Category: hats

A brand new summer hat

A straw cloche hat with orange and red ribbons made into the shape of a pansy. Made by Mind Your Bonce Millinery
My new straw cloche hat

I wrote recently about needing a new hat for the summer.

I needed it to be soft, to have a wide brim, and to be suitable for folding up into my rucksack so I don’t have to carry it about with me all day. 

This hat is none of those things. 

But I spotted it on Instagram, and immediately fell in love. 

It’s made by Karen of Mind Your Bonce Millinery, and it’s upcycled from a previous incarnation of straw hat. I ordered it on a Thursday afternoon, it arrived on the Monday, and it fits absolutely perfectly. What more could I have asked for?

I’ve recently bought some wide-legged linen trousers (which turned out to be a saga and a half, let me tell you!), so I reckon I could rock a late 1920s/early 1930s summer style without looking as though I’m on my way to a fancy dress party.

I just need to fold a tote bag into the bottom of my rucksack, so I can pop the hat inside it when need to. The hat is very sturdy (more so than I expected from straw, actually), so I think it will cope with being carried about when it isn’t on my head. Although, to be honest, I think it’s going to be on my head whether it’s sunny outside or not.

Thank you Karen – I love my new hat!

Aah, the Great British Summer.

One summer shoe, and one winter shoe
One summer shoe, and one winter shoe

Okay, so I didn’t go to University last week with two different shoes on. But I did set out in the morning wearing a cardigan, and with a cagoule and my rucksack’s rain cover packed up just in case. By the time I came home I had no need of the cardigan, and my feet were covered in blisters from wearing my new summer shoes actually in the heat for the first time.

(Note to self: put the summer socks at the front of the drawer!)

eternal magpie white summer blouse
eternal magpie white summer blouse

There’s a really useful article from last year that’s doing the rounds again, about antidepressants and other medication that can make you more sensitive to the sun. Crucially, there are two things to note:

1) these effects can persist for a long time after you’ve stopped taking them, and
2) it doesn’t necessarily mean just sunburn. It can also mean poor internal temperature control, so you can suffer from heatstroke and end up quite poorly before you’ve even realised that you’re too hot.

So, check the paperwork for any medications you’re taking, and think about other things too – St John’s Wort supplements and bergamot essential oil are just two things you could be taking or putting on your skin that could increase your risk of sunburn and heat sensitivity.

I’m susceptible to both the heat and the sun, and I’m also allergic to every single brand of sunscreen that I’ve tried. Yes, including all of the “sensitive” and “hypoallergenic” ones. (Thanks, fibromyalgia!) This means that in the summer you’ll quite often see me covered up from head to toe, especially during a heatwave like the one that’s started in Germany this week.

Liberty print summer witch's hat
Liberty print summer witch’s hat

Last year I made this hat, as a response to the question “what would a witch wear in summer?”. It has the advantages of being very light, and just as easy to pack into a rucksack as my cagoule. (Yes, I’ll be carrying both until it’s time for my winter coat to come out again.) But, because of its unusual style, I didn’t pluck up the courage to actually wear it very much last year. I can’t be lugging about my enormous straw hat everywhere I go though, so something that folds up into my bag is absolutely essential, especially if I’m going to try and stay fit by walking to campus and back when I’m well enough.

I’m not doing any sewing at the moment, as I’ve managed to injure my back, so I’m half-heartedly on the lookout for a soft summer hat that I might like. Really though, every time I see one that might just do, I think about my sewing patterns and I’m itching to make something new.

Witches’ hats – not just for Hallowe’en…

Liberty print summer witch's hat
Liberty print summer witch’s hat

You know that train of thought where you’re looking at your felted witch’s hat and thinking that it’s a bit hot to wear for the summer solstice and then you start to wonder what a summer witch’s hat would look like and suddenly you’re drawing up a new sewing pattern…? 

So, here’s the thing. I seem to have made a Liberty tana lawn witch’s hat. 

It needs some minor alterations to the brim (it’s asymmetrical, and a bit floppy on the other side), but I rather fancy making a few more of these!

