so specific since the day I tried on Gina Foster’s Mitsouko hat [see here]. I found some information and started it off by blocking three layers of buckram onto Ermintrude.

I’m going to combine lots of things I found online and in books:

1. I’m blocking the basic shape of the crown in buckram. I’ll get the head-line right first

2. I’m going to wire this shape. Some of the books on www.vintagesewing.info suggest heavy wiring of buckram shapes so that seems a good starting point

3. I’m going to add the cute little brim in buckram & wire that. This will be done freehand I think

4. I’m going to fill the shape with expandable foam (the MOST fun DIY activity made more fun by being hatty) – check this link for where I got this one from

5. I’ll carve the remaining foam away to give myself a rolled brim to pin to

6. I’ll use polyfilla to build up the shape where it needs it (I think it will around the back as I’ve blocked on a polystyrene head rather than a block and it is more shaped than I want)

7. I’ll cover it to give a smooth finish. I’m not sure with (anyone who reads this and has done this before, please please give me tips.) I’m guessing papier mache or stretchy fabric. I don’t want to increase the size by much.

8. I’ll finish it and varnish it to make it waterproof

9. I’ll block a hat on it and call myself either a FOOL or a GENIUS!

So, not much work to this one then...I’ve struggled to find decent information on how to do this properly – if anyone reading this knows of good sources of information please let me know. Or if you have any experience you can add to save me messing this up entirely. I think this could be a long project so I’ll keep you updated on how it’s going.

I can’t wait for my cloche!!!

Happy St Catherine's Day

2010-11-25T19:08:00.004Z

Well, it's St Catherine's Day again (has it really been a whole YEAR???)

For those unfamiliar with the day, custom in France would be for unmarried women who were 25 years of age to pray for husbands and to honour those who've passed that age who are not yet married (although I married at 24, I'm relieved things have changed - I consider myself a child bride - imagine being 'past it' by that age!)

The millinery angle is that friends and families of the "Catherinettes" (the girls praying for some hot tottie) would make them special hats and they'd parade to St Catherine's statue. Because of this, St Catherine's day is still celebrated by Milliner's across the world.

And as for me? I did NOT realise we were that far through the year already, but here's a great link for you to peruse at you leisure

St Catherine's day parade in Paris, 1934 (video)

Vogue 8465 - 2010's coat

2010-11-21T17:00:00.007Z

Firstly, I'll admit that I still haven't put the buttons on my 2009 coat, but it looks so damned good with a belt! Don't think I've done a photo shoot of it yet either and I've been wearing it for a year!!! Well, here's the only decent photo I actually have of it!

And if you want to read about that one, blog posts are here and here.

This time, the pattern is Vogue 8465 - view C - the one in red.

I picked up some gorgeous fabric from down Goldhawk Road - black wool with silver spots on one side and silver with black on the other. Fantastically warm with a beautiful drape. As the main fabric was so soft and slinky, I decided on this beautiful taffeta to line it with the intention of giving it a little more body.

I got a roll-end of the lining so ended up getting a metre extra to match the silver to line the underside of the collar and a metre to line the sleeves (ok, so I didn't actually work out what I needed when I got the extra and had to get two lots because it didn't quite fit on a single metre!)

The coat itself, although it's taken me a month of evenings and weekends to do hasn't been overly difficult and the fit and shape are beautiful. I measured exactly to the pattern size 12 so didn't have to do any alterations. I made a toile of the bodice to check. Before putting the buttons and snappers on, I tried it by just pinning it where I thought it would go and it seemed very bulky round the waist. But once the internal support from the poppers was in place it actually fit really well. I'm now really glad I didn't make any changes to the waist line (I ended up chickening out)

There's some design features on this coat that I really love - the little loops for the buttons are brilliant, as are the buttons I found

But basically, I'm thrilled to bits with it. Rich took me out and we got some photos of it this evening.

And here's some pictures of the construction process. If you have any questions, just drop me a line - I'd really recommend this pattern.

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Finished Sinamay Headpiece

2010-10-27T22:14:00.002+01:00

Well, here it is - my first output from the Millinery Trimmings Course at London College of Fashion.

The hat is made of three sinamay pieces, each blocked on a dome block, wired and edged with hand-made bias binding. The top two pieces are based on the 'ying yang' symbols, with the tails 'popped' up. There are actually three colours of sinamay used on each - dark blue on the front, light blue on the back and green on the edging.

The two pieces have been mounted on a headband formed in the same way - blocked and wired sinamay. The prongs holding it to the head are formed to resemble the tails of the other pieces and the strength and shape keeps the whole piece sturdy on the head.

A single ostrich feather has been curled and formed to wind in and out of the holes in the symbols, following the curves as it majestically towers over the top.

Finally, a comb on the inside holds the whole thing sturdy.

I am so happy with this hat. It's a really different direction for me and I'm in LOVE. I hope you like it too.

More exciting new stuff

2010-10-26T22:13:00.004+01:00

I'm very sorry for being so bad at coming and showing you all what's going on, but I'll make up for it by posting some photos at the weekend.

I've been taking the 'Millinery Trimmings & Fascinators' course at London College of Fashion and all my blogging time has been taken up by homework for this!

Our tutor is Thomas Von Nordheim and his teaching style really suits me. We're doing a sinamay and a covered buckram headpiece over the seven week course and although the first few lessons covered stuff I've done before, Thomas is fantastically approachable and really helpful, especially on a personal level.

I wanted to do the course because I feel that where my hats are now of a great standard and beautiful shapes, I really struggle with how to finish them. I see all these hats covered in feathers and 'frou frou' and feel like I should do the same. Thomas has listened to my style and my ideas and helped me to understand how I can do trimmings my own way. He's helped me to develop an amazing sinamay headpiece which I finished tonight. It's got a feather, but just one statement one and it's fantastic (can you tell I'm in love). This course has been so much more than I dreamed it could be and I really feel like I've found the next step in my hat making now.

Something else I've been working on

2010-10-03T23:08:00.002+01:00

As mentioned in this post putting together a little autumn/winter collection as this is the time of year that I start to really enjoy hats.

This one's a 2/3 size bowler hat in a thick black wool felt with white contrast stitching. The flower is made from the same felt with contrast stitching again.

There's a few little mistakes on this one, but I'll forgive myself that as it's a prototype. I'm naming her 'Jeni' after the friend who inspired her.

Sneak peak of my Autum/Winter Collection

2010-09-26T20:42:00.004+01:00

I've been busy putting together an autumn/winter collection for 2010. I've had so much fun designing stuff, finding fantastic fabric and trying out lots of new techniques.

I've been working on two fabric patterns - a baker boy cap and a beret. I think these are the most wearable and classic fabric hat styles and suit most people.

So here's a sneak peak - this is the 'Daisy' baker boy cap. I LOVE this fabric and it's toasty warm ready for the depths of winter. I also love the way the hat flops to the side so stylishly. Check back for the whole range in the next few weeks.

(Apologies for the poor quality photo - it's taken on my phone. I'll get some decent ones soon.)

Hats in Vogue

2010-08-29T19:36:00.003+01:00

I am loving the cogs hat in this piece on milliners on Vogue.com. It appears to be by Harvy Santos (Harvash Hats) but I'm struggling to find much more than that - does anyone know any more?

This is the article and this is the gallery.

Vogue 1190 - a truly beautiful dress

2010-08-28T09:52:00.008+01:00

I’m very sorry to everyone out there that I haven’t been keeping this up to date – I’ve been away a bit and I’ve been so busy making stuff that I haven’t had a moment to sit down and write about it! I don’t know what it is, but I’m full of inspiration and passion for sewing all sorts of things at the moment.

So, first up is Vogue 1190. I haven’t fallen for a pattern this hard in, well, ever. I saw it on the McCall’s website as a new pattern and new on the spot that I would be making it for a friend’s wedding over the bank holiday weekend. I’d already blocked the base of a hat in a gorgeous turquoise straw (more on that another day) and didn’t have anything to go with it.

I popped up to my local(ish) John Lewis the next day to get this fantastic fabric. It’s 100% cotton, very fine and very soft. The drape is fantastic, but it does move a lot when you’re cutting and pinning. As it’s so fine I also picked up a pale blue lining fabric and blue wool suiting for the contrast belt.

I made up a toile of the bodice – this is a very very very nice pattern, the bodice just slid together and the fit was fantastic. I’d measured up at a size 12 on all measurements (rare for me to be so consistent) which may have something to do with that. The pleats in the front give the bodice fantastic definition and the back straps looked fantastic, even in curtain lining.

Lining was a little more complicated. I didn’t want to cause any lumps and bumps under the fine cotton so I basted the pattern pieces to the lining and treated as one. This was a bit of a mission and took a very long time to get right, but the result looks brilliant. It had the added benefit of giving a bit of structure to such a slinky fabric and I think that’s paid dividends in the shape of the bodice. The dress is made up using French seams throughout which gives the inside a very professional finish. The arm holes and back of the bodice are finished with bias binding. The instructions say to use the dress fabric, but I used purchased binding instead to give a little more structure to it, another roaring success (even if it doesn’t look quite so good on the inside, but no-one can see that other than me)

The frills on the shoulders were simple to put together and again they’re beautifully finished on the edges. The instructions don’t say to press them down, but when I’d added them I found them to be a bit bulky so pressed them. Looking at the photo on the packet I think they made the same decision. With a lot of similar pieces (frills and skirt pieces) I labelled everything with little stickers to make sure I didn’t get them the wrong way around. I’d certainly recommend this (even though I still managed to sew two of the frills on in the wrong order).

The skirt is a lovely shape – it curves out just right for the hips and falls beautifully below. It’s exactly the length I love at the moment – short but not indecent. Again, as with everything else in the pattern it all slots together perfectly. The seam to attach the skirt to the bodice is hidden in the contrast belt – there’s a real sense in this pattern that every attention has been made to the details that really matter. I’ve run the bottom through the overlocker but not taken it up yet – I want it slightly longer for the wedding (stitching doesn’t show on this pattern fabric) and will take it up afterwards.

Finally, the zip and the bow on the front. There’s a really clear tutorial for inserting an invisible zip which I wish I’d read several years ago. I don’t appear to have an invisible zipper foot on my new machine so I inserted by hand as usual, but there’s a few tips in there I’ll certainly be using in the future to make me brave enough to try it by machine again one day. The bow instructions are clear and although I’m no fan of bows it really looks right on the front of the dress. It’s clean, simple and smart.

I’ve spent several evenings prancing around din this – it fits like a dream, I feel gorgeous in it. It’s flattering in all the right places and those back straps are just astonishing. I’ve got some grey pinstripe suiting I bought to do McCall 5654 but never got the fit right on the toile – I think I’ll be making up a slightly longer version of this (without shoulder frills) for work.

Finally, the pattern says it’s easy. The instructions are very good for vogue, but I’d definitely say it’s one to try with a couple of other items under your belt as there’s quite a lot of different techniques (gathering, darts, pleats, lots of matching up, invisible zipper, French seams, making bias binding, stuff like that). I’ve seen a couple of others made up online and the results look fantastic in all sorts of fabrics so give it a go!

Making a mini boater - tutorial part 2

2010-07-04T22:05:00.008+01:00

Right now ladies and gentlemen, where were we? I believe we'd just blocked the sinamay crown and brim.

First take your sinamay off the block. The easiest way to do this is to cut the cling film and remove it on this, then remove the cling film from the hat. Cut the shape of the brim using the shape you originally identified (I used this plate) and cut the crown by measuring down a constant amount (mine's 2 inches)

Now put your crown onto your brim, with the crown on the outside if that's possible (it's difficult as you've used the same size block for both but stick with it). Try to line up the grain of the sinamay on the crown and the brim. Stitch the two together using a double thread. It goes against what you'd expect, but have the thread showing on the outside of the hat.

