All about Hat Making

The Chicago News reports about the increase in hat sales and hat wearing for men. The report states that sales in Men’s hat have increased by about 25% and mainly in the higher end of the market; fedoras and quality caps. Good news for any hat maker – the more people that wear hats the more variety that will be needed. Here is the link to the article and video on men wearing hats:

Hats back in style for men? – 1/05/09 – Chicago News – abc7chicago.com

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Today was the annual horse race that stops the nation – I am not sure if there is anywhere in Australia where their workplace or school does not stop to watch the race…  To me its not only about the horses (although they are important) it is about the hats… I love to how amazing people look when they wear a hat… it is a pity they don’t choose to more often.

Early on cup day the commentators were saying that there were more hats than fascinators – although this makes sense – you need something to shade you from that strong burning Melbourne sun… fascinators may be beautiful and easy to wear but hats have that classic appeal and besides looking a bit more sophisticated they protect you from getting burnt.

Here are a few of the online photo galleries from the day so you can see how wonderful everyone looked in their headwear….

The Age newspapers - Melbourne Cup Fashion Photo Gallery

An article about the winner of the fashion the fields wearing a classic black flower fascinator.

The Herald Sun’s photo gallery sports some great hats and fascinators…

And a video C/O of The Age newspaper on early morning on Melbourne Cup Day..

And not quite Melbourne Cup day but a good photo gallery displaying hats and fascinators from Derby Day on the Age’s website….

ENJOY!

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• The Melbourne Cup The Race That Stops A Nation
• The Rate that Stopped a Nation

I had a wedding to go to, it was black tie dress code, I had a dress all I needed was a hat or in this case a fascinator. I wanted something smallish and that was conservative as I wasn’t going to the races but a wedding. Here is what I can up with.

Materials for making my fascinator

First I got my dress and looked at the colours of feathers, crinoline and sinamay I had in my stash and choose the colours that went with my dress. The picture shows the materials I found. I always choose more than I will need because then I can disgard some as I create or decide to go in a different direction if I choose to.

I  got a hair comb that I was using as the base for my fascinator and some netting fabric that I cut thin bias strips off. I then wrapped the end of the comb with the netting fabric. This allowed me to sew parts of the fascinator onto the comb. The netting is wrapped along the top edge going between each of the teeth so that the top edge is completely covered. I glued the end down.

I decided to go with a mainly black base with some feathers to add some

Veiling Fabric attached to fascinator base

colour. I started with some veiling material and arranged it to form a background. I then sewed it onto the comb.

I then shaped some crinoline and pinned it with a safety pin to hold its shape while I checked to see how it looked on the top of the veiling. I played around with the crinoline quite a lot and came up with with a variety of interesting shapes – it really is an amazing hat making fabric and can add that little bit of sophistication to a fascinator.

Cinoline shaped to fit on the fascinator

I then sewed the crinoline piece onto the hair comb.

I decided to use the cream feathers that I had in my pile these feathers were straight biots. I used the back of my scissors to add a bit of curl to them and then glued them in the spaces between the loops in the crinoline.

I distressed the ends of the crinoline  and to finish the fascinator off – I added a flower brooch.

Completed fascinator

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Registrations for the International Millinery Forum to be held in Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia in January 2009 have opened. With world class millinery instructors and an exciting social program it is a must attend for all milliners.

More details can be found on their website http://internationalmillineryforum.com.au

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I am attempting to pick out only the best articles on millinery in the news and on the web – looking for good photos or good articles. Here is the first of two posts on Millinery in the past month in the media.

• DIY City Magazine has an article on Tracy Thomson, a well known New Orleans milliner. She sells her handcrafted hats and accessories from her Kabuki Design Studio at the Dutch Alley Artists Co-op. Tracy’s background is in costume design. She makes a wide variety of hats from straw sun hats to funky cocktail hats and fun Mardi Gras hats too.

• FashionClub.com Daily: reports on the Hat of the Moment: The Fascinator. Sarah Jessica Parker made fashion news by wearing a fascinator to the premiere of the Sex & The City movie. A “fascinator” is a fancy headpiece usually adorned with feathers, flowers, or beads and attached to the head with a hair comb, clip, or headband.
• The denver polo classic had a few quite spectacular hats to show and there is a slideshow of the millinery.
• An article on getting your racewear ready for the cairns cup.
• Big Al customises cowboy hats and has done so for more than 40 years – there is both an article and a video in this story.
• This one is actually a blog article on bridal headwear and millinery in fashion at the moment – it is quite a good read.
• A hospice lunch with a hat parade I really like the opening quote in this article “A hat is the difference between looking adequate and looking your best.”
  - Author Martha Sliter
• Here is an article on Paris tips and trends, with a focus on wedding wear.
• Here is a web article on millinery hot blocks – it is more an advertisement for sale but it has so good information and some nice photos.

• An article on church hats with a millinery church hats photo gallery

• DEL MAR – Opening day at the Del Mar Racetrack featured a parade of elegant creatures bred to be winners. And then there were the horses, too. There is also a millinery picture gallery for the opening day.