my hat block experiment

I wanted a hat block right away, but didn't want to cough up the $$ for one. Some of them can get very pricey. I got the idea for this project from an article on vintagesewing.info, wherein the author stated that you could use a hat that fit well, and cast it in plaster to make a custom hat block. So I took that idea and applied it using a sturdy adult size plastic party hat.

I bought some wool felt yesterday to try it out, I still need to shrink the felt. I'll post the hats when I complete them.

Cinema Beret

A pattern I drafted and sewed up last night. I tried to get it onto an Adobe doc. to load onto burdastyle without any success, oh well. Instructions for making a beret can be found on www.fmfcorp.com/familyspot/haircover.html and vintagesewing.info.

Black hat with gathered velvet band

This is a woven hat that I made over by draping some velvet across the top of the crown and stitching a gathered band of the same material around the sides of the crown.

Green wool felt hat

Here is another of my millinery creations using the bucket hat pattern from www.fmfcorp.com/familyspot/haircover.html and one of my freeform flowers from the leftover fragments after the hat was cut out. It's lined and finished on the inside with a band of grosgrain.

Cream, black and red hat

I made this hat up to go to a wedding. Replete with yards of organza, and satin ribbon, seed beads on the crown, and lots of burgundy roses.

Another fancy red hat

A straw hat that I blocked and tinted. I trimmed it with some picot ribbon, a rose, and velvet leaves from tinsel trading co.

Red felt hat

A lovely wool felt hat I sent to my Aunt Mel. Hopefully I got the size right.

A roll brim crocheted hat

This is a hat that I entered (and got a blue ribbon for) in the fair this year.

Cloche call

Here it is, my cloche a la Eugenia Kim. The materials include:

wool felt, striped cotton fabric to line, and a black velvet covered button.

Here is the link to the pattern: http://www.dailycandy.com/new_york/article/28693/Making+Headway

Two hats

I found this pattern at www.fmfcorp.com/familyspot/haircover.html . For free, yay!

It's a very flexible hat pattern, one of my favorite versions is in wool felt, but I have done another "tea party" style for when I need a "over the top" fix.

Here I have an example of both.