Days 4 and 5

Making patterns, which involves "maths" and some interesting tricks

  So I know I didn't post about day 4, and besides some internet issues, the reason is that I spent day 4 sewing a ribbon to the brim of my straw hat.  That is aside from some edge trimming and the ironing in half of said ribbon.  So there were no pictures and nothing really to report.

  Day 5 was spent on learning how to make patterns and then making a hat from one of the patterns.  So I now have patterns for a beret and a baker's boy hat to fit my head.  I bought some nice thick, sort of silly, blue and green plaid blanket like wool for my baker's boy hat.  I decided to carefully line up each of the 6 pieces on the same spot in the pattern, so that the final hat would have a nice, circular symmetry (whereas I usually just try to use a little fabric as possible).

My carefully traced out wedges for the baker's boy cap

  I finished up the straw hat except for the trim and the fabric hat except for the band that goes on the inside to fit it to your head.  I don't have pictures of those yet, but I'll get them up eventually :)

Day 3

The top hat (shown from back) all stitched together and finished with a raspberry velveteen ribbon

  So class today started with putting the finishing touches on our felt hats.  She encouraged us to be dramatic and experimental with our trimmings, but I thought, for a chocolate colored top hat, a simple velveteen raspberry ribbon with an adorable bow in the back would be just right.  People hat feather flourishes and complicated ribboning that all came out great.  The girl sitting next to me used a soft fur rose to decorate hers.  We're not supposed to take pictures of each other's work (or the teacher) or else I'd show you, but you'll just have to content yourself with mine.

I made me a flower

The top hat all stitched together and ready to be ribboned

  Since my trim was so simple, I used some of the time to learn how to make a felt rose.  Granted mine doesn't look especially rose-like, but I think it's pretty enough.

The vaguely hat-shaped thing that you start with

  Then we got our floppy straw hoods and went to pick out blocks.  This time (thankfully) we were doing an all in one, instead of doing the crown and brim separately.  I was considering doing only smaller brims to make it easier to get all my new hats home, but I decided a bigger brim would be more fun:

The straw beat into hat shape over a block

  You block straw like you block felt only more carefully.  Tomorrow I'll be finishing it up and possibly starting on a patterned fabric hat!  Three hats, this class is awesome!

Day 2

  Sorry, I have no pictures for you.  I took my hat home to finish sewing it together so I can be ready for straw hats!  I was laughed at and called keen, but, hey, I'm trying to get as much out of this class as possible.

  Class was spent pretty much entirely in sewing (with some small amount of light and careful ironing).  Once we pried our brims off their blocks and neatly trimmed them, we started by sewing the head band to the inside of the brim.  All of the stitches are meant to be invisible, which means really really slow going.  Slow going for most of the class, but really, really slow going for me.  Not only slow, but pretty sloppy too.  The teacher pointed out that I couldn't be expected to just be good at it right away, to which I replied that I most certainly could!  But apparently it takes practice, and a lot of the class is enrolled in the fashion school.

  Sewing (invisibly) the wire into the brim didn't go much faster.  I finally managed to catch up a little when it came to the stab stitch, (invisibly) sewing a fold over the wire in the brim.  Again, it wasn't especially clean, but apparently I need to be patient.  I wanted to show G my work, so I brought it home and did manage to get some work done.

Today, my hands are sore.

Hat Classes!

My top hat brim, all blocked and ready to go into the hat oven!

   Today was the first day of hat classes, and while the lead up to class was somewhat awkward, class was great!  We pretty much jumped right in.  We all got the same felt (nice stuff too, chocolate brown fur felt) and were told to chose a hat that could be blocked in two parts (the crown and the brim).  I decided to do a short little top hat, and after some digging, found the perfect blocks for my project.

My top hat crown (it only goes to that line close to the middle of the block)

  We began by plastic wrapping the blocks to protect them and make sure the felt doesn't stick to them.  Then we proceeded to manhandle our felt hoods.  We drowned them, squeezed them and stretched them until they were ready to pull over the crown blocks.  Hands already getting a little tired, we then had to pull them taught around the blocks and pound little pins into them.  Lots and lots of little pins.  With our hands.  After that, you steam them and brush out the felt so that it looks nice.

The block room

  By the end of class we'd blocked our crowns and brims and left them in the hat oven (which is kept at something around 175, so pretty cool).  If our crowns were dry, we were able to work them off of the blocks.  Tomorrow we will be doing a lot of hand sewing, I imagine to put the hats together, and to finish them nicely.  I'm so excited to see my hat all put together!  My hands hurt!

The entrance

To London!

Well, I've shut down the Shoppe this morning and I won't be back until I've learned some fancy new hat skills in England!  Hooray!