Back to the hats!

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Well, it’s been a while, but I am finally getting back to the hats. This bright orange beauty is now in my Etsy shop, I just need to find a box the right size for shipping this new style.

A couple of months ago I made the difficult decision to sell two of my cloche blocks to another milliner, and to put the money towards two new things – a set of shoe lasts (currently AWOL in transit between here and Portugal, argh), and a mini top hat block. To decide whether mini top hats were definitely going to be the way forward, I made an impromptu block out of an old biscuit tin, and ended up with this:

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As you can see, the shape is a bit short and wide for a top hat, and I did have some issues to do with not using a proper block (note: cardboard, however thick, is not a great surface for millinery!), so this one won’t be for sale. However, I was really happy with the idea, and with the felt-and-Swarovski crystal embellishments.

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Convinced that the idea would work, I went ahead and ordered the block below. The crown (the top part) measures about 11cm tall, and the brim is about 17cm across with the edges curled upwards. I’m not totally convinced by the outward flare at the bottom of the crown, but the five-part blocks necessary for a beautifully curved top hat shape were beyond my budget, so this one it had to be.

(To make a curved top hat shape, you need a block that’s designed to come apart inside the finished hat. Otherwise you can’t get the wide top of the crown out past the narrow bit in the middle! And of course, the engineering involved to make those costs money that I don’t have right now. One day, though. One day.)

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The style feels a little more Guy-Fawkes-goes-Steampunk than I’d intended, but I really like the size and the proportions of the resulting hat. I haven’t trimmed this red one yet, because I don’t have any item in my sewing room that’s either a matching shade of red, or a good contrasting colour. I don’t know how that’s possible, but it seems to be true!

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This orange one’s trimmed with remnants of a lovely bouclé tweed, so it’s absolutely one of a kind – I don’t have enough of this fabric left to make another. Which is a shame really, as it would have looked great trimming a navy hat, or a bright pink one! I will put up a made-to-order version on Etsy though, as I really fancy making some of these trimmed with a nice bit of proper Harris Tweed.

Any takers?

Hats, Shoes and Dolls.

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I mentioned, back in my New Year post, that my One Word for 2015 was going to be “focus”.

I also mentioned that the three things I wanted to focus on were HATS, SHOES and DOLLS.

So, as you do, I promptly took a three-month sabbatical from making hats.

Although this might seem counter-intuitive, it actually gave me time to think about how the hats had been received at the wedding fair in January (nowhere near as well as they were at the Christmas craft market), and start to gather some extremely useful feedback. As a result, I’m having a bit of a re-think about the styles of hats I want to make.

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This is the first experiment off the blocks (well, actually, off an old biscuit tin!), and I have to say that I’m quite pleased with it so far. It’s a small top hat, about 10cm in diameter, and about the same high. The brim was blocked flat and then hand shaped and wired, and finished with bias binding. The embellishments are some felt “tentacles” I made a while ago, and you can see that I’ve started to add a few sparkly Swarovski crystals, which I love against the matt felt. This particular one won’t be for sale, as it’s part of an outfit that you’ll have seen a sneaky glimpse of if you follow me on Instagram. All will be revealed when it’s complete!

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As far as shoes go, a plan is currently in the works! These are a few cotton pairs that I made back in 2011, but decided not to take any further. This time I’m changing both the materials and the method, and I have a few people signed up to do some wear testing of a batch of prototype wool felt shoes.

They will be shoes, not slippers, as they’ll have a durable rubber sole that can be worn outside. They’ll need the same sort of treatment as any fabric summer shoes, although I think the wool will be fairly robust. If they turn out well, I have other fabrics in mind. Harris Tweed, anyone? Silk, for weddings? We’ll see. Fingers crossed that the prototypes turn out well!

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As for the dolls… well, they’re firmly stuck in my imagination at the moment. They were going to live over at Mr & Mrs Magpie’s Inexplicable Emporium, but I simply haven’t had the time or the energy to do anything other than think about them. Olaf hasn’t even been tweeting very often.

