Millinery: Supplies

One of the reasons I didn’t try much of millinery before taking the two classes through Chinook College was just a matter of getting the supplies. First off hat blocks can be very expensive (even on eBay and other resellers) and hard to find as well, and secondly a lot of the materials just aren’t available locally through retail sources.

Dressmakers hats were easy enough – fabric, interfacing, thread – all easy to find, but felt hoods? Nope.  Buckram with sizing – fabric store employees didn’t even know what I was talking about and pointed me to muslin fabric instead.  I thought I had found Sinamay, but had terrible results compared to the material that our instructor brought to class, so no luck there either.

So, one of the things I liked about the class was having the chance to try out different materials, but she also supplied us with a bit of a list for suppliers if we wanted to go and try more on our own.  The additional problem – of course they’re all online, and none of them are in Canada.  Still, though I don’t suspect I’ll be placing any orders anytime soon, I figured that I would post some of those links here, for my own future reference as well as to share with others!

Recommended sources

Black and white fabric flower with feather accents

Rui Tong Trade Limited
http://www.ruitongltd.com
Located in the United Kingdom, our instructor recommended them for sinamay products, and this also appears to be the source for some of the beautiful feather-flowers that were shown off in class, and some of the feathers as well.  However – the big problem I see with the website (other than the fact they are in the UK) – they don’t have any prices listed, and it doesn’t look like they are set up for online ordering either.  Orders are through fax, phone, or email, and all of their product comes from China.

LBF Trade
http://lbftrade.com/
LBF is located in the UK as well, and their site is very annoying as it forces your entire browser to change size to their website dimensions.  Really frustrating if you’re a multiple-tab person like me… No prices are included on this site either, and again they have sinamay products along with feather-flowers and feathers.  It appears that they have many of the exact same products as Rui Tong, though with no prices listed (and no online ordering) it’s impossible to price-compare.

Guy Morse-Brown
http://www.hatblocks.co.uk/
Another UK supplier – this time for hat blocks and some blocking supplies. Luckily, prices are listed on this site, though no online ordering – just email, telephone, or post. The pins sold on this site are only good we discovered with soft-wood blocks (like the balsa blocks) and much less so for the harder wood – the pins themselves would bend before piercing the wood!

Judith M
http://www.judithm.com/
One of the first recommendations our instructor had for us, Judith M is located in the USA, and sells blocks, bodies, and supplies. The website is somewhat difficult to navigate. They also sell ready-made hats and do workshops out of their Indiana location.

Hat Supply.com / Hats by Leko
http://www.hatsupply.com
Another USA supplier (this time out of Oregon), the Hat Supply.com website is very difficult to navigate, with far too many things crowding the front page for me to feel inspired at all. Deeper into the site it gets easier, and prices are fortunately included. They carry bodies, finished hats, and other supplies.

How2Hats
http://www.how2hats.com/new/links.html
This page has a list of links for UK, USA, Europe and Australian suppliers (no Canadian of course…) although not all of them were recommended by our instructor. Other parts of the website also have ebooks with instructions on hat-making and the hatTalk magazine.

Sources not mentioned by my instructor (found online)

HatShadows
http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/hatshadows
This website was not recommended by our instructor, though it looked interesting to me, so I’m including it in the list. She sells facinator bases (straw and buckram), ribbon, and netting.  She also has an Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/hatshadows

Moxie Milliner
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MoxieMilliner
Buckram facinator bases, veil material and some other bits

Sunshine shop supply
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SunshineshoppeSupply
Feathers, netting, flowers, buttons, and other notions.

Pink sewing machine
http://www.etsy.com/shop/pinksewingmachine
Netting and some other notions.

Squirl Girl
http://www.etsy.com/shop/squirlgirl
Large selection of netting, bases, feathers, trims and other notions.

De Luxe Millinery
http://www.etsy.com/shop/LuluDeuxMillinery
Buckram, wire, other notions.

Fancy goods
http://www.etsy.com/shop/fancygoods
Netting, feathers and other notions.

 

 

 

Video of a hat being made

While I’m on a millinery kick (or rather, before something else new and exciting takes me away from my multiple works-in-progress) I thought I’d share a cool video that I found on the Victoria & Albert Museum website.  This video goes through many of (but not all) the steps in creating a hand-made hat (in this case for Stephen Jones Millinery).  You can see just from this how insanely time-consuming it is!  I do wonder about the black material used at the very beginning of the video – pinned to the block and then shrunk with steam to fit the curves of the brim block.  If you know what this material is, please let me know in the comments below!

Of course, because it’s a Vimeo video… I can’t embed it here for you to see – but click this link for Millinery in action and go check it out!

As an aside, there is also a brief interview with Stephen Jones on this page, about the possibility of hats coming back into popular fashion.  What I find kind of amusing (and sad in a way) is how the designer himself, does not wear a hat, and there are only two hats worn by any of the interviewees – one a baseball cap, and another a fedora, worn by another milliner.  There is also a sparkly tiara-thing as well worn by a woman near the end of the video, but other than that, a video about the comeback of hats.. is almost entirely devoid of any interesting headwear at all!

Cut! – Finding Neverland – Mary’s gold and black dress

Costume poster

After so many boring beige/off-white costumes from the Cut! museum exhibit, this one is FAR more interesting to me!

This dress is the gold and black dress worn by ‘Mary’ (played by Radha Mitchell) in Finding Neverland.  (Yeppers, another Johnny Depp movie!)

Although the Costumer’s Guide doesn’t have a separate discussion of this dress, there are photos (from the Cinematic Couture show) on the website.  Likewise on the Neverland Costumes website, there are a few screenshots and photos from the same exhibit.

From the poster (click for a larger version), the film is described as:

“The story of J.M. Barrie’s friendship with a family who inspired him to write Peter Pan  Set in London, 1903.”

