Tag: hat blocks

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?

Learning Curve

Spinning wheel

These past couple of weeks I seem to have been on a learning curve for all sorts of things. I’ve been trying to sort out the spinning wheel at work, which seemed to be going really well! I’d identified it as being a 1960s/70s Ashford Traditional, found a diagram to help me set up the brake band for the bobbin, and oiled it to within an inch of its life. It now treadles beautifully, and the flyer is very smooth… until I start trying to spin. Whether I’m trying to spin my own yarn or just wind readymade yarn onto the bobbin, as soon as I put the slightest tension on the yarn, the flyer stops turning. I know it’s a question of getting the tension for both the drive band and the brake band in balance with one another, but I just can’t seem to get it right! Very frustrating.

Bootlaces

Last weekend (the weekend before? I forget), I made some bootlaces. This involved a great deal of swearing at offcuts of bias tape and various feet on my sewing machine. I finally managed to get the stitching even and without danger of slipping off the edge of the laces (the blind hemming foot turned out to be the thing I needed!), but then I mucked up the aglets.

Bootlaces

I bought the lace tipper originally to put the metal ends onto corset laces. Then I stopped making corsets, so it’s been in a drawer for the longest time. I made some hand-folded bias binding for the Etsy store, and when it didn’t sell (despite a lot of people having favourited it – I think they all went away and made their own!) I thought I’d repurpose it to make pretty bootlaces. I’ve made laces with sewn ends before, but metal aglets are obviously much more durable.

Can I get the dratted tool to work right? No, I can’t. These laces were just too thick, so I trimmed them down… and didn’t manage to catch the trimmed part inside the metal. The instructions say that one side of the tool is bigger than the other, but it’s not marked in any way, and I genuinely can’t see so much as a millimetre of difference between the two. The laces are getting shorter and shorter as I cut the tips off and try again, and I’m not sure now many more little pieces of metal I can afford to waste!

So, the bias binding’s back in the Etsy store, along with the first batch of vintage buttons. Now I’m off for a quiet little lie down as, on top of everything else, I’ve somehow managed to put my back out again!

On the plus side though, I’m very excited to report that my hat blocks from Guy Morse Brown have been made, and will be arriving this week! I expect another learning curve to follow shortly…

Christmas Fair & New Year Plans

Christmas Fair

This is Paul making himself comfortable behind the Eternal Magpie stall at the Berkshire Autistic Society Christmas Fair last Saturday. We were in a brand new school designed especially for kids of all ages who are on the autistic spectrum, which was a really lovely space. The floor was both squashy and heated, so he was actually much more comfortable than you might expect!

From a stall point of view the day was fairly quiet, but it was the first event of its kind in this venue, so I expect next year’s will be a lot busier. We were lucky enough to have some local friends pop in and do some Christmas shopping with us, and we chatted to some other lovely stallholders. We also met lots of families, some of whom I knew from working at the Museum, and some from my previous job with the Family Resource Centre. Two little boys had a great time sorting through all my button badges (they loved the maps), and another was extremely honest with us about the scented candles. Thankfully he was complimentary, his Mum was a bit worried he was going to say something rude! Everyone at BAS had clearly put a lot of effort into the event, and it definitely deserves to be a lot better attended in future.

However, as it turned out, we came home with just the right amount of money to tip my savings over into being enough to buy the set of hat blocks I’ve been coveting all year! So, an email has been sent to Guy Morse-Brown about a set of interchangeable crown and brim blocks for making felt cloche hats. There’s going to be a steep learning curve involved, but there will be (hopefully lovely) hats coming this way in the New Year!

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There will be a number of other changes too. I’ve just discovered that four out of five of the Airship Fresheners fragrances have been discontinued, so I’ll be choosing some new candle oils in the New Year. Lure of the Kraken will continue to be available, and Hot Tea & Crumpets (currently sold out) I can hopefully buy another batch of before it disappears – but Sweet English Rose, The Arabian Nights and Cherry Bakewell will be gone completely once these last few candles have been snapped up. Still, it’s a good excuse to look for some interesting new fragrances, and there are a few I have my eye on already. Sloe Gin, anyone?

I’ve also decided to discontinue the large candles in the glass jars, and only make tea light candles in the future. The jars make the candles heavy and fragile, which makes them difficult to ship. I think sticking to tea lights and offering some kind of “pick-and-mix” option with the different fragrances is going to be a better way forward. I’ve also had requests for wax tarts rather than candles, so I’m going to be investigating the possibilities for those too.

I have kept back one large candle in each fragrance though, so that the winner of the Facebook Giveaway (almost there!) can have their pick.

Anyway, the next couple of weeks will be free from Emporium work as I take a break to spend time with Paul and our families, and also to do a little bit of sewing for myself and my niece. It’s Christmas Dress time again, and I’ve got some really sweet fabric waiting for me. I hope she likes it!