If you want to wire the brim, first stitch a bias strip of tarlatan to the edge (or a very small very thin bias strip that's smaller than the trimming you're going to use. Stitch the wire to this. It prevents too much hassle with the sinamay unravelling). I didn't wire this brim as it's so tiny it doesn't really need it. Then stitch your trimming (I've used matching navy cotton bias binding) to the edge of the brim.

(Oh dear, I didn't take a picture of that stage. You'll have to look at a later picture to see that).

Now we're onto trimmings. You can do whatever you want here, but I've made three leaves out of the same sinamay by cutting a leaf shape and rolling the edges. I've made another rose with the fantastic tutorial from Prudence Millinery to go with it. Finally, a bias strip of the same fabric as the flower has been used as a hat band. I've not pressed it too hard so that it sticks up and gives a bit of extra shape to the hat.

Finally we need to attach it to the head. For this hat, elastic would work, but I prefer a hairband. I make mine by bending millinery wire to the shape of my head. Normally I'd make a very small one to be attached with hair grips. I made it a bit bigger this time like a normal hair band but I'm not as keen on that actually.

Now stitch the hat secrurely onto the hairband. This always feels like it's going wrong until all four contach points are stitched and suddenly it's very secure and very comfortable.

All done...it takes a while, but it's so worth it. I wore it out tonight and it's a gem to wear.

In the last few photos it's sitting on the bag I made my mum for her birthday but it's bedtime now so you'll have to wait until later in the week to find out about that.

Making a mini boater - tutorial part 1

2010-07-01T21:22:00.014+01:00

I've had a few queries about how the mini boater was made (and I desparately want my own) so I've decided to make another one and show you how it's done...

I'm making this one with some sinamay I've been dying to use for ages rather than silk-covered buckram, but the concept of blocking it is much the same. The silk covering is a bit more complex - maybe I'll do another of those and show you as well - do you want it?

Ok, to begin with you need to think about the shape and size of the hat. I haven't got a mini boater block so I searched around the house for things that would do. The crown of the hat is blocked on a metal wine cooler and I've based the brim around a side-plate. I needed a flat piece of wood to block the brim on so I've used an old drawer. Here's what I based the hat on:

I covered the drawer and the cooler in cling film (just normal food grade stuff) to protect them from the water and to prevent the sinamay sticking to the blocks. I'm blocking both the brim and the crown in one go, but if you've not done much blocking before I'd suggest doing them separately (do the crown first, then when that's dry take it off and do the brim.

Next I cut out 4 pieces of sinamay. This was as I'm using a patterned sinamay - if I was using a normal one I'd cut out 6 pieces and if I were using buckram I'd cut two pieces. I took the size of my hat (remember the plate) and cut them out an inch or so bigger on each side.

Cut a hole in the middle of two pieces about an inch smaller than the crown block.

Now wet the first layer of sinamay (I use that spray bottle you may have noticed) so that it's nice and flexible. Pull it down over the block, making sure some of it still sticks up - you'll be attaching the crown to this later. Repeat with another layer of sinamay. With 'normal' sinamay this should be at 45 degrees to the first layer and a third should be in same direction as the first. To keep the pattern of mine I blocked just two layers in the same direction as one-another. Secure the centre with a hair band or some elastic.

Pin out four poles using millinery pins like these or household pins (you'll need a thimble to get them in the wood, but they work a treat). Stretch the sinamay flat, but remember to keep your shape.

Now use a few more pins to flatten the sinamay out across the wood. This should be nice and easy as you're just flattening it back to its original shape.

Now that that's done, onto the crown. You'll need the rest of the sinamay. Again get it nice and wet, then drape it over the top of your 'block'. Use another elastic or hair band to hold it in place as low down as you can without missing bits. If you're using three layers of 'normal' sinamay, the middle one should be at 45 degrees to the others.

Now gently ease the folds of sinamay. If you pull it on the bias, it will stretch that way allowing you to form it into the shape of the block. This also gives beautiful patterns which are great fun to play with - go on, have a go.

Now it's time to pour a glass of wine, pop on Film Four and watch the end of The Day After Tomorrow (oh no apparently not - my husband's come down and switched it over to Mock The Week based on the fact we've got The Day After Tomorrow on DVD...he may have a point.

I'll be back at the weekend with part 2.

New Blocks

2010-06-21T20:18:00.003+01:00

Following on from the success of the 2/3 size top hat, and several people saying ‘I love it, but I’d rather have a bowler – I prefer something a little smaller’ I have just ordered a matching bowler crown

and a downturned brim to see if that gives some interesting finishes.

They’re going to be about a month as the lovely people at hatblocks.co.uk are closed for a few days for a holiday, but I’m already excited about getting them and working with them. My head is full of ideas :D

And here as a special treat to you is Alice in her top hat last week - doesn't she look amazing!

A beautiful cream silk mini-boater

2010-06-06T20:05:00.004+01:00

This hat is a commission for a friend of a friend. She wanted something in cream and sent me a few pictures of some styles she liked. It left a huge amount of the design up to me. This was very exciting and I'm really pleased with how it's turned out.

The hat has been formed by blocking a shape in Buckram, a stiff fabric which can be formed when wet and then dried to keep that shape. I didn't have any blocks in the shape I wanted so used a metal wine cooler that was the perfect size for the crown.

The two-part shape was stitched together and has been covered with a silk taffeta in a warm cream with a slight shot of gold. This method of forming a base and covering it is a traditional millinery method that dates back hundreds of years. The only modern touch was to do part of the stitching on my sewing machine. Most of the stitching has been done by hand. A head band has been used to finish the inside, and a band of millinery petersham (ribbon) has been used to give a professional finish to the silk hat itself.

The flowers are formed by cutting individual petals out of silk organza and then stitching them around a bud formed from millinery wire and cotton wool. Each petal is curled before attaching it, which is how the rose shape is created. Due to the size of the flowers on the hat, I stuck to two roses. They have been accentuated with curled goose feathers. The flowers were made using a tutorial from Prudence Millinery. Well worth the money if you fancy trying it - a beautifuly put together tutorial with hundreds of very clear photos.

Finally, the head band is made from millinery wire and bent to the shape of the head to give a really comfortable fit. Well here's some close ups of it for you to enjoy.

27 Dresses

2010-05-20T16:15:00.000+01:00

It’s been a while since I last set myself a sewing challenge (since I bought a coat from Karen Millen and challenged myself not to buy any clothes for a year to fund it and to make everything I needed. That worked great and I made it to the end, but then had such a big blow-out in Top Shop that in effect it was all for nothing!)

So, one week from today I turn 27. I’ve been excited about this one for years – 27 seems to be a very interesting year – it’s when all the rock stars die for one (Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain to start with and wow look there’s a whole Wikipedia page devoted to it).

Let’s have a challenge related to this auspicious age then? The first thing that jumped to mind is 27 Dresses. I must admit I haven’t actually seen this film, (maybe because I’m bitter than I’ve NEVER been a bridesmaid and probably never will), but the title works well – it’s got 27 and it’s got dresses (which I’m LOVING at the moment). And 27 dresses in a year is just over one a fortnight – that sounds reasonable...(is it bad that I know I’ll be cursing this 6 months down the line?)

I might even watch the film at some point...

Fenwicks Hat - Update

2010-05-05T22:45:00.003+01:00

Well, I did it. I delivered a hat to college on Tuesday morning before work to be viewed by the millinery buyer from Fenwicks (as discussed in this post). I’m so glad I re-made it – the little changes and little lessons I learned making it have produced a far superior hat to the original. I got some photos last night and I’ll put them up when I get home.

And now I’m waiting. I can barely think of anything else, I’m so nervous! All weekend I was fairly blasé about whether it got picked or not, but in the light of a new day it feels like I’ve left my soul on that table for someone to examine and accept or reject.

The other hats were AMAZING! Nothing like my little topper at all – mostly pastel colours, almost all made from sinamay. I’d have loved to have worn any one of them. There was a great selection of fascinators and full hats, some small and some HUGE. It’ll be really interesting to go to Fenwicks when the selection are displayed to see which of the hats made it.

Please keep your fingers crossed for me. I’ll let you know as soon as I find out...

Update: I heard back today - the hat hasn't been chosen. It was well received, but not what Fenwicks were looking for - it's not in line with their image and that sort of thing. A really good learning experience for me and I know what to go for next year.

Website Relaunch

2010-04-29T21:51:00.003+01:00

I have relaunched my website today on www.alisonclaire.co.uk - I especially love the gallery and the photo on the home page.

I want to thank my lovely husband for building it for me - he's worked so hard to get it set up to my exacting requirements. I hope you all like it as much as I do.

Oh to have a hat for sale on Bond Street...

2010-04-26T22:17:00.001+01:00

I received an invitation from Kensington & Chelsea College last week to submit a hat for selection by Fenwicks of Bond Street’s millinery buyer for sale or return at Fenwicks.

I find this really exciting as this was how I found out about the course I’ve just finished. I saw a note in Metro about the display in Fenwicks of student work, went to see it and was so impressed I applied for the course the next day. I dreamed at the time of one of my hats being there on show a in a subsequent display. Imagine if that could happen one short year later!

Now, there’s 2 problems. One is that the selection will be made on the 4th. I’m away at scout camp all weekend so that means I’ll have to deliver my hat by Friday this week! The second is which hat to sell? They suggest unusual without being quirky or weird. The sort of hat a lady can wear to Ascot or a wedding or a society event. Something that takes in current trends yet also stands out.

There’s only one piece that can meet these criteria. The coursework hat. But to be honest, the one I made may be my pride and joy, but it’s just not good enough for Fenwicks. There’s a few little glitches and imperfections that make it not quite good enough to sell.

So this weekend I started blocking a copy. But with differences. So it’s better. I’m going to have the opening at the front rather than the back so it’s more visible. And it’s going to be a little deeper and less tall to let a little more light in. I’ve stiffened the felt a lot more so it’s more structured and strong. And I’m going to support the shape all the way around with the wire so it holds better. I’m also going to do the mirrors differently, but I’m not 100% sure what I mean by that.

Well, I blocked the crown three times this weekend. I just can’t do it perfectly enough. But I think I’m mostly there now. My husband’s been amazing and said he’ll do all the shopping and cooking so I can get it done. I’m very excited but very very scared.

The last three weeks of my millinery course

2010-04-26T12:31:00.000+01:00

I’ve had this post half-written for over a month now – really need to get it finished!!! I blame the new job, but I’m all nicely settled in now so should have more energy in the evenings to make things and tell you about them!

The last few weeks of my millinery course flew by. Firstly I finished blocking the blue flower hat. I’d forgotten to put cling film on the brim block and this taught me why. The felt stuck to the block and as I pulled it off I found it to be stained and damaged by the well-used block. It’s not too bad, and it’s on the underside of the brim so I can still finish the hat off, but it was an essential lesson to learn. I wired the brim and put the two pieces together and I fell in love. I love the huge brim and how it looks with the flower on the crown.

I also blocked a large black felt hat as a one-piece based on these Chanel adverts: (oh boy do I LOVE this Chanel collection – how I wish I had that kind of cash, or the ability to recreate some of these beautiful dresses and jackets) The shape’s pretty close – now I just need to get the brim wired and add some black satin ribbon and I’m off.

