Next...

came the pink fascinator...here's what it looked like pinned to the block.

Not terribly prepossessing...and it doesn't look all that much better trimmed up and ready to wire...

Once that was done, and the binding was on...

...I thought...now what.  Note the fading on the sinamay; nothing wrong with the fabric, just faded colour, so whatever I chose to do, had to cover that section, at least.  I really didn't know what to do...and then, raking about in a box, found the daffodils I made a while ago, just to see if I could.  Three of them made from lutradur, the trumpets heavily stitched.  They went nicely with the pink tone of the hat, so I stitched them together...

...and then added them to the base...

...and now we're talking... this works really well.  But just as I was putting things away, I came across a pale green piece of florist wrapping, very similar to lutradur, and thought it might be interesting to use it round the edge of the hat...

 
Looks better in real life... so I stuck it on my head, no mirror (too tired to get up and fiddle around...), and here's a rough idea of what it looks like...

The green edging has only been tacked on, but I think it gives you an idea of what it will look like once it's properly sewn on.  I'm quite pleased with this; really must play with more lutradur flowers...and with lutradur in hat making in general... hmm..

Going Bananas...

over sinamay... well, it is made from abaca fibres, after all.  I've now got three bits of pink sinamay bias.  I'd forgotten how scratchy this part of the process is.  I can usually give you some sort of comparison, to put it into context, but there's nothing equivalent.  Imagine working with very stiff hessian, perhaps.  It does what it's told...eventually...but its edges are not pleasant to work with.  And it gets caught on your clothes, sigh.  The image gives you an idea of what you get from a cut strip of this size.  If you think it's narrower than you would expect from 'normal' fabric, you'd be right; once it's folded, you tug it slightly, which makes it longer and thinner, easier to work with. 

I had three pieces cut, well, six in all, because sinamay is used doubled or even tripled, to make three pieces.  The key words for this are stretch and smooth...you'll see why as the process progresses.  To make fascinator bases, the sinamay is stretched flat on the dolly, working to get it as smooth as possible against the curves of the block...

As with all fabric, it is stretched across the diagonals, first, and then more pins are added...and taken out...and re-added... to get as smooth a result as you can manage.  Working with 3 dimensions, as you do with normal hat blocks, uses the same principle, but is even more fiddly...again, starts with the diagonals, and then additional pins are added.

You can see from this image how fiddly this is... the fabric is being stretched on a curve, so pretty much every time you add another pin, there's more excess fabric to be stretched out.  Eventually, you get to this...

Not perfect, but good enough for practice.  Here's the upshot of my morning's work...

These have to dry, first, then I'll decide what shapes to make the respective fascinators (probably a circle and a tear drop shape), and draw that lightly onto the top layer in pencil, before taking them off the dolly and wiring them.  The other shape will be removed from the block and wired.

That lot took about an hour, my limit, really... so now for a bit of a rest...  It does feel like going back to square one, in many ways, but at least I can remember what to do... and I have books for reference. 

Getting Back To Hats...

seems like a good idea.  They're relatively small, albeit a tad fiddly, I can pick 'em up and put 'em down as the energy dictates, and they're useful.  What's not to like?   Besides, I can use a fair range of the textile skills I have on them, and explore working in 3D, while I'm at it.  So, I ordered some of this stuff, cotton covered millinery wire, and it arrived yesterday; it's fine, but not too fine, infinitely flexible and relatively easy to work with.

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I have a fair amount of sinamay already, so I don't have to spend a great deal...except...I really want a brim block, so I can use the larger blocks I already have...but we'll see how we get on with the blocks I have.  Besides, I can't make up my mind what kind of brim to buy...I don't have infinite resources, and I need to get something useful.  Decisions, decisions.  I'm going to stick to fascinators for now.

I decided to work with some of my existing offcuts, which have been sitting in a box for I Hate To Think How Long...  there's some white bias already cut and shaped, so I cut a couple of squares for fair sized fascinator bases in white, and a couple in pink.  One of them will be pinned over this block (which I think actually belongs to my friend Clare...sorry, dear heart...).  The other will go onto Dolly, to give it some shape... a dolly is a head shaped block on a stand, which I use to shape things, but also to see how a hat looks as I add things to it....just in case you were wondering.

The block is covered with clingfilm to protect the wood, in case you were wondering.   And as I'll need some pink bias, I started cutting it...  I'll  probably discard the discoloured areas ... sinamay fades in the sun, clearly.

Bias is used a lot to create embellishments for hats, as well as simply binding the edges; fortunately, sinamay is much easier to handle than, say, silk.  I need to make some embellishments for this little comb I found in a box... I covered it who knows how long ago, it would be fun to put a flower or a swirl of sinamay on it, to make it interesting...

I have a lot of combs like this one; I'm planning to cover them and give them to a local charity to raise funds, if I can find one who would be interested.  Sophisticated ones for grown ups, and cute for kids...should be fun.  I've made grown up ones before, modeled by my friend Gemma, again, a very long time ago...see the post herehttps://artmixter.blogspot.com/2012/02/snapping-up-storm.html.

Mostly, though, I'll be doing this for the joy of it... hurrah.