I know exactly what the characters all look like, and I know how I want the dolls to turn out… but the gap between my current skills and the finished dolls seems impassable right now.

For the moment I’m concentrating on the new top hats, plus my favourite shape of close-fitting cloche. I’m ordering the materials for the shoes this week, so I can start to get those into production as soon as the felt arrives. But after that, and my Proper Job, and my Aromatherapy distance learning course, I think the dolls might just have to wait for a little while.

I’m sure they’ll demand to be made when they’re ready.

Thinking about hats

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One of the things I’ve been thinking about recently is my hats, and where they’re going.

Before Christmas, they were really well-received at a local craft fair. Even the feedback from people who made sure to tell us that they were definitely not going to buy a hat was overwhelmingly positive! Buoyed by this result, after Christmas I signed myself up to go to a wedding fair, and made some more “weddingy” hats to display.

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I was really pleased with the designs I’d come up with, but it quickly transpired that they weren’t going to be anywhere near as well received as the cloches. Time to think again.

I think what I’d overlooked, in the mad rush to make plenty of stock for Christmas and the wedding fair, was that these hats were always supposed to be a means to an end – a stepping stone to learn the skills, so I could then move on to a different kind of hat. I became so bogged down in what I thought I could sell, that I forgot all about what I had originally been trying to create.

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I’ve learnt a lot from the hats I’ve made so far, and I’ve really enjoyed working with organic cotton lace and beautiful wool felt. These headbands, for example, will definitely be staying around. I’ve also realised that the reason I’ve been so quiet on the blog for so long is that I simply don’t feel comfortable writing a post whose sole purpose is to try and sell you something. Which, to be honest, is all I’ve been trying to do for the past year. I mean, yes, of course I need to sell the hats once I’ve made them, otherwise I’m just filling my work room with stuff! But I’d much rather share a thought or explain a process than just try to sell a hat.

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What I’d originally intended to make was a series of freeform hats like this, from handmade felt. I also wanted to use handmade felt to make traditionally-formed hats, such as my favourite cloche shape shown above. Unfortunately, the fibromyalgia’s been so bad this year that I haven’t had the strength required to make the quality and thickness of felt necessary for this type of hat.  However, at the Christmas craft fair I did have quite a long chat with a local felting expert who was quite critical of my pieces (at my request), and gave me quite a few tips for techniques and tools that I might find helpful.

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I have to admit that I have absolutely loved almost every single hat that I’ve made so far. The learning curve has been an enjoyable one, and the materials are extremely satisfying to work with. Just for now though, it’s time to take a little break, have a little think, and work out what to do next.

Hats to order

Russett cloche with organic cotton lace

I was doing well for a while, keeping up with the blog, and then I was ill, and then busy catching up with work, and here I am behind again. This is one of the things I’ve been up to – a new hat! It’s my favourite asymmetric cloche shape, with an organic cotton lace motif and Swarovski crystal trim. Available now in the Etsy shop, or made to order in a colour of your choice!

Nicola's ORANGE hat!

I’ve popped a few other hats in the Etsy shop too, so that I can make them to order. This is one of the first hats I made, and I’m still completely in love with the giant felt flower. You can now order one of your own, though it doesn’t have to be bright orange of course!

I never did get around to making fascinators with the other felted flowers that I made, and they haven’t sold at all well on hair combs, so I think they’ll be coming soon to a hat near you.

Hand blocked wool felt fuchsia pink cloche hat with black guipure lace and button trim

This is one of the simpler styles of hat, a plain round cloche trimmed with guipure lace. I think it’s the one I’ve made the most of (three pink and one grey, at the last count), and now you can order one for yourself. The hat can be made in any of 25 different colours, but the lace is only available in black or ivory.

The next step on the hat journey is going to be pillboxes! I’m just waiting for a clever widget to arrive from Guy Morse-Brown, which will allow me to use my existing blocks to make little felt pillbox shapes. I’m not sure yet how I’m going to trim those, I need to see how they sit on the head before I decide. At the moment I’m thinking big felt bows, or maybe lots of little flowers. We’ll see.