I had my tutorial. I turned up with all my research and design work, beautifully presented in a pair of stylish black folders. I’d spent what felt like forever up to my elbows in pritt stick at the weekend getting it all written up and was glowing with pride. Caroline seemed really happy with what I’d done, and especially with the printouts of my blog, showing everything I’d learnt in the course. So a really successful tutorial until the end when she asked where the finished hat was. WHAT??? But this is the DESIGN tutorial!!! I thought we had until the end of the course, the next tutorial, to do that. “Yes”, she replied. “The course ends next week!!!”

No pressure then to get the hat made from scratch. I blagged that I’d got it started (honest, gov – no-one believes you) and headed home a little early to get it started. I raided my felt stash for a hood (yes, I hadn’t even ordered the stuff for it) and stiffened it that night before bed. I spent the next couple of days blocking, eternally grateful for the practice pieces I’d done as I zipped around all the mistakes I’d made before. It took me until the Sunday night before it was finished, but I was absolutely thrilled with the results. It’s exactly like the design with the silk lining, the mirrors twinkling inside and a sense of adventure.

Caroline was really impressed in the class and suggested I found a way of entering it for competitions. WOW!

We ended the course with a group meal which was a great giggle. While we were in the restaurant, one of the waiting staff came up and asked if she could show her friend in the kitchen my hat. I was so thrilled that other people like it too. Almost happy enough to make up for the fact that there’s no more millinery course until September!!!

Wow – what an epic tale! Well, here’s the hat for your enjoyment...

Sewing again

2010-04-20T12:27:00.003+01:00

Well, I put sewing to the side to focus on my course for the first third of the year, but I’m back at it with a vengeance right now. I’ve got a pile of fabric, patterns, thoughts and ideas and not enough time in the day to get them made up. So the focus will start on work clothes (which are generally falling apart – very bad look).

So I made up a toile of McCall’s 5464.

I was surprised to measure up as a 10 throughout (I’m usually a 12 at least and never the same size top and bottom). I just made up the main pieces – one piece cut on the fold for the front and two pieces for the back – and I haven’t bothered to put a zip in (I’ll just get my husband to pin me into it). It went together pretty well really – the princess seams at the bust puckered a little – I’ll tack those for the real thing – and I sewed it to itself several times – not a pattern issue, incapable seamstress issue.

My husband was away when I made it up so I couldn’t get him to help me fit it properly, but when I pulled it on I got a very strong impression that my boobs and bum are not going to fit in this...and if they do I won’t be able to breathe, walk or sit down (but I think it makes my boobs look pretty good – sadly that’s not what pays the bills at work). I looked up some reviews on patternreview.com and they all loved the fitting so I checked to see if I’ve demonstrated some fumbled incapable measuring skills (or if my tape measure has inexplicably stretched). No, it seems fine. But a very very good excuse to learn to fit properly (another one and I still haven't managed it!)

The dress itself though is definitely worth any further work this takes. It’s gorgeous.

Another finished hat (finally)

2010-04-09T18:44:00.003+01:00

Oh my, I’ve been very very bad at keeping this up to date, haven’t I!!!

Well, I’ve been very busy with the new job, and have been away almost every weekend. I’ve been writing the post about my last couple of weeks of my millinery course for about a month now, I promise to get it up in the next week (there, I said it, I have to now!)

So, it’s a completed hat post today. The purple cap from my new blocks. I’ve really been struggling with how to decorate this one as nothing seemed quite ‘right’ to me. I settled on a plaited strip of black felt across the front, which looks fantastically stylish but not really enough.

Then one day a clip I bought some time ago fell downstairs and landed next to the hat. The colours looked good so I tried attaching it and my word the hat went from good to jaw droppingly fantastic! I absolutely love it. I really adore the shape of this block – casual enough for real day-to-day wear, but structured enough to look that bit different to the baker boy caps that are everywhere. It’s quite a tough one to block as the peak rolls all the way under, so it involves a lot of shrinking, but it’s definitely worth it. I’ve already bought loads of different coloured hoods to try this on and I’m also thinking of seeing how it handles straw (not sure how to get it off the block though with that rolled edge...the felt was tough enough...)

Anyway, THREE yes get that, THREE random strangers complimented me on it today which has made me walk with my feet barely touching the ground. I'm thrilled.

And finally, I’ve decided that to fund my next millinery course (I spent considerably more on materials for the last one than I spent on the course fees themselves – it really adds up) I need to sell off some of my babies. So I’ll pop a post up as they appear on Etsy (if I can bear to be parted from them)

To those who inspire us

2010-03-26T21:21:00.005Z

I’ve been struggling all week with how to write this post. And I want to dedicate it to everyone who’s ever inspired anyone.

Most people have had a teacher who inspires them, or someone out of school – maybe at work, maybe a friend or someone you’ve met. For me there was Mr Wallington, my Physics teacher in sixth form who turned a fairly academic subject into something real with impact everywhere around me, who inspired such questions as ‘how fast would you have to go for a red light to look green and could you use it as an excuse when caught speeding’ and ‘what exactly does 10 to the power of -23 look like’.

Then there was Toby, my line manager in my first ever Saturday job who was never afraid to muck in if we were short staffed, who always had time for people and always listened to what they had to say, yet was strong and strict and fair. With whom you always knew where you stood and you always knew where the line was and exactly what would happen if you crossed it. So you could get on and do your job without worrying about anything.

And more recently there was Andrew Bristow. The teacher at my first ever millinery course. The man who took ‘I wonder how hats are actually made and if I’d be any good at it’ and turned it into a passion for headwear and for couture sewing techniques. Whose enthusiasm for his work seeped into all his students, who challenged those who needed it and who supported those who were struggling. Who when he couldn’t understand my description of something I wanted to try said simply ‘well, you’d better make it then to show me’, giving me the belief that if I can see a hat I can make a hat (even if I can’t draw it).

And that’s where the tale becomes sad. I was searching the internet last weekend to see what sort of work the people who have taught me my millinery skills have produced, wondering what the styles were that were produced by the different characters when I came across this website, telling me that Andrew died on Boxing Day. Do have a read – the messages left by those who knew and loved him are beautiful. I’d like to leave my own one day, but I’m not sure what to write yet.

I always dreamed that one day I’d be making beautiful hats and I’d have some success as a milliner and I’d catch up with Andrew and tell him how he inspired me, how he was the fan that turned that spark of interest into a roaring fire. How at 25 years old and in his class I finally answered that primary school question of ‘what do you want to be when you grow up’, a question I’d never been able to answer before.

But I will be a milliner, and it will still be thanks to the inspiration of an amazing teacher, and I will never forget him. So raise a glass tonight to whoever it was who inspired you at any time in your life. Contact them and tell them. For these are the people who make our lives what they are and if we don’t tell them, how will they know the impact they had?

Earthwatch Mascot

2010-03-16T21:21:00.005Z

You may remember that I made a bumble bee for a scientist in the Summer, (http://alisonsewing.blogspot.com/2009/09/project-15-bumble-bee.html & http://alisonsewing.blogspot.com/2009/10/project-15-bumblebee-photos.html) which he wore to a charity ball. Well, the organisation who held the ball contacted me a few months later asking if I could make them their own mascot. First off it was a dolphin, then a turtle, then we settled on a giant globe.

This was entertaining to design. They wanted the head of the wearer to be inside the globe, which meant that it couldn’t be suspended from the shoulders. It also needed to be light weight, hold its shape for multiple uses, all sorts of things that appeal to the Engineer in me. I spent quite a lot of time on google sketch-up working out how to do it.

The structure I came up with was based on school PE lessons – 6 hula hoops forming a sphere. This was surprisingly strong and very lightweight. This frame was covered in bubble wrap to give it a more spherical shape. To hold the globe in place when it’s being used, I attached a massive T-shirt to the base of the frame, allowing the frame to be suspended from the base rather than the top. These are supported by a few cords inside, but the majority of the strain is around the edge of the T-shirt. An added bonus here is that this makes the globe fairly comfortable to wear and (if you’re childish like me) you can jump up and down and the bounce in the T-shirt makes the globe jump about

Finally it needed to be decorated. I spent an age forming the blue felt around the shape to make a succession of larger and larger pleats and tucks to turn a 4m length of felt into a sphere. This was by far the most frustrating and fiddly part and the only part I’m not 100% happy with as there’s still some parts where it doesn’t sit as well as I’d like.

Then it was onto the continents. I bought a giant map of the world and attacked it with marker pen to identify approximate shapes rather than having lots of detail. Obviously, a flat map won’t translate exactly onto a globe so I had to expand things nearer the equator and reduce things nearer the poles. I made the continents up by drawing them freehand on the back of some really ugly Christmas wrapping paper and pinning them to the globe, redrawing or changing the shapes whenever it was required. Eventually I was happy with what I had and I cut the continents out of the green felt.

I’d planned to glue the continents on, but that just doesn’t sit with the way I do things so I ended up hand stitching them all. A massive job, but made all the more enjoyable by watching Pride and Prejudice at the same time (and the fact that I rather enjoy hand sewing). Occasionally Lizzie Bennett’s antics distracted me so much I sewed it to my jeans, but there were no major disasters.

The picture I’d been given as a guide has arms with big white hands, massive eyes and a gorgeous smile. Again, I made these out of paper and pinned them on before cutting out two eye-holes and stitching several layers of white net behind them. (I thought four layers worked best as it made the eyes look quite opaque but didn’t affect the vision too badly.) This is one thing I’d have done differently. I cut out eye shapes from the net and then stitched them behind the eye holes. I should have cut the eye holes and just stitched a big rectangle of net behind as it slipped quite a bit and I had to re-stitch several parts. I added black felt ovals for the pupils and a big smile, also hand stitched.

The hands were made by cutting two massive hands out of white felt and stuffing them with wadding. I made mitten shapes out of white jersey (soft and stretchy) and inserted these, stitching the gloves together.

And finally I slip stitched the edges of the ‘sea’ together to hold the cover in place. It was picked up early this morning and I got a couple of pictures before it went away. It’s going to a conference tomorrow!!!

I finished the 2/3 size top hat...

2010-03-07T13:47:00.002Z

...and here it is!!!

The blocks are beautiful. The crown is made up of 5 pieces which screw together which means you can get the block out without stretching the hat. Everything's so beautifully made and fits together so perfectly. The crown was a horror to block - not sure if that's the fairly cheap felt I was using or the fact that the crown is so small, meaning I had to do a lot of shrinking (which is tougher than stretching for me).

Once I'd got that sorted, the brim was easier as I'd already shrunk the head fitting. It's not my neatest blocking attempt, but I was too excited about seeing how it turned out to take my time and do it properly! I've got a lovely baby pink fur hood to do it with next time so I hope that'll come out neater.

I wired the edge whilst babysitting for my friend's little boy (who was good as gold and let me get most of it done) then covered the wire with black velvet ribbon as I wanted something more luxurious-looking than petersham. I used petersham for the head fitting and added a thicker velvet ribbon band. It's held onto the head with elastic.

So, well done for reading, here's your reward - a photo...

2nd Millinery Course - Week 19

2010-02-26T09:23:00.000Z

A week late again in the course updates – tut tut!!!

This week’s focus was feathers – we were shown a huge selection of different feathers of different grades, both naturally and artificially coloured. We were shown how to strip and shape the feathers and had a little go on our own. We also had a play with veiling, seeing how it would traditionally be added to a hat and stitching a simple veiled shape.

I took the flower crown off the block. It’s not as defined as I’d have liked, but I’m still pretty pleased with it. I removed the bottom of the felt and started to block a brim. I’m using a downward facing brim for the first time with felt. I started off with steam, but the teacher suggested I used an iron and some sprayed water and it improved things MASSIVELY. The felt stretched beautifully across the brim, making it far bigger than I’d expected I’d be able to manage (I was aiming for big and had picked quite a large block figuring I could stretch it as far as it would go)

I’d hoped to do more, but the heating was broken and everyone else was freezing so the class ended early.