Overdoing Things...

...has a whole different meaning when you have ME.  Usually it condemns you to several days in bed; this time, two days on the sofa, and counting.  Having gone out on Friday night with my son and husband, to see Jethro Tull, I then compounded it all by going out on Sunday for a coffee.  We did a little essential shopping, and then had a chat with our neighbours.  And now it's Tuesday, and I won't be doing anything about this little lot...

The black shelves  were originally bought to use as larder shelves, as we have a large walk in cupboard in our (badly designed) kitchen.  Turns out they're too wide (thanks to the skirting boards; I ask you, who puts skirting boards in a cupboard?), so I have inherited them.  My fabric will sit on the pine shelves; my CD player (yes, it's old fashioned, no, I don't care) on the black ones, somewhere in the middle, surrounded by hat paraphernalia, such as feathers and hat blocks.  The tiny rattan drawers hold lace and other bits and pieces for hat making, too, such as combs and headbands. The smaller pine shelves won't stay in that corner, but will move to the other side of the room, and will likely hold paints and the like, though I hope to build a summer house for painting.  Given that we're in dispute with the builder about the garden, though, I'll be lucky to get that this year, I suspect.  Dammit. 

The real challenge is where to keep the rolls of sinamay and other fabrics.  Some of them will lie on the top of the shelves, as they're not terribly wide, things like printouts from Bertha.  The rest, I'm not so sure.  Probably in a box, where the short pine shelves are at present.  Things are coming together, slowly, but I doubt there'll be any progress this week, as I recover from the excesses (hah) of the weekend.  Rest and more rest.  And a lot of muttering under my breath.

Learning The Ropes...

is great fun, it transpires.  This is today's creation, a sinamay fascinator.  What's interesting about it is that the sinamay has been painted in places, using metallic paints, so predominately it is pink, but with a very gentle shade of green popping up now and again, and a lovely sheen to it.  I hadn't tried that before, and will do it again, but instead of using a brush, I think I'l use a roller... much easier to get the paint on evenly.  I like learning...what have you learned today?

Getting It Right...Eventually.

As you know, I went on a wonderful hat making workshop last weekend.  One of the things I made was a fascinator, which I teamed with a felt flower; it's in the image above, perched on Dolly's head.  It looked okay...but somehow, there was something not quite right about it.  There was just too much difference in feel between the tactile softness of the felt and the sculptural nature of the sinamay.  I did persevere... made some more flowers, thinking that it was the balance that was off.  No.  So... I tried something else.  I made a rose out of some hand dyed silk organza, and tried that, instead.  Silk also has tactile softness...but of a different, somehow more formal kind.  This time, I think I got it right.  It's elegant, rather than a cross between elegance and...well.. cute.  What do you think?

Hat Heaven!

I have just got home from the best workshop I have ever been to, in any capacity.  Louise Brooks, from Hats From The Hall was the inspired and inspiring tutor to myself and Clare Hedges ...and that was it!  Almost individual tuition.  Each of us made three hats, various Fiddly Bits and had a truly wonderful time.  It was held at the workshop space of Hat Blocks Direct , a wonderful family firm, really welcoming and knowledgeable about hat making; mum is a milliner herself!  Fantastic.  Can't overdo the superlatives. 

So...what did I make?  Well...you can see them above.  None of them are completely finished; the saucer, below, has to have its binding completed, whilst the other two are complete hats, but are missing embellishments (as is the saucer, of course...).   We started by making a fascinator base by hand (I don't think I've ever stitched so much by hand in my life!), and added sinamay embellishments.  I really wanted to make a pillbox hat, so that was next, made over a lovely dimpled hat block.  Not bad for one day, huh?  Day two, and we made the saucer, which I suppose you could say is half way between a hat and a fascinator; bigger than a fascinator, easier to wear than a hat, and doesn't ruin your hairdo. 

I've never felt so at home with techniques and craft.  At the end of it, I felt that I have finally found what I want to be doing, the reason for collecting all that knowledge, skill and experience.  I LOVE making hats.  Clare had just as good a time, and we had a great girly weekend!  If you get the chance to learn with Louise, run, don't walk.  She is an absolute star (and she hates getting her photo taken...sorry, Louise!!!).

This image shows Clare stitching and listening to Louise in full flow.  The 'dolly' or head shaped block on a stand, came home with me (oops...) as did a set of small blocks to make...well, yes, small hats... just don't tell Robin...  The one on the far right of the shelf is used for extra large coolie hats, apparently.  There were an assortment of hat brims and crown brims and really everything you could possibly want to make hats with.  We both loved it, and I really didn't want to come home... but all good things come to an end eventually, don't they. 

These last two images are of the almost completed hats.  You know what it's like; you take bits and pieces you think you might use to a workshop, but if you don't have enough, there's only so much you can do!  The fascinator has a hand made felt flower on it, but it needs more; probably a couple of buds, or different sized daisies.  And I have an amazing black and glass button to go at the bottom of the feathers, and will probably add a little puff of black veiling... very burlesque!  This is bringing out the frivolous parts of my soul... and it couldn't happen at a better time.  Watch this space!