I must admit that hat making is way beyond my realm of crafting. I have decorated an existing hat a time or two in my life, made some pretty fancy headbands and even some ornate ear muffs - but, hats from scratch I have never tried. However, now that I have a copy of Hats: Make Classic Hats and Headpieces in Fabric, Felt and More by Sarah Cant in my hot little hands anything is possible. Would you like to give hat making a whirl? Read on and I'll tell you how to win a copy!
Blocking, Trimming, Finishing all the lingo of milliners is covered in Hats. Once you start flipping through the pages and looking at all the step by step pictures and reading all the easy to follow instructions hat making suddenly does not seem so daunting.
Several different shapes and styles of hats are covered in the book. The classic cloche, pillbox, coolie and trilby for example. I'm a fan of the smaller headpieces and head domes that resemble fascinators.
Not only are several styles of hats covered, so are several different materials. Using a steaming tea kettle you will learn to shape felt. Did you know there was such a thing as straw stiffiner for light weight summer hats? Rice bags are not only good sashets and eye pillows they help shape hats as well. See what I mean? I feel so well versed in hat making already
Sarah Cant lives in Oxford, England. She has show her fabulous work at places like The Chelsea Craft Fair, London Fashion Week and Origin. She even teaches millinery at the Kinsington & Chelsea College. Her style seems to run the gambit from traditional to trendy. Some of the hats you might wear to the Kentucky Derby or on Easter Sunday others would fit in perfectly at a cocktail party or night out with the girls.
Have you always been Isabella Blow, but would like to try to be Phillip Treacy? Well now is your chance. You have a week to leave me a comment about hats. Do you wear them? Have you ever knit a beanie? Do you collect vintage ones like me? Any hat comment will do and we will put a copy of Hats: Make Classic Hats & Headpieces in Fabric, Felt and Straw in the mail for you.
I think the actual form of hat-wearing is lost. Women need to wear hats again ! Any hat. Big ones, little ones, even a nice Jackie-O style pill-box would be nice. I always love to wear my tophat, or a Buster Keaton style porky-pie. One day I shall learn millinery and fill the world once again with hats. They make the person you know..
ReplyDeleteI love making hats and fascinators. I want to learn the proper way to do so.
ReplyDeleteI love hats, but it depends on my haircut as to if I can wear them or not. But I do knit/crochet tons of them, mainly for my fiancé.
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted to learn to make hats other than knitted ones, and especially vintage hats.
This looks like a great book! I used to have a pretty large collection of vintage hats. It's one of the many things I regret selling when I didn't have the room in my apartment for them. :(
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Danna
I love old floppy grandma hats and my husband makes fun of me because every time I wear them, they blow off in the wind. every. single. time.
ReplyDeletebut I haven't given up yet :)
Jamie
So glad to see a contemporary book of hat making. I have a few from the 20's and 30's (my favorite hat era). Looking forward to seeing this new book!!!
ReplyDeleteI agree that hat making seems to be a lost art, I'm glad to see it make a resurgence. I too love vintage hats and sometimes even get the nerve to wear them in public.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple cloches that I wear every now and then, and knit caps for when it's cold. One of my cloches is handmade and I remember thinking, "I bet I could do that..." when I bought it, but that's about as far as I got with hat making.
ReplyDeleteI have always loved hats and wear them. My family has had a tradition that whenever one of us moves we all have to wear a silly hat when we help with the move. It's pretty funny.
ReplyDeleteBut seriously I do like to wear hats and have actually been very interested lately in making them.
What a fun looking book! There are really so few resources available for milliners.
ReplyDeleteI love to wear hats! My only problem is that apparently my head is kind of on the large size and I don't often find hats that fit properly. I don't look like a bobblehead or anything, but it's problematic when it comes to hats. My favorites are cloches, but they have no stretch in them so I only have a few that fit.
ReplyDeleteI've scoured antique stores and flea markets for a hat rack for years to no available. Instead the ladie's pith helmet, black cloche, faux flowered fascinator, mauve Ingrid Bergman fedora, Hepburn-esque green rain bucket hat, motorboard, construction helmet,feathered fedora, plastic knight's helmet, straw hat, wide-brimmed wedding hat, silver cloche, cowgirl hat trimmed with peacock feathers, Zorro hat, home-sewn conical gnome hat, turquoise turban, peaked straw Asian hat, taxi cabbie cap, black lace pillbox, baseball caps, etc. are clipped to plastic octopus Jabbas from Ikea.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to make more, especially once I find a hat rack.:)
Vintage hats are the best! Awesome giveaway!
ReplyDeleteDeana
I made a few hats pillbox hats out of felt, but nothingtoo crazy, I would love to learn how to make real hats! This book looks awesomeeeeeee ;)
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