More work on my new blocks

2010-02-23T20:13:00.003Z

Oh I've been a busy little bee. I came straight home and blocked the purple felt on the cap block - I think I'll need to use bigger felts for that one as the brim rolls under. I just managed to stretch it far enough though. I cut down the red top hat crown and blocked the brim. I cannot wait to see them all put together!!! I think I'll be up nice and early tomorrow to take everything off the blocks before work. Maybe I can pop some head fittings into them on the train...

Anyway, the important part, here's a picture of my happy block family...

The blocks arrived

2010-02-23T08:51:00.004Z

I know I should be on my way to work by now, but I just wanted to share my excitement that my beautiful blocks have arrived and I started blocking one of them this morning!!! (Way to get me out of bed!)

It was a lot harder than I expected - I think because of its small size - I had to shrink down the full size hood quite a bit to get rid of (most) the bumps - it may need some more work tonight to get the rest of them.

I don't think the hood's very colour-fast either - I've got bright red fingers!!!

A classic wedding present

2010-02-22T14:14:00.002Z

I received an interesting request from a family friend recently regarding making something for their daughter's wedding. When she was little, she had a pair of really classic 70s inspired orange dungarees with a purple patch on the knee. Her father wanted to bring this up at the wedding, with props, but the dungarees were long gone.

So my wedding gift to them was to recreate these dungarees. The pattern I used was Burda 9828 http://www.habithat.co.uk/product_info.php/products_id/10086 made up in a size 12 months. They went together beautifully, I really enjoyed working with the orange corduroy. I lined them with a contrasting purple wool left over from my coat.

I hope they get used - it'd be fantastic to see them on a kid :D

I got the call - my blocks are ready

2010-02-19T14:34:00.003Z

I ordered three hat blocks (a crown, a brim and a one-piece) as a special treat to myself when I handed in my notice here and accepted a new job.

And I just got the call to say they're ready and they're being sent out today!!! I should get them Monday!!!

There are no words to describe how excited I am right now!!!

Here they are a 2/3 size top hat and a cap...all from www.hatblocks.co.uk

2nd Millinery Course - Week 18

2010-02-10T19:25:00.001Z

This week has been all about BRIMS. It’s a while since I’ve blocked a two-piece felt hat and I felt strangely excited by the whole thing! The felt’s a different colour, but at the moment this is all about the shapes so I’m trying not to let that distract my mind.

I was really pleased with my blocking of the brim. I know I’ve said it before on here, but all the blocking I’m doing (and I’m trying to do some every week) is resulting in a massive improvement of my work. I’m getting so neat that there weren’t any wrinkles at all, which made me very happy.

While that dried, I blocked a beautiful blue hood on a very funky crown block. There’s a flower shape on the edge of it, which I spent an age tracing out with blocking cane. That was really hard work and no matter what I did the cane seemed to move about. I’m not sure what the effect will be when it comes off the block, but I’m quite excited to see.

I removed the brim from the block and cut it out. When I got it home and put it with the crown it all seemed to slot into place. It’s exactly what I’d dreamed of (if a little/lot larger) and I’m really excited again about getting the details started and then getting onto the real thing!

2nd Millinery Course - Week 17

2010-02-10T10:31:00.004Z

Dear me, I’ve been a bit rubbish at keeping this up to date, but I can finally confirm that that’s because I’ve got a new job!!!

Now, onto the design development – I spent the week working on the crown design – creating a wire ‘cage’ and working out how best to line a hat. I continued this in last Monday’s lesson, ending with something I’m really really happy with. Words can’t describe, here’s a photo.

I’m shocked that it actually looks so much like what I drew. I’m still concerned about the size – I love the shape, but it’s huge (I’ll have to get a photo of it on a head to show how big it really is). There doesn’t seem to be anything in the cupboard that’s the shape I’d imagined and a better size. I’m considering hiring a top hat block if I can find one.

With that complete, I took the dinky purple patterned hat off the block and it looks fantastic.

Next week I’m going to block a brim for the coursework hat as I still need to decide what I’m going to do with that.

2nd Millinery Course - Week 16

2010-01-31T20:31:00.003Z

Another week into things and my design is really progressing. As mentioned last week, this is my design so far (yes, I still haven’t worked out a brim).

I really didn’t like the sinamay test piece so this week’s test was to try with felt. My first rip test caused the felt to stretch so there’s no way I’m going to be able to rip it after it’s blocked. So I ripped it first. A great big rip through the middle. That was scary to do, but it blocked really well and looks JUST LIKE THE PICTURE I DREW!!! The only issue I have with it is that the block is unimaginably HUGE and I’d really like to make the hat on a more, erm, human scale. I’ll have to see next week if there’s anything else I can use.

As that dried, I started to block another hat. This is with a patterned hood I bought in milliner warehouse almost a year ago. It was one of those things you never use because it’s too pretty and too expensive. Well, it was the only one I had left and there was a block in the cupboard at college that had been singing “use me” over and over to me for weeks. The rest, as they say, is history and I’m really really pleased with the effect so far. I’ll take it off the block next week. The underside is really smart, with the felt reducing nicely where it rolls under. The best I’ve ever done. I’m not sure if that’s the quality of the felt or that I’m getting better though.

And that’s pretty much where I’m up to. I need to update on some of the hats I’ve taken home to work on as they’ve come along beautifully and I think a photo shoot of what I’ve created so far is a must.

Productive day - and helping a friend

2010-01-23T21:41:00.006Z

I have been sewing ALL DAY!!! I got up early and got started on my mum's hat, which I've finally finished (well, I want to add a button or something to the middle of it to hide where the feathers join, but mum's gone out to get that today.) It looks fantastic on her and really goes with her outfit. I'll get a picture of it all together next weekend at the wedding :D

Next job is something I really really want to tell you about, but it's a big secret, also for the wedding next weekend...so we'll all just have to wait...

Whilst working on my hat for the wedding, the felt and sinamay one, a friend called and asked if I could help her make a top for a burns night party tomorrow. She'd bought a metre of tartan fabric and had no idea where to start.

I really enjoyed helping her out creating this. We took a dress pattern and shortened it to make a long top. I especially like how we added a bias strip round the bottom, which gives it a really funky look. I really enjoyed working with someone - I normally sew alone. And she did a fantastic job of it, especially as she'd never done anything like it before.

2nd Millinery Course - Week 15

2010-01-22T11:52:00.001Z

Well, new term and back to the millinery course. I missed two lessons while I was in India, one of which was the drawing lesson, the other was starting to build the designs we’ve put together.

My design is developing nicely. You may remember I was basing it around a mirror I saw in a hotel – the white surround and the gothic style. I’ve done lots of background research on the style with mirrors, interior design and in fashion and have developed this sketch:

There were a few things I wanted to get through in the design:
· Seeing through things – a mirror may be a solid surface, but the image appears behind it, at a distance. I wanted to get the impression of looking through something so the design has part of the hat missing and replaced by a wire frame. This allows you to see into the hat as well as through it, so I’ve made sure it’s lined.
· At the edge, where you go from the felt to the frame, the hat is frayed and damaged-looking. This ‘deconstructed’ look jumped out at me a lot in my research and I like the way it fits in with the frame.
· The general shape is based around a top hat. This classic shape gives an elegance, and the fact that it’s ‘old fashioned’ fits with the idea that it has been damaged over time to lead to the part of it being missing.
· The lining is very luxurious – it’s going to be a silk I picked up in India – very detailed and beautiful bold colours. It’s a sort of paisley pattern that again I feel fits with the idea that this is a very old hat.
· Size-wise, I haven’t fully decided if I want this to be a full size topper or a percher yet. I need to have a play with how it fits with the design.
· And colour-wise I’m not yet sure if I want to go for a classic black so that it feels like a very traditional hat with lots of stuff going on, or if I should pull out the blue from the lining. For this second option I think there may be too much going on so I’m leaning towards black.
· Materials – I’m pushing towards felt, but not sure how the edge would look – felt cuts very cleanly and the blocked felt is designed so it doesn’t rip under pressure. Sinamay would fray well, but I don’t know if it would look ‘right’
· And finally to bring the mirror thing in, and another inspiration from India I’m going to decorate little teeny craft mirrors like the original mirror and suspend them in the hat. Hopefully this will make it sparkly and reflect the lining out.

So, this week’s course was used for experimentation. I started by blocking some sinamay on a crown so that I could have a play with fraying it. I also had a play with some scraps of felt, but hadn’t had the chance to pick up a cheap hood so couldn’t do any proper investigation there. With the scraps I got some quite nice edges, but the felt stretched when I ripped it which may cause problems. Next week I’m going to try blocking a felt then ripping it, and ripping a hood and then blocking it to see if either works. I’m also going to have a play with ways to get an effect on the edge of the felt – I’ll get the tool box out.

I had some time and some sinamay left over so I blocked a tiny little pillbox crown with three layers of polkadots. I love the way the dots don’t quite line up. It makes them look 3D and like they’ve got shadows.

Photos to follow – it’s a bit of a manic week…

I'm in love!!!

2010-01-19T09:08:00.005Z

Last night at my millinery course, Gina Foster brought in some of her hats to show us. They are beautiful and a real inspiration. What she wanted to show us is that you don't need expensive trimmings to do something fabulous and she definitely proved that.

There was one in particular that I didn't want to take off (ever - it was the most beautiful thing my head has ever had the honour to model) which is here: http://www.ginafoster.co.uk/laparfumerie.html - 3rd row down, second from the right, named Mitsouko. It's a relatively simple shape blocked in felt with the detailing made from pleated Petersham, but the overall effect is amazing. It's got a fantastic weight to it and fits the head perfectly.

I am completely inspired by it.

And currently dreaming of finding £327 down the back of the sofa!!!

Marfy 2010

2010-01-18T10:51:00.004Z

I must admit that I haven't been overly impressed with the new patterns I've seen so far this year. That is of course until I checked out the freebies with the new Marfy catalogue.

If that's the starting point, I can't wait to see what else is in there! I love all of it except the cape (just not my style, as a cape it's pretty damned good). The three dresses are especially spectacular. I have a feeling I'll be making the lot!

Happy New Year, a little early

2009-12-30T16:53:00.002Z

I'm off to India for a friend's wedding tomorrow so I won't be updating this for a while. Happy New Year to you all, may 2010 bring you every happiness and LOTS OF HATS!!!

I leave you with a conundrum - I can't work out if I love or hate the hat Sarah Brown wore for the Queen's speech - what do you think?

Merry Christmas! & a Christmas Day Project

2009-12-26T12:30:00.009Z

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and feels as relaxed and contented as I do.

I had a wonderful day and got loads of hat books. The best one was Fashion Hats - Design & Make by Karen Henriksen - lots of fantastic ideas, tips and techniques and all really nicely laid out. Good for someone my level who knows the background and has confidence making the hats, but hasn't done much trimming yet.

Like any child on Christmas day, I put all my lovely presents aside and played with something else - some sinamay and feathers for a hat for my mum for a wedding in January. I blocked it on Christmas eve and got the piece wired yesterday. I was playing around with sinamay and made a fairly classic looking fascinator, which I attached to a comb. It was fiddly, but went together in just a few hours.

First I made a bias strip about the width of a DVD (what can I say, I used what I had to hand) and as long as the fabric could handle. Then I used and iron to stretch it and while it was warm I formed it into soft curls. I worked the curls into a ball shape and stitched it in position. I took several of the long feathers and laid them out in a circle. I used a piece of cotton to wrap around them where they met to make a fan shape out of them and then stitched this to the back of the sinamay ball. I then stitched the black feathers into the middle individually. Finally I attached the whole thing to a hair clip and popped it on my mum. I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.