Milly's witch's hat

And just by way of a complete contrast, I spent the weekend making this! The reason it looks a little bit too small for me is that it’s intended for my three year old niece. Although I have to confess I’m pretty tempted to make another one that I can keep! This one has a secret pocket inside the brim (where else does a witch keep her important things?), complete with a little packet of “Magic Dust” for casting spells with. I really hope she likes it!

Prototype Hats

Jersey turban (prototype)

I’m still working on various different styles of sewn hats, as well as the blocked felt ones. This is a prototype stretch turban, which I’m really rather pleased with! It’s inspired by 1940s styles, and I don’t think it makes me look too much as though I should be wearing a housecoat and have hair curlers poking out from underneath…

Mind you, even if it does, I don’t much care, because it’s just so comfortable. The band can be pulled right down over your ears, which means it’ll be really cosy on windy days, but it’s light enough to wear in this in-between weather when it’s still not too cold. It’s also soft enough that it scrunches down to nothing, so if the sun does decide to come out you can just take it off and stick in in a pocket. Perfect!

Jersey turban (prototype)

This is prototype number two, in stretch velvet. Not as comfortable as the first one, because the fabric’s quite a bit thicker. You can’t see from these photos, but there are pleats all down the back of the hat to gather it into place. I need to undo them and replace them with something a bit less bumpy, as this one’s not quite as comfortable as the jersey version. But hey – that’s what prototypes are for – to work out exactly this kind of thing, and make any modifications that might turn out to be necessary.

Once I’ve got these little niggles worked out, I’ll be popping some photos in the Etsy shop and taking orders for these. I expect I’ll be making a couple more to keep, too.

Draped 1920s turban

This somewhat different style is my prototype Draped Turban, from a set of original 1920s instructions by Ruth Wyeth Spears.

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I’m not convinced it looks quite like the picture, are you?!

I found the instructions on Pinterest, courtesy of The Midvale Cottage Post blog, which I am now eagerly following. (Vintage sewing patterns and instructions? Yes please!) I cut all the pieces out as specified, without really thinking too much about the measurements. When I came to sew the side band to the crown, I discovered that the circumference of an 8″ diameter circle isn’t anywhere near 29″, so I’m not entirely certain why I was advised to cut the pieces so big. The other problem was that it simply isn’t possible to pop down to a department store and buy a handy buckram crown, so I needed to make an inner foundation for the hat. I did this with six segments made from heavy interfacing, and then again with lining. I made them a little smaller than the outer hat, because the instructions say to “distribute fullness” at the bottom.

Unfortunately my own maths had apparently also gone a little bit awry, because the dratted thing now has a circumference of only 21-and-a-bit inches, which means it’s much too small. It wouldn’t even fit on my polystyrene head without the wig, and I managed to gouge a chunk out of her ear as I was trying to force the issue. (Sorry, polystyrene lady!) I also think the inner foundation isn’t quite tall enough. It’s supposed to be a floppy hat, but there seems to be a lot more fabric to play with than the picture might suggest.

So, it’s back to the drawing board with this one, I think. Which is a shame, because I would wear the heck out of this hat… if I could get it on my head!

All hats, all the time…

Felt cloche hat

Okay, that’s not strictly true, and I don’t even really know what I’ve been doing with myself over the last fortnight apart from working a lot and feeling a bit ill, but I have just finished a little flurry of hats, so here they are.

The one above is the colour of a perfect cup of builder’s tea, trimmed with gold lace that took weeks and weeks to arrive from China. I won’t be ordering that lace again, but I’m making good use of it while I’ve got it. This one in particular is very pretty, and I have enough left over for at least one more hat.

Felt cloche hat

This one’s more the colour of coffee, or really good dark chocolate. This is also lace-from-China, which I’ve altered slightly from its original form. It had a segmented piece at the top which is designed to have ribbon woven through it, but in this case I preferred it without. The loopy bits are all couched down securely to the crown of the hat, but the teardrop shapes are left loose to allow a bit of movement.

