Koi Fish Fascinator

The first of my hat projects from my millinery course from this past fall--a straw fascinator! The goal was to take a straw capeline and freeform pin and block it into an abstract shape. I decided to make a fish?

It's not the type of work I would normally do. I'm a person who tends to plan out what I'm doing in advance. So taking on a project where you had to make up what you were doing on the fly was a bit of a challenge for me.

The basics of blocking straw is: you take the straw capeline and wet it with a watered down gelatin mixture. This will make it easy to sculpt and pin. Then you let it dry in that shape. The gelatin acts as a stiffener.

I don't have any pictures of this part of the process because I didn't want to get gelatin on my phone. Haha

The challenge with mine is that I didn't want to do a large fascinator, and only wanted to use half of the capeline. But you can't just cut a straw capeline, otherwise the weave will quickly start to unravel. Before you cut it, you must first do a zig-zag stitch on either side of your cutting line--so the part you want to keep and the excess both don't unravel. I had to do this before I sprayed it with the gelatin mixture so I didn't get that on my sewing machine.

The "head" of the fish is half the crown of the capeline.

I just blocked it on a regular foam wig head. I used pins and bulldog clips to hold it in place as it dried.

Once it had dried overnight I carefully hand-stitched it to a plain black headband.

As an afterthought, I added little fins. These were made out of some of the excess material. They are hand stitched on.

Overall I think it was a neat exercise and a cool project, but I will probably never wear it.

Brown Cloche Hat With Feathers

Let's take a look at my final millinery project: a blocked felt hat! I decided to do a simple cloche hat decorated with feathers. 

To make a blocked felt hat, you buy a "hood" or "capeline" which is 100% wool. (Or you can buy an 100% wool hat that has already been shaped and reshape it. You can get them at H&M.) 

You heat up a tea kettle that doesn't have an automatic shut off (so it will keep boiling--just make sure it doesn't run out of water, because you need the steam and to not set anything on fire). You place the hood/capeline over the steam spout and let it steam. It should have condensation on the outside and it will be really hot when it is ready for shaping. Use tongs to take the hood/capeline off the steam and place it over your desired block. I used a round crown top. Then you stretch it over the block, tie it tight and pin it in place. Let it dry for 24 hours. 

For my cloche, the crown and brim are all one piece. I was pressed for time with moving and was going to miss the last class, so doing a one piece hat was necessary--but also, I really like this style anyway.

If I were to do a separate blocked brim, at this point I would have carefully cut off the brim with an exacto-knife and blocked it on a brim block. For a one piece hat, I applied more steam and shaped the brim while the crown was still tied down on the block. I used rolled up pieces of fabric to shape around and let it sit while it dried. During this time I trimmed off some of the excess felt  from the brim to get it closer to the finished shape that I wanted.

When it was dry, I removed it from the block and set about finishing the edge of the brim. I decided to do a simple folded edge finish. I marked my finished edge and carefully trimmed the brim, leaving a 1/2" fold allowance. I folded it over, using bulldog clips to hold it in place so I could baste it. Then I carefully ironed it before stitching it as invisibly as possible. I ironed it again after stitching. This helped to give it a crisper edge.

Next I added the decorations and headband to the inside. I also gave it a label. I decided to accent it with more of that green silk I bought for the previous hat and feathers left over from my Forest Guardian costume. The goal is to stitch decorations on securely without making them look heavily stitched on,

I'm not too impressed with how the decorations turned out--specifically the feathers. I may replace them later. But I really love this shape--simple, yet elegant!


I've signed up for Millinery Part 2! So look forward to more hats, coming this fall! :D

Edwardian Hat With Kanzashi

Let's talk about hat project #3: blocked buckram! We had to create a blocked buckram hat with crown & brim. I decided to design an Edwardian style hat. This process requires a lot of patience, as the entirety of it was painstakingly hand stitched.

I don't have photo documentation of the blocking process, but you essentially take the buckram, wet it and then stretch it over the block until there are no bumps/bubbles. Then you pin it in place and let it dry. I blocked the brim and the tip of the crown for this hat, the sloped side of the crown I flat patterned.

Once the pieces were dry I marked and cut them down to the desired size/shape. 

The crown and brim are covered and assembled separately, then sewn together. I used a layer of lambswool between the buckram and silk covering to give it a softer finish. All of the edges are finished on each buckram piece (excluding the head opening on the brim) before they are covered in the fashion fabric.

Bulldog clips are exceptionally helpful in holding your fabric in place. Also much of the finishing stitches were done with a curved needle on this project.

I first created my lining. It is a rectangle that I sewed into a loop that equaled the circumference of the brim. One edge was tacked down to the outer edge of the brim, and the other was carefully pleated into the center in a radial pattern. I made it as even as possible. I basted this down along the head size opening.

Next I draped the outer fabric layer over the top of the brim. I pulled it into place and tried to have as little rippling along the brim edge as possible. I folded the raw edge and turned it under. After basting it, I then slip stitched the edge down as invisibly as possible. The curved needle was really handy here.

To finish the crown, first I sewed down the circular pice to cover the tip. I notched the edges before folding them over the edge for a smoother finish. Then I draped the curved side band over the side. I folded over the raw top edge of the fabric aligning it just shy of the edge of the cylinder. I pinned it in place and then slip stitched the edges down. I left the center back seam open at this time. The bottom edge is simply folded up, but not attached. This meant I could still access the inside to attach the crown and brim.

I cut my head size opening hole in the brim, leaving 1/2" seam allowance. I cut notches into the seam allowance so the "tabs" could be folded up. The crown has no seam allowance--the brim seam allowance slots inside the crown, and they are stab stitched together along the brim seam allowance.

I ran into a few problems here--I didn't cut my head size opening large enough, so it didn't fit snugly inside the crown. It made sewing them together super difficult. And as a result the hat doesn't fit very well since its a touch small. But this is a learning process, so I just kind of rolled with it...

I then finished up the back seam of the crown cover. And I tacked down the lower edge in a few places.

Next was to finish the lining. I sewed the outer edge of the gros grain ribbon in along the edge of the opening. Then I carefully laid the crown lining inside. I sewed the inner edge of the ribbon to the crown lining, finishing the inside super cleanly.

You may notice I silk screened my new label into the lining! I'm getting so professional. ;D

Then I created a whole bunch of kanzashi flowers to decorate it with. Some were made of a really beautiful plum silk shot with blue. I also used more of the cream silk to match the lining. And accented with green silk "leaves".

I like the hat, but if I were to wear it (for a costume) I would probably need to fix up the size issue...