2nd Millinery Course - Week 12

2009-12-08T10:24:00.003Z

I’ve been thinking more and more about my design and I think that, although I love the look of felt and love working with felt, it just doesn’t have the ‘occasion’ of sinamay. Plus I’m less confident working with sinamay and want to get more practice with it. So I decided that my challenge for last night was to block a two-piece in sinamay.

The problem is that I just don’t like the look of your classic sinamay hat, all mother of the bride and weddings and not what I’m aiming for. I had a wander round John Lewis and Milliner Warehouse for inspiration and decided to make a hat with a felt crown (so I can have another play at manipulation) and a sinamay brim, teaching me how to block that and attach it. To decorate, I’ll add a large flower motif in felt with sinamay swirls and wotnots to bring the two materials together. If it all works out well I’ll wear it to a wedding in January. To bring it in line with the dress, I’ll do decorative topstitching on all the decorative bits in the same colour thread as my dress.

I picked up a fur felt in chocolate brown and some matching sinamay and was ready to go. Brown’s not really my thing, but I wanted to try manipulating with a fur felt and it was chocolate, pale brown or black. I figured the chocolate will go best with my dress.

First I blocked the brim. I chose and off-centre brim block, not too big, and found out very quickly that blocking a brim in sinamay is a LOT easier than blocking a crown!!! I guess that’s not much of a surprise really as the brim is pretty flat and the crown’s all curved and the sinamay’s flat, but I didn’t expect it to be that much easier. Although I did break my elastic doing it!!! I stiffened it with PVA and popped it in the oven to dry.

I’d had an idea of a block with a fairly blocky top, kind of like this one from Morse Brown, but there was nothing like that in the cupboard so I decided to manipulate some folds into a dome shaped crown block. To fit the big floral thingy on the side I decided to just manipulate on one side. I have no idea what this is going to look like, but it’ll be exciting to find out.

I steamed the hood and blocked it on a tall dome shaped crown. Then I put the centre crease in, the two next to it and then started to work down one side. I didn’t like how the front looked so I brought the creases down to form ‘v’s at the front. It’s a lot easier to manipulate the fur than the wool felt and the finished article is a lot more dramatic. I was really pleased with how it came out.

I popped that in the oven and removed the sinamay brim. It’s the last week of term and I’ll miss the first two weeks of next term because I’ll be in India so I have rushed everything off the blocks a lot quicker than I normally would. I hope that won’t affect the finished product too much. I tacked the line on the block that shows the head fitting, but there’s not much else I can do with that until it’s wired. I have found out that I need to cut out the head fitting about an inch in, put in darts and fold up the excess, then stitch it to the crown like that. I’m very nervous about doing that on my own the first time, but I’m sure it’ll be ok.

So finally I removed the crown from the block and wobbled home overladen with precious very delicate things and getting far too much interest from random people on the tube. I hope to get this finished over the Christmas period – maybe I’ll devote next Monday night to it...

Cow Print Ear Muffs

2009-12-02T11:34:00.003Z

I've been cycling to the station in the mornings recently and my ears have practically been falling off they're so cold. I don't have any hats that fit comfortably under my helmet and when I've tried that my head gets too hot!!!

Only one solution then, ear muffs.

I got some cow print fabric recently which I've been planning to turn into headwear so I Cut some circles of that, lined it with the very soft plush lining from the wedding wraps I've been doing and mounted them onto a band lined with canvas to strengthen it.

Really simple, but they look FANTASTIC!!! Here they are modelled by a very sexy man on the train this morning (doesn't he look thrilled!!!)

2nd Millinery Course - Week 11

2009-12-01T12:11:00.008Z

We had a different teacher this week – Gina Foster http://www.ginafoster.co.uk/. She’s going to be with us until at least Christmas as Caroline’s having an operation. I hope it all goes well and she heals quickly.

We focussed today on sketching – simple quick sketches, stylised fashion drawings and realistic drawing. I’ve not had a drawing lesson since school (and I gave up art in year 9!!!) so didn’t have much faith in myself, but with the increased patience that age brings and quite a few hints and tips as we went along (plus a few things I remember from Art Attack) I was really pleased with my work.

First we drew a hat on a polystyrene head, focussing on proportions and shape. I took photos as I built up the picture (as this really is a brand new skill for me and far scarier than making the headwear) to record the process:

Then I did some sketching on my “theme” and came up with a few funky ideas, but I’m going to do some more work on them before I put them up.

Finally, I removed the red bowler hat from the blocks. This is the one I blocked the brim and crown together to give a one-piece rather than a two-piece. Where the elastic was sitting, there’s a very strong mark so I hope I can get that out as I wanted to make the most of my one-piece blocking by not having a band round the middle in the classic way. The crown definitely needs stiffening and I’ll wire the edge. I’m going to do a rolled edge on this one. Jenny & I had some fun and games with model poses (she’s much better at that than I am) at the end of the session.

2nd Millinery Course - Week 10

2009-11-24T12:15:00.004Z

Another week of tutorials and freedom to play about as much as we wanted to. When the teacher had been talking about making hats with crowns and brims, she’d said that it’s possible to block the crown and brim together rather than making a two-piece and sewing it together. Intrigued (as ever) I was determined to give it a go.

First off, I must admit that as the teacher was busy doing tutorials I went for the “bodger” approach and don’t know if what I did was right. We’ll have to see next week if it’s worked.

First I steamed my hood (beautiful dark red wool felt this week) and blocked the crown. I used an elastic and pinned the excess to the underside to get it out the way but to keep it stretched. I picked a brim block that fitted around the crown and propped it all in place. I steamed the brim heavily and then stretched it over the brim, pinning the front, back and sides. Using more steam I stretched the felt all around the brim to make sure it was well stretched and straight. The whole thing was excessively fiddly, but not as time-consuming as I’d expected. The brim had a string groove in so I put a figure of eight knot in a piece of elasticated cord (the only thing I could find that wouldn’t snap) to make a sturdy slip-knot and pulled it tight around the groove. I steamed and pulled until I could see that the cord was making a good indentation.

I also steamed the creases out of the hat I manipulated last week. When I took it off the block though, it is far far too tall! I think I’ll measure how tall I want the crown and cut it to make it a two-piece to bring the height down. I trimmed the brim (I’m really pleased with the manipulation I did on that last week) and decided that I’ll try a rolled edge on that when I wire it.

I was exhausted from a lack of sleep over the weekend so I decided I’d achieved enough and headed home early. I’ll try to get some more work in over the weekend ready for next week. I was disappointed to find out that the last class in December has been moved to early January – when I’ll be away. That means I’ll miss two classes instead of one :o(

Making an emergency 50s hat

2009-11-19T09:08:00.009Z

Talking to my friend at work yesterday (the one who picked out the fantastic colours for my sinamay headpiece at college) she said she'd been invited to a fancy dress party and didn't know what to wear. And the party is TONIGHT!!! She'd decided on 50s with a pencil skirt and fitted top, but she was worried it wouldn't look like she'd made an effort.

Well, there's only one answer to that - any 50s outfit is topped off with a hat. So I offered to "knock her up" a little pillbox hat.

First question, what have I got enough of in my sewing room? The outfit is black and dark red. I have a red hood, but it's not been stiffened, and I'm not sure I can manage a felt hat in an evening...all my sinamay's the wrong colour...I could knock something together with buckram and cover it...the only black I have is polyester lining fabric - that won't stretch nicely, but I could go for this sort of style (this is a beautiful example from an etsy seller):

I decided it "must" be possible to block buckram, but seeing as it's SO stiff I'd soak it in water first. Ended up with completely floppy buckram and a bowl of black water - hmmm maybe that's not the best way forwards...still, it blocked fairly easily (it doesn't have the open weave of sinamay so I didn't manage to get all the lumps and bumps out, but that's no problem as the pillbox would be less than half the height of the block and I had it pretty smooth down to there.

An hour later, after making a delicious roasted veg lasagne recipe here the buckram was still dripping wet (and dripping black all over my kitchen floor!) Out came the hair dryer and I discovered that if you use that on coloured drawing pins, the plastic covers fall off and your kitchen ends up looking like you've had a smartie-masacre!!!

But after all that, a beautiful pillbox shape. It twisted slightly (I guess that's because I only used one layer) so I wired the brim and that pulled into shape nicely.
I then traced the top of the block onto the black lining, added a seam allowance, cut a strip a little longer than the distance round the block and made a tube with the oval sewn to the top. I stitched the top into place so it stretched out, then ran several rows of running stitch down the tube.

When the running stitch was all done, I gathered the fabric and sewed it into place over the wire. It's not great, but it's pretty good for just a few hours' work in the evening (and on the train this morning) - I hope she likes it

Update: She loved it and here she is looking fabulous wearing it:

2nd Millinery Course - Week 9

2009-11-17T13:30:00.001Z

This week we started to have our individual tutorials. I printed off all my diary posts and added in some of the pictures of my research (not nearly enough it seems) along with the other bits I’ve done – spider diagrams, word association, analysis of individual pictures. Then I stuck it all in a folder, loaded up myself with bags of hats (I genuinely hadn’t realised how much I’d produced on the course so far) and proceeded to almost get it all to Fulham Broadway in one piece (a very nasty man tried to squeeze past me, squashed everything and then yelled at me)

I’d brought a hood with me to try some manipulation. First I blocked it on a rounded dome block, pulling it right down to the bottom. Then I released it, lifted it up a little and introduced a fold around the crown. I was going to do more, but I loved the simplicity of it so I pinned that in place and got to work on the brim.

I steamed the brim heavily then started to play with it to try all sorts of shapes. Eventually I settled on having it up on one side and down on the other, with an additional flick down at the top to keep it the right height. I steamed and stretched and compressed all over the place to make it look right and left it in the oven to dry. When it came out it looked like I hadn’t done all the steaming and stretching though – it was wrinkled up again!!!

While I was doing all that, I made up some bias binding in sinamay and started to bind the edge of my headpiece. I was surprised how easily the sinamay was worked around quite tight curves and how smart it looks as it's done.

I had my tutorial right at the end of the evening. The teacher seemed to like my folder, but expected far more photos and pictures and didn’t really look at the rest of the stuff I’d done. I guess I’m taking the wrong approach with my research, but the last time I did a project like this was at school so I know I’m a bit rusty. Oh well, I’ll try to go in a slightly different direction with it from now on.

PHOTOS TO FOLLOW - I'VE BROKEN MY COMPUTER AT HOME SO I'M GETTING A BIT BEHIND WITH THEM

Pinstripe Baker Boy Hat

2009-11-13T20:36:00.005Z

Someone at work provided me with some beautiful and incredibly luxurious woolen pinstripe in dark grey and lime green. She asked if I could make her a hat out of it, provided me with a sketch of what she was thinking and handed it over.

I made up a simple baker boy that I've made for myself a couple of times. I worked hard to get the pinstripes lining up and I love the effect that made. The head fitting band was a pain as I did it on the bias, causing it to stretch slightly. This caused the front to ruck up when I put it together, but I steam ironed it until it came back into shape.

Well, here's some pictures:

2nd Millinery Course - Week 8

2009-11-11T14:49:00.003Z

So, we’re on the sinamay headpiece. I arrived and went straight for my work (wrapped up in a plastic bag to stop it fading) – it’s even more beautiful than I remember and I just LOVE the way it looks different colours in different directions. I had no idea when I decided to block more than one colour that it would look this good!

Anyway, enough of that. First we stiffened it by painting over it with a thin coating of PVA glue mixed with water (1/4 PVA and 3/4 water) and putting it back in the oven to dry. Another hat dripped on mine so when I took it out there was a big white splodge on it. I ironed it and the white splodge melted into nothing. Phew!