I’m hesitant to describe these two hats as “Steampunk” just because they happen to be brown and gold, but perhaps they’ll be the perfect addition to somebody’s outfit.

Felt cloche hat

I wasn’t at all sure what I was going to do with this lavender coloured felt, and then I spotted this gorgeous organic cotton lace from Lancaster & Cornish. Okay, so it’s a lot more expensive than the Chinese lace (in this particular instance, fifteen times more expensive!!), but now I’ve worked with it I’m in no doubt that it’s absolutely worth it. The quality is amazing, it’s organically produced, and to be honest it’s just plain gorgeous.

The flower embellishment is also organic – a cotton and bamboo blend from the Organic Textile Company. I have quite a lot of little scraps of this fabric left over from a dress, so I can feel a few more of these flowers coming on – perhaps as brooches.

Felt cloche hat

And this… this is what came off my new cloche block from Guy Morse-Brown. Isn’t it just gorgeous? I realise I seem to be singing my own praises here, but really it’s the hat block that does all the hard work, and Owen Morse-Brown (who makes the wooden blocks) has carved an absolute work of art. I’m in love with the asymmetrical shape, the way the crown hugs the head, and the cutaway at the back of the neck which makes it incredibly easy to wear. I’m keeping this one, and I’ll definitely be making more!

Felt cloche hat

The flowers are made from the offcuts of felt that I trimmed away from the brim, and they’re cut out with Sizzix paper punches. It’s quite hard work to hammer the punches through the thick felt – they’re not really designed for that kind of punishment – but the flowers have come out with nice clean edges. The centres are Swarovski crystals. (I’m trying not to think about how much it looks like one of those flowery swimming caps.)

The hats are all on Etsy, should you fancy a closer look.

I’m now at that awkward stage once again where I need somebody to buy a hat (or a bunch of smaller stuff from the Emporium) before I can afford to buy any more felt hoods to make new hats with. It seems unlikely that wool felt hats are going to fly off the shelves in the middle of summer, but at least it’s not as though I have a shortage of other materials to make things from in the meantime. I have some carded wool batts on order to make some felt which will hopefully be heavy-duty enough for slippers or hats, I have lots of organic cotton to turn into tunic tops, and I have plans to make a few things for myself. Summer dresses, perhaps. I certainly won’t be short of things to do!

New mannequin, new photos

First glimpse of my new ghostly mannequin. Isn't she lovely?

Please excuse the grainy Instagram snapshot and the incredibly messy sewing room, but this is the first glimpse of my new mannequin. Isn’t she lovely? Much more sophisticated than my polystyrene heads.

Organic bow tie

The arrival of the mannequin has led to a day of product photography, which (as it turns out) is rather difficult. Especially when your “studio” is two pieces of wallpaper propped up on the bed, and a reflector that’s quite difficult to wrangle at the same time as the camera! Still, these photos are a definite improvement on the previous ones, even though they do still need improvement themselves. Work In Progress, and all that.

I wanted to showcase the last few bow ties, as I’ve added a coupon code to the Inexplicable Emporium. Simply enter “FATHERSDAY” when you check out, and you’ll receive 20% off your order. This is valid until June 15th – but don’t forget to allow enough time for your parcel to arrive in the post!

Purple cloche hat

I’ve also re-photographed all the cloche hats (some with greater success than others), to try and make them look a bit more tempting. I’ll finally be able to work on some new hats soon, as the lace I’ve been waiting for has finally arrived! Although I had a slight incident with a vegetable slicer at the weekend, which means I can’t do any hand sewing until the hole in my thumb has healed a bit more. Oops.

(By the way – the code “FATHERSDAY” works throughout my Etsy store, not just on the items that your Dad might like. So if you’ve been coveting a hat, you can take advantage of the offer to buy it at a bit of a discount.)

I do love this pink and purple one. If somebody doesn’t snap it up very soon, I think I might just have to keep it.