While we were waiting for them to dry, we made some bias binding and stretched it using the iron. A couple of us had sinamay that stretched massively, leaving us with very long very thin binding that couldn’t really be used for anything – a good lesson in testing before you do the real thing! I did manage to turn it into a very funky spring shape with the iron though, which looks fantastic. It sorts out the edges as well, which fray very easily. I might try using that technique on my hat!

The hats were now dry and we used pins to mark out the shapes we wanted to cut from them. There’s such a variety from classic kidney and tear drop shapes to punctuation marks. I love the v-shape that’s created when the sinamay is stretched when it’s blocked so I based my design on that.

With the design marked, we removed the sinamay from the block (still attached to the cling film) and cut it out. This was really scary – it’s very difficult to properly visualise the shape you’re cutting and you’re sort of trusting to faith. We bent wire into the same shape as we’d cut and stitched it to the edge – tie tacks first, then blanket stitch.

And that was as far as we got. I need to get my research and my diary printed out this week so that it can be put in my folder ready for a tutorial next week to review my progress. I’m strangely excited by that!

Inspiration

2009-11-05T11:02:00.003Z

I went to see Phantom of the Opera last night and the costumes were amazing. Yes, yes I know I'm supposed to just sit back and enjoy the show, but I couldn't take my eyes off the colours and the shapes. Plus the HATS!!! They were everywhere and gave me so many fantastic ideas. I came straight out and filled a few pages of my ideas book.

When I grow up I want to be a theatrical milliner!!!

Project 16 - Purple Coat - Update

2009-11-04T11:21:00.002Z

Well, I wore it to work today - with a belt as it doesn't have buttons yet, but what's the harm in that!!!

I finally worked out, after spending all last night swearing at snapped threads, that if I put the sparkly thread in the bobbin it works beautifully!!! I'd had enough by then though and decided to put it away for the night before I did something stupid.

So, what have I done? I finished off the skirt (the instruction that was completely incomprehensible on Sunday night worked really well with a little playing last night - I just pinned it and played with it until it looked right).

Then I stitched the skirt to the bodice. Again I didn't really understand the instructions so I stitched it to the outside (wool) and then hand stitched the lining onto it, which gave a beautiful finish (and an opportunity to get more hand stitching practice whilst watching a fascinating programme on black holes). I think that's roughly what the instructions said, but I get the impression that whoever was writing them was getting a bit bored of doing it towards the end!!! I'm going to unpick the sleeve linings and do them the same way as it looks really smart.

Then the last thing I did was the top stitching - and a lot of swearing. It was only in testing the button holes on scraps that I tried putting the sparkly thread in the bobbin and it came out PERFECTLY and didn't snap!!! Wish I'd worked that one out earlier, but every experience is a learning experience.

I took a few photos of the bodice last night and will get some photos of the whole thing tonight and put them all up soon.

I'm so unbelieveably proud that I've made a real life coat!!! I'm so proud of how professional it looks - the pleats especially - and the fit of the coat is gorgeous.

2nd Millinery Course - Week 7

2009-11-03T12:01:00.005Z

Right, so after a break for half-term (I spent my Monday night in the audience for “I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue”) it’s back to work this week.

I started the evening with my standard rush to Milliner Warehouse on the way to the course. I picked out two colours of sinamay – royal blue and gorgeous green. I’d been chatting with a friend at work about what colours to do and she’d suggested taking inspiration from a peacock feather – so I did. The two colours look fantastic together.

After a bit of an introduction to sinamay, we started to block a crown shape. It’s totally different to working with straw or felt, mainly as you’re blocking a flat piece of fabric into a head shape, rather than starting with a hood. The technique is completely different too. I’m going to try to explain it without the benefit of photos as I forgot my camera (fool!!!), although I did take a photo of the finished product with a friend’s - oooh I've now blocked another one at home and put the pictures up to explain it.

Right, so first you cut a square of the sinamay, slightly bigger than the block. You place it on the bias, so the corners are pointing to the front, back and sides of the block, pinning the four corners in place. Next you dampen it slightly, just spray a little water on your hands and rub it on the fabric, no more than that, and start to stretch it at the corners. This pulls the threads of the fabric from a right angle to a sharp “V” and as if by magic the fabric between the pins starts to pull tight.

Now don’t get me wrong – it’s NOT that easy! It took everyone a while to get used to it and there was a lot of grunting, growling and swearing in the room. The sinamay’s pre-stiffened and the chemicals dry out your hands massively and the sharp ends of the fibres take a lot of the top layer of skin off – lovely stuff! But eventually you’ve got a head shape fairly smoothly. Great sense of achievement! Plus the amusement that every time you rub water onto the fabric it feels like you’re rubbing a bald head!!!

So, you iron the bald head to fuse the fibres together in their new funky positions, stand back and admire your handiwork. Not bad, but it looks a bit thin to be honest. Aha, that’s because you need 3 LAYERS of the stuff!!! Layer 2 is put on at 45degrees to the original and because of the way you’re now stretching across the straighter bits of the block seems to go on a lot easier. Iron that one and it sticks to the first layer – that’s the business. Then onto the third layer at the same angle as the first. Now we’re talking – this is still hard work, but it’s going much easier as you learn how the fibres move and work together.

I’d done mine with the blue on the first and third layers with the green in the middle and it looks fantastic. I’m so pleased with it. I popped it in the oven for half an hour and got a well-deserved cup of tea.

The rest of the session was spent on playing with manipulating the sinamay. We damped it slightly, put a little PVA glue on (to stiffen it as it dries) and rolled the edges of bias-cut sinamay. I made some bias binding (it’s so easy to manipulate – I did some pretty permanent-feeling folds by hand) and people had a play with making leaves and flowers and all sorts with what they had left over. So next week we’ll be stiffening the crowns and cutting them out into pretty shapes before decorating them.

Project 16 - Purple Coat

2009-11-02T11:54:00.006Z

Ok, so my first coat – and I picked up McCall 5513 over the summer in one of the $3 sales (BARGAIN!) I’ve got a few smart coats and an old battered leather jacket, but I really like the current styles and this one is my favourite.

I’d already decided not to do the appliqué on the back – it’s just not my style and to do some funky contrasting stitching on the seams. I picked up some fairly cheap purple wool coating (a GORGEOUS) colour along with some red lining from Fabric Land. I was going to face it in either lighter purple or red, but when I unpacked the purple I realised I’d been sold 150cm wide when I was told it was 115cm wide so I had loads too much so I decided to self-face. I also bought a set of massive red shell buttons (costing almost as much as the fabric).

I got it all cut out this week, then after spending most of Saturday re-arranging and cleaning my sewing room I got started on Sunday morning. The bodice went together like a dream. All the easing of the shoulder seams and sleeves slipped into place so easily. I officially love working with wool!!! I did all the topstitching in sparkly red thread which is very exciting (although it does snap at the most inopportune moments). I didn’t change anything really except to topstitch most of the seams (only a select few are stitched in the design and that looked a bit random to me) and to machine the lining onto the shoulder seam rather than hem it and slipstitch it. I’m going to get some red binding for that seam to smarten it up, but it feels fine.

Dark fell (so early – since when has it become NOVEMBER?) and after dinner I got onto the skirt. Now that’s more complicated. First are the dozen or so pleats, the only section so far where the instructions are really lacking. All it says is pleat as shown in the picture. I’d never done pleats before, but with a little help from a book I got them sorted and looking rather smart.

The bottom has to be gathered to about ¼ of its original size which with the wool fabric is hard work. The instructions say to run two lines of stitching along the bottom and use those to gather, but my thread just kept snapping. I ended up unpicking that and, following a review I’d read on patternreview.com I found some thick elastic, cut it to the right size and sewed it on stretched out. Even then I had to manually “squidge” the wool as it went through the machine as it was longer than the full stretch of the elastic!!! Eventually (I must have been working on that seam for 2-3 hours – the first difficult part of the coat) I got it done and stitched to the lining and headed off exhausted to bed. I was really disappointed I couldn’t finish it yesterday (I wanted to wear it today), but I’ll do my best to get it done on Tuesday night. It looks like there’ll be a bit more gathering at the top of the skirt but I’m on instruction 54 of 63 so I’m almost there...

2nd Millinery Course - Week 6

2009-10-20T12:43:00.021+01:00

In the words of Kasabian, “I’m on fiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-rrrrrrrrrrrrre” – I had a brilliant evening last night and even finished one of my hats!

Since last week, I’ve been stitching the cord made from the blue felt as neatly as I possibly can. I’ve also been playing with it – knotting it, twisting it, holding it against the hat, trying to work out what I want to do with it. My favourite was a figure of eight knot, which I steamed into place at the start of the class. I had planned to run the rest of the cord around the hat and weave it back through the knot, but when I pinned everything in place that just didn’t look right. I played around until I had found the right position, pinned it all there and started to make holes to thread the cord through.

I tried that on a scrap first – different shaped holes and how they worked with the felt stuck through them. I found that making a cross shape worked best, as long as the flaps ended up on the wrong side of the fabric. I marked my locations and off I went. It was really scary to make the first cut, but as soon as I started threading the cord through I was thrilled with the effect. I’d decided to thread in and out based on where the shape goes out and it looks (if I may say so myself) fantastic. Finally I stitched the knot and ‘tail’ in place, trimmed the tail and made the ends look funky (devil tails according to someone at work). I’m really really pleased with how it has come out and really proud of myself for doing something a little out of the ordinary for once.

Next up, I started blocking a beret. I hadn’t expected to finish what I was doing so quickly so I ‘borrowed’ a black hood off someone and blocked it. I was really pleased with how well it went – it blocked very quickly and I didn’t have very much hassle with the rolled edge – I managed to shrink the felt into it far quicker and easier than I ever have before. I need to have a think about what I want to do to decorate this one.

And finally, we all made up some samplers of tie-tacking wire to the felt, stitching the wire on with a blanket stitch and covering an edge with petersham. I did all the stitching in contrast colours to make it clear on the samples, but was really proud of myself that I could barely see the stitching on the petersham, even though I’d sewn white thread onto black petersham!!!

So, an incredibly successful week. Next week’s half term so there’s not class, but I intend to use the time to get all my planning, research and design work written up. And an early night on a Monday – it’s a mission getting home from Chelsea!!!

A Tragic Loss

2009-10-18T22:27:00.001+01:00

The greatest people are taken from us too young. Joe, you'll be missed every day.

Project 15 - Bumblebee - PHOTOS

2009-10-13T11:32:00.003+01:00

Earthwatch have kindly sent me some pictures of the bumblebee in action. Please click on their link below and see what they do.

www.eathwatch.org/europe

2nd Millinery Course - Week 5

2009-10-13T09:37:00.005+01:00

Good morning everyone!!!

Well, it's Tuesday and you know what that means - millinery course update!!!

Last night we presented our initial ideas for design inspiration for our coursework hats. Mine is the tiny boutique hotel I went to last week for a storytelling event. The atmosphere was fantastic and the plain front door hid the most beautiful and sumptuous interior decorating I've ever seen. Click here to have a look at the website.

The ideas in the group are really varied, ranging from taxidermy to exotic flowers to bubbles to pieces of ceramic art. It'll be so exciting to see how they all develop.

Then, with all the inspiration flowing around in the air we got on with our hats. The teacher showed us how to manipulate hats manually, using a plain block to get some really funky effects. I can't wait to have a try of that.

I had decided to take inspiration for this blue hat from a hat on display in the college. A cord has been made from the felt and laced through the hat to make a very sophisticated-looking decoration.

Using a wet pressing cloth, I stretched my remaining felt (cut off in a circle) into a straight line and cut a long strip of it. I started to hand stitch this into a cord. I'm going to get that finished this week so that I can get it attached next week in the class.

Man making hats makes me so HAPPY

2nd Millinery Course - Week 4

2009-10-06T10:02:00.000+01:00

Good morning everybody and welcome to today's installment in the exciting world of the trainee milliner.

Well, I was in a MUCH better mood last night and had the normal fun that I have on the course the group really is the loveliest to work with - not one person who isn't fully involved, loads of chatter and everyone chatting to everyone else. It's really wonderful.

We started out in the library, researching hat designs, fashion and looking for inspiration for our projects. When that closed, we headed up to the room and got back to our felt hats. Everyone's been going at about the same speed which was great as we were all doing stuff together. I got my hat unpinned, off the block and the head band sewed in by the time we went home. I'm really happy with the shape and spent most of the long train ride home sketching ideas for decorating it. Pictures will follow when I get home.

During the evening, the teacher discussed what we'd be doing during the course, what materials we'll be working with, and said that if we produce really original designs she'll put them forwards for a couple of student competitions which is really exciting and has got me all fired up. There's a list of competition winners for a competition in felt this year and almost all of them are from this college. Plus one of them's on the BTEC course

So, my main work for this week is to think of "inspiration". The things I've picked up so far are the autumn leaves around me and (to appease my colleagues) the olympic rings. She's much more keen that we base on a painting or something like that though so we'll see where we end up...I'm keeping my camera on me at all times and my theatre trip on Wednesday may turn into a gallery instead...

2nd Millinery Course - Week 3

2009-09-30T09:31:00.000+01:00

Well, the jet-lag is finally dispersing and I'm starting to feel human again. I can tell as I spent the train-ride into work this morning with my nose in my note book, oblivious to the world around me and full of ideas

I must admit, Monday did NOT go well. I was tired and grumpy and full of mistakes. Everything went wrong and I made it all worse!

Well, I'd missed the first two weeks as I was on holiday so I got all the hand-outs - three assignments of research, design and make over the length of the course. The other girls on the course are really really lovely and I feel like I've made friends already. One of them had just got engaged at the weekend which was really exciting.

The first few weeks are practical to give everyone a chance to block. Quite a few people have done it before - mainly as they did fashion or design courses at uni. I picked a beautiful block - very small and a one-piece as I'm a little behind in terms of time. I got it blocked quite quickly (in a fantastic royal blue hood) and started to work out the creases as it has a rolled bottom. That was when I got cross and attacked it with scissors, cutting off far more than I should and making life even more difficult for myself. NEVER do complex work when that tired - it's foolish - although I'm sure you all know that one!

There's some detailing on the crown, a little like the block my husband bought me for my birthday and I started to pin that in, but didn't get it complete before the end of the session.

No photos I'm afraid - I didn't remember my camera (I'm quite pleased I remembered all my blocking stuff actually) but hopefuly I'll be better next week. Think I gave a terrible first impression as I was so tired and had had an awful first day back at work, but I've got the next 6 months or so to make that better.

Now to find some "inspiration" for my designs...

HOLIDAY!!!

2009-09-02T22:46:00.000+01:00

I'm off to America to walk across the Grand Canyon!!! See you in 3 1/2 weeks!

Project 15 - Bumble Bee

2009-09-02T07:57:00.003+01:00

This was an amusing one - a scientist who wanted a fairly accurate costume so that he can teach about bees in schools by dressing up as one...

This is a bombus terrestris:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=bombus%20terrestris&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

and this is his outfit (to be worn with full length black trousers and top and gloves, but it was far too hot for that when I was modelling it...

Project 14 - Silk - PHOTOS

2009-08-30T19:48:00.000+01:00

Well the wedding was fantastic and although I never quite fell in love with the dress (I think it's too much pattern and a little overpowering), I adore the hat. Here's a couple of pics for you

Project 14 - Silk - Update

2009-08-17T22:51:00.001+01:00

The hat...first thing was to make bias binding and then stitch it to the sinamay base

Then assemble it and add a hairband. Decoration still to come...

Decorated with the silk and lining fabric with fishing wire stitched in the seams, then ruffled into gorgeous little pompoms

Project 14 - Silk - Update

2009-08-09T23:19:00.000+01:00

The dress is finished!!!

Bought a bias binder maker today and made some up from the silk to edge the hat. It's looking fantastic so far, although I'm hand-sewing so it's taking a while.

Project 14 - Silk - Update

2009-08-08T15:47:00.000+01:00

Where has time gone? When I started this there was AGES to go, and now the wedding's 2 weeks today! Going down to my in-laws next weekend which means I need to finish at least the dress this weekend. And with a social life to fit in

Well, I've got everything cut, have basted all the lining to the silk and done all the gathering - it's amazing how long all that preperation takes!!! Absolutely exhausted, but want to get it at least looking like a dress today, even if I can't get it completely finished off...

Project 14 - Silk - Update

2009-08-05T22:31:00.001+01:00

okay, a slight deviation - the dress will get my attention at the weekend.

Yesterday I had a vision. It was in the shape of a hat/fascinator and it goes with the dress. So I mocked it up while no-one was looking out of a sheet of paper at work. Here's the mock-up.

then I got home and made that fingernail size mockup into something out of a cereal box that is the right size for my head (using lots of fantastic circle mathematics I thought I'd forgotten)

I was really really happy with that so I got some sinamay today and I've made up the first part of the hat. REally happy with progress so far...

Project 14 - Silk - Update

2009-07-26T16:22:00.001+01:00

oh my oh my oh my - some very very lovely person has sent me some marfy patterns to try before I get started on the "marfy challenge" and I've just had a little play with this dress (third image):

http://www.marfy.it/eng/activenews.asp?idcat=3453&idart=54101&azione=list&layout=

I picked it as it was the only dress and as you may have noticed, I have a teeny bit of a thing about dresses...

well I made it up (incredibly easily - I was surprised - it only took about an hour!!!) just to see how it went in scrap fabric and it's the most beautiful thing I've ever put on!

so little bit of a change in plan - looks like this is what I'm making up in the silk...it's mind blowing and with the drape of the silk it's going to be divine.

Going to rip apart this toile and maybe cut the silk today I'm so excited!!!

Project 14 - Silk - Update

2009-07-15T22:09:00.000+01:00

I made up the bodice again last night but I'm still not happy with it. Tried doing French seams for the first time because all my research on silk suggested it - a lot easier than I'd expected (even though I felt I was doing things wrong by sewing on the righ side of the fabric) and very useful for lining things up.

Had a go at pinning the seam allowances to check how it looks as I'm not 100% sure about it. I had a second go at expanding it as the 'stretched apart' look of the folds isn't what I was aiming for. Gotta get it right and all...and it's a good learning experience if very frustrating. I'm finding it hard to get my teeth in with only an hour or so an evening available to do work on it.

Oh well it's best to get things right before I start on the silk...

Update: Well, that sort of worked, but I just don't like the shape of the dress now that it's my size. Think I might have a look for a different pattern...

Project 14 - Silk - Update

2009-07-14T15:07:00.000+01:00

ok, so I finally got around to lengthening the pattern - a good excuse to get my pristine (because it scared me) fitting book out and have a look at what to do.

I had to add 2 inches - there's 2 pleats so I put half an inch above each and an inch below the bottom one. The pattern needed more tweaking than I expected to make the lines match up again, but I think I've done ok.

Hoping to cut that out tonight and redo the toile for the top of it. See if that fits, and if it does I can get on with the real thing (or put it off for another few weeks as I'm scared to cut the silk)

Project 14 - Silk

2009-07-06T10:16:00.000+01:00

Well, after years of wandering into Liberty to gaze longingly at the fabric, I finally turned up during the sale and bought myself two metres of this:

I've never held such beautiful fabric and I've certainly never had any clothes made out of something so gorgeous.

As it's the first time I've ever worked with silk, and as it has such a bold pattern I want to make something very simple with it. I have this pattern (used view C for my dress for my Aunt's birthday party) and thought view D would be ideal:

I had to lengthen view C massively (3 or 4 inches in the bodice) when I made it before, and putting the toile together, view D will be the same...BUT...there's no "lengthen or shorten here" line and I'm not entirely sure how to go about it.

Project 12 - Debbie's Skirt - Update

2009-06-06T18:07:00.000+01:00

all finished - I had the fear that it was going to be too small as it looked tiny, but made martha up to her measurements and it looks fine.

Update: Debbie loved it - it's such a treat to be able to give things to my friends and see their smiles

Project 12 - Debbie's Skirt

2009-06-06T10:21:00.000+01:00

Well, it's a close friend's birthday this week and we're out tonight so I'm going to make her up this skirt

http://images.patternreview.com/sewing/patterns/newlook/6569/6569.jpg

Got to the market before the stalls were even set up (I couldn't help it, I was excited) and after a walk in the rain got her these two fabrics

About 1 1/2 hours till we're due to go out, probably have an hour or two when we get home - no problem (fingers crossed)

Millinery Course - Week 9

2009-03-23T18:50:00.000Z

Right, week 9, the final week of my course

I had no idea how I was going to get everything finished, despite having done everything I possibly could at home. Priority was the swirly wirly hat as I needed to use the block to ensure it kept in shape.

So, I unpinned part of it from the top and sewed the ribbon onto the underside of the top part. Then I sewed the top part to the bit it was overlapping. I worked on both spirals together and unpinned as I went. It was every bit as complicated and fiddly as it sounds, especially with working it while it was partially pinned onto the block. HEre's some photos to make that clearer:

I had run across London and arrived and started early, but that's as far as I got. You'll be pleased to know it's now finished and in use - I'd had to finish off the block and it had got a bit big, but I pulled it in a bit with the ribbon inside which makes up the head fitting and it's a bit loose now, but I wore it on Friday night to go to the Hats exhibition at the V&A with my mum photo hasn't been taken yet, I believe and won't do today as I don't want anyone to see how horrific my hair is right now, but I'll get there...

I didn't even touch the straw hat - bought that home as it was - so there'll still be updates on here as I finish stuff off (OK I finished the basic part of the straw hat yesterday, but I haven't decorated it yet - it's come together even better than the felt one did!

The course ended with a display of all the hats we'd made, so here's a bit of that for you:

I'm actually quite glad I bought stuff home unfinished - this course has filled me with so much excitement day in and day out that I'm glad I've got something to play with. Just wish I could afford my own blocks so I could carry on...

[PHOTO LINKS BEING UPDATED]

Millinery Course - Week 8

2009-03-12T10:59:00.000Z

So, the penultimate week has been and gone and I can’t believe it’s almost over!

Where to start? Well, I’d rushed out the door that morning and forgotten my trimmings for my straw hat (you may recognise these when they turn up – a certain cream and black polka dot sinamay which I just happened to buy too much of and produced a fantastic hat with from a fabric pattern last week). I was really cross with myself as I needed that for this week.

So what did I do? I resurrected the swirly hat plan . I got a plain black hood, marked a circle on the top, then a 2” wide spiral all the way down it. I cut along the spiral, then blocked the hat making it overlap slightly. Not as much stretch as the others have had, but it looked really funky on the little cloche block and made me very excited. I’m going to line the edge with white ribbon then stitch it all together Hopefully it’ll keep in shape. And hopefully I’ll be able to complete it in just three short hours!!! Not sure how I’ll do it if I don’t have the block to work with though.

Next, the straw hat – I completed the rolling of the edge. That’s not looking as nice as I’d planned, but it was very fiddly. I’m thinking of using the leftover straw that I cut off to make the decorations – not sure how yet, still working on that bit. One of the other girls in the class has the same straw hood but in white and she gave me her leftover bits so I think that could look very funky. I’m thinking of rolling it around hat wire and having some form of abstract thingy going round the hat. Don’t worry if that doesn’t make sense to you – it doesn’t make sense to me yet!

So, more than 3 hours work there, so I bought home the black and blue hat, which I finished last night! I put a matching blue ribbon around it, gathered it in one spot and fastened with the spare button from the coat it’s designed to match. It looks really professional, although the decoration is a little too far back and obscured by the brim. Still, as always we’re the only ones who see fault in our work. I wore it to work today and I’ve had loads of really positive comments including “it looks like a real hat” from my client!

Since Monday I’ve also been shopping for acres and acres of Petersham ribbon and I made the headband for the embroidered cloche last night (I still have the holes in my fingers to prove it). I’m going to roll the remaining straw around wire in preparation for Monday and I’m going to see how much of the embroidery I can get done. It’s going to be a busy week.

[PHOTO LINKS BEING UPDATED]

Millinery Course - Week 7

2009-03-04T20:42:00.000Z

First things first, starting the fourth hat this far in is too much so I've left that one (for now - I'll be back)

Then onto the black felt hat - I sewed the petersham head band in place and tried the crown on again - it's a fantastic fit.

Next job was to sew the crown onto the brim and all of a sudden everything came together and it suddenly became a hat. All the concerns I'd had about things not fitting - it worked! I can't tell you how good it felt

I wore that hat for the rest of the lesson - you couldn't get me out of it. I didn't want to leave it at the end of the night...next Monday it's decoration time and then it's FINISHED!!!

Right, now onto the straw hat. I hadn't shown you the picture of the brim blocked up so here it is:

So first job was to take it off the block and trim the edges. They were trimmed a couple of cm away from the edge, unlike the felt hat which was trimmed on the very edge line.

Next was to bend the wire into the shape of the brim (a much quicker job this time, but still difficult to perfect) and then to colour it with permanent marker so it wouldn't show through any gaps in the straw

Then it was sewn into the crease you can see in the second picture to give the brim its (fantastic) shape

Finally I started to roll the edge of the brim over the wire to make a clean rolled edge. Didn't get far with that though, so that's my first job next week...

Oh, and the one I bought home - I started to embroider that this weekend - here's the process so far:

[PHOTO LINKS BEING UPDATED]

Millinery Course - Week 6

2009-02-24T22:34:00.000Z

Right, Alion's weekly update part...erm...6 I think...

Arrived tired, grumpy and with shaky hands from the exhaustion of stressful work and not giving myself any down-time. Got my brim out and carried on (very slowly due to the shaky hands) sewing the blue petersham ribbon around it. Quickly relaxed and the troubles of the world (and financial year end with a project with everything going wrong) disappeared away from that little work room with us making our hats. Got the petersham sewed on in fits and spurts throughout the night (to be told by the teacher that it was "pretty much perfect" which made me grow ten feet). Once it's on though, you wipe a damp cloth along it and it shrinks to perfectly mould round the hat - so now it's doubly perfect!!! Sadly no picture as the battery ran out on my camera, but I'll show you some of that complete next week.

Next stage with that hat was to sew some petersham to make a head fitting. I got started (sewed the seam in the back to make it the same size as my head), but no further.

Onto the straw hat. I found a brim (OK I've been coveting it for most the course and it wasn't in use this week) which matches the rakish angle of the crown I chose. Here's the two of them together:

I then totally unpinned the brim, decided that I was happy with the shape even though it hadn't kept as well as I'd wanted (see last week) and chopped off the brim...

Blocking the brim was far easier than the felt one (possibly as the pins went in easier) and with the experience of blocking the straw crown I was really starting to understand how it was working (less of a pull and a stretch, more of an ease and a shape). Sorry no photos here, but it looks grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat

Finally, it was time to take the beige cloche off the block. You may remember that I struggled to get it on, to get the hood to stretch around the block, well it was just as hard to get it back off again! The teacher did it for me in the end as I was so worried about stretching it. It did stretch a bit, but apparently we can ease it back into shape. I bought this one home as I'm keen to embroider on it (the felt's a dream to sew on) and my husband got a gorgeous picture of me in it (his photography being key of course - something to do with focussing on the eye so everything else is soft)

And finally, hat number 4. I had this image of a black hat with a spiral down it in white, with the hood cut and resewn to get the shape. Not sure if it'll work, but I've got a hood sitting here at home so I can try it...

[PHOTO LINKS BEING UPDATED]

Millinery Course - Week 5

2009-02-19T21:36:00.002Z

Ok, week 5 was the BEST YET - they're really starting to come together...

First of all, I blocked the pale hood (one of these, forgot to take a picture of it before I blocked it)

I really struggled at first to stretch it enough to get it round the bottom of the block, but kept steaming it and pulling it until it finally stretched. As with the straw hat I had to make a strip to pull it into shape. But boy what a shape!

It's got a rolled edge and the head fitting is actually on the inside so all that stretched felt had to be steamed and fitted to the decreasing size on the inside...to show you, here's how I did it first time:

and here's how I did it after some tutoring and practice:

I'm not really sure how to describe the technique, but you just steam it till it's too hot to handle and pull it into position where you want it. Then you can go back and tidy it up until you're happy with it.

Right, so that one's sitting in the drier and it's on to check how the straw one's coming along. While that's dried, the fantastic "dent" in the top has stretched back out. Didn't do anything with it, but think I'm going to re-block it as it did look far better before. It's all a learning experience...

Unsure at the time what to do with that, and with fingers all crinkled from steam I got down to the brim of my other felt hat. First it had to be trimmed and suddenly it looks like part of a hat

Then it had to be tried on to check the fit. This was a little small, but they've got special equipment (hot sticks on a vice as far as I can tell) for making things bigger and it soon fit just fine

I was really pleased with this as I had been worried how the brim in a size smaller than my head and the crown a size bigger were ever going to fit together.

Next job is to reinforce the brim. Using the block as a guide, we had to bend some wire into the shape of the edge of the brim and then sew it onto the brim itself. At this point, we used the hat bands we'd made in previous weeks to support the hat itself.

And finally (and yes I have noticed that my weekly reports are getting longer) we started to sew the petersham ribbon on over the wire. This was far easier than I expected (and sewing the felt of the hats is just dream-like). The aim is to make the stitching on the ribbon invisible and I really couldnt' see mine. I was so proud!

So the final photos are of that - a prize if you can spot the stitches

Next week we should be sewing the two together. I should be able to block the brim of my straw hat and maybe even decorating the black one (if I can find what I'm looking for)

I just can't wait till Monday!

[PHOTO LINKS BEING UPDATED]

Millinery Course - Week 4 Take 2

2009-02-10T21:27:00.000Z

Well, after a week off (time to be caught up at the end of the course so no worries there) spent wishing I could be there I had another lesson.Seriously, I'm 4 weeks in now - surely I should be SLIGHTLY less excited week by week, but every night all I want is to be there!So, what did we do this week?Firstly I finished my hat band, which is good as the hats get worked on off the blocks next week

Then it was on to the straw hat. You may remember that I stiffened it last time, well I think I used a little too much stiffener and it's rock solid! So I decided that instead of a summery hat I'd make a much more structured smaller hat. I loved this block (oops didn't get a a photo of that) with a "dent" round the top and slightly asymmetrical. Here's how it looks with the top of the hat blocked:

and here when I'd blocked the whole thing:

I'm loving how the colour's looking with the shape. I think I'm going to do an asymmetrical brim.

Next job was the seam in the back of my felt hat. You may remember it looked like this last time:

Well, it got trimmed, stitched and ironed and now it looks like this:

Ready to cut along the brim and work on making that strong.Lastly, I want to make a cloche in a sort of camel colour and embroider it with an autumn leaf (my major inspiration - you should have seen our wedding!) and I've picked out this block, which someone has already used and has come out like this (without any extra work done to it yet to help it keep the shape):

I'm so excited by it all - and it's wonderful to come on here and write all that excitement down. Next step involves wire and ribbon - stay tuned

Millinery Course - Week 4

2009-02-02T16:21:00.000Z

Hoping the course is on tonight and that I can get there...London seems to be inaccessible by any means this morning!

Update: Nope - snow stops milliners - I miss it already and I wouldn't even be there yet!!!

Project 8 - Pants - FINISHED

2009-01-29T20:24:00.000Z

I Have Finally Finished The Pants!

Update: we went away this weekend for the birthday celebrations and he LOVES his new pants! The comments of "wow, you really made those?" are quite possibly the biggest sewing-related boost I've ever had!

AND he says they fit him really well, which is what I was most worried about!

And other than that a fantastic weekend of hiking, kite flying, socialising, games, food and drink - still can't believe we fitted 28 people in that lounge!

Millinery Course - Week 3

2009-01-27T12:28:00.000Z

Well, week three has been and gone and I've blocked the brim of my hat. Last night's lesson was a lot harder than the previous ones and I've got some concerns, but I can see where it's all going now.

Firstly, I bought a straw hood this week in red and some petersham ribbon for the felt hat. I've got the ribbon in black for the inside (to stop the hat stretching) and royal blue for the edge of the brim to go with this coat: http://www.karenmillen.com/pws/images/catalogue/product/011CG00806/mann_medium/011CG00806.jpg

I knew exactly which block I wanted, but someone else got there first so I had to have a rethink. I ended up with this one (which I might like even better...)

He'd said that we could have a bit of variation in the size block we used when compared to our head sizes. I'm a 22" head and used a 22.5" block for the brim and am now using a 21" block for the brim - it adds up to quite a difference. I've had to put a seam in the back of my brim because of it (to take out the extra felt) but really can't see how it's all going to go together with such a massive difference...

First job was to mark the cutting line on the crown and remove the brim. Very scary to make that first cut...

Blocking the brim was far harder than the crown. With my brim block (which looks like a very funky toilet seat and sounds like a toilet cleaner - oh I was having so much fun with the toilet jokes last night) you have to pin the middle bit first to keep it in shape, then stretch it out over the whole of the brim. I was really struggling to get the pins in due to the angle. Pushing pins into wood isn't easy in the first place and my fingers are really sore today from it!

But eventually it started to work. We removed most of the excess fabric and made a butted seam at the back. By the end of the session I'd blocked the brim and it was looking less toilet seat and more hat which was very satisfying. A lot of people didn't manage to get that finished and were feeling quite frustrated, and I can see why - it looks nothing like a hat then suddenly at the last minute it starts to make sense.

Next week we will put wire and ribbon round the brim to strengthen it, and start blocking the straw hood. Apparently that's quite a different process and gives very different results despite being done much the same way.

Project 8 - Pants - Update

2009-01-26T22:33:00.000Z

After a very successful weekend I can report that the orange pair are FINISHED!!!

I made the bias binding and bound the legs of the yellow pair, but didn't think about stretch so they ended up really wide and i'm currenly unpicking them to redo that. Wonder what people thought on the train this morning?

I also need to unpick the brown pair and sew them together again introducing stretch.

I've learned so much the last few weeks and I'm really happy with how they're coming out. I reckon 2 more evenings and they'll be done (good thing too as I only have 3 evenings left!

Project 9 - Heart Shirt - Update

2009-01-24T15:00:00.000Z

It was just as easy as I'd hoped. Got some red jersey off the market (1.5m for £3 - gotta love the market guy who always gives more or charges less) and the leftover fringe from my christmas dress and really pleased with the outcome. If I did it again I'd make the heart a bit smaller though - it looked right when it was just the fabric cut out, but it's a bit large with the fringe as well