The costume is described as:

“The wife of Sir James Matthew Barrie wears this gold and black textured silk evening dress with a black satin bodice overlaid with tulle and trimmed with beaded fringe.  Bugle beads in a circular motif decorate the side of the dress.”

Mary’s Gold and Black dress

The dress is very dramatic, but also feels a bit disconnected to me – the bodice reminds me of something  out of Titanic, while the bottom reminds me more of Erte’s designs from the late teens and early 1920s.

Mary’s dress – bust detail

Insane amounts of beading cover the bodice, including the under-arm area, which seems really impractical and uncomfortable.  Still, very glamourous!  I love the dangling ‘shelf’ of bugle beads.  Although the description says that the bodice is black satin, overlaid with tulle, it looks to me more like nude satin overlaid with tulle, since there is a distinct colour difference between the ‘black’ bodice and the black skirt.

Mary’s dress – bust

My suspicion of the nude satin seems to hold merit when you look at the dressform fabric through the sheer sleeve – it’s the same colour as the bodice…

Mary’s dress – hip detail

Here you can get a really good idea f the textured gold silk.  The black on the other hand is very matte in comparison, which works well to highlight the circular beaded motifs.  The beaded appliques on the skirt don’t really jump out to me though, which is probably good, because I think the focus should really be drawn to the sequined and beaded hip instead. I photographed the hip in more detail below.

Mary’s Dress – hip

Unfortunately, I didn’t see this dress in the trailer, but nonetheless, here it is!

The volume is terribly low, so you’ll need to turn your speakers up!

Cut! – Sense and Sensibility – Marianne

Marianne’s costume

Ok.. even I’m getting bored with these off-white/beige/yellow/etc costumes.  I didn’t even realize while I was at the Cut! exhibit how many there were!

Costume poster – click for full version

This dress is from Sense and Sensibility, a “film adaptation of the novel by Jane Austen about two sisters of modest means and the men they desire”.  According to the poster (click for a larger version) the film is set in England around 1800, and was made in 1995.  The dress featured here was worn by Kate Winslet in the role of Marianne Dashwood, and they describe the dress as:

“From Sense and Sensibility here is the dress of a young lady of fashion reduced to genteel but diminished circumstances.  Her dress is of cotton muslin rather than silk, the overdress also a cotton fabric.  The combination is pretty and reflects Marianne’s romantic nature, yet subtly shows that she is no longer a member of moneyed society.”

Marianne’s costume

The cut of the overdress is interesting, but would accentuate the bust I would think… (and I usually imagine this era being… ahem, preferring a flat-chested style…)

Marianne’s costume

Likely hooks and eyes to close…

You can also just make out the very faint print on the skirt

Marianne’s costume

The overdress has a very subtle monochromatic stripe.

Marianne’s hat

Bonnet.  Kind of boring really…

I still have a wealth of photos from the Cut! exhibit which I’m working on posting little by little… but I’m feeling less inspired now that so much time has passed…  Would anyone else like to add to the comments with more about this style of dress or it’s purpose in the film?

Millinery: Small white facinator

I named another facinator that I started in the Advanced Millinery class the ‘Small white facinator’ in an earlier post.
From my previous post:

This facinator came out some of my own purchased stock… I should have cut the larger hat first, and then used the remains to cut this, but the one block that fit me was being used to block up a felt at the time (or rather, waiting for the felt to dry..) and I was impatient…. This used the same block as the scrap sinamay facinator, and I still need to trim the excess, wire, bind, and decorate this one. I have NO ideas right now – I’m thinking perhaps a hair-flower I picked up from Ardene’s a few weeks ago and perhaps some of the little feathers I picked up from the instructor or from my small collection of feathers.

Small white sinamay facinator, trimmed and wired

After getting this one home, I trimmed off the excess sinamay, and wired the edge as planned. I had picked up some pretty dangling flowers from the instructor which I thought would look nice – a bundle in burgundy/red/pink (with some gold/copper glitter) and some in plain white. I ended up taking my lead for the binding from the flowers, and picked a piece of scrap binding in burgundy from my stash, and trimmed the sinamay with that. From there I re-strung the dangling flowers, intermixing the white with the red in two bundles. I added in the elastic loop trim on the inside of the hat to hold the comb (to be able to wear the facinator without it blowing away!) and then added the first and second bundles to the crown of the hat – occasionally tacking down a few strands so they would fall somewhat reliably.

Sinamay hat with flowers

I think that the overall result is fairly simple compared to the huge feather-and-flower examples that we were shown in class, but still really pretty.

Small sinamay facinator with flowers

Some photos of the finished product.. what do you think? Where would you imagine wearing something like this? Let me know in the comments below!

Small sinamay facinator with flowers

Millinery: Sinamay link

Although I got the chance to work with sinamay in the recent advanced millinery workshop, I thought I would post a link to a sinamay workshop (with loads of great photos) that I found a while through the AMuse blog.  http://janshatshatshats.blogspot.com/2011/01/washington-dc-sinamay-millinery-class.html I love the free-form work that several of the students did – if I had better access to the materials, I think this would be so much fun to try!

My projects from the advanced hat class

Finally, a quick run-down (with a few photos) from the advanced millinery workshop that I took in April of my OWN work!

Works in progress – Sinamay

As I mentioned in my previous post, I didn’t actually get anything FINISHED in the class.  I worked on three sinamay facinators, one (just a little bigger than) 3/4 sinamay hat with a brim, and three fur felts.  The furs probably took the most time to block and then also to dry – while the sinamay blocked up quickly, and then needed to be sized (with a mixture of 1 to 6 mix of PVA glue and warm water) and then dried basically overnight.  I also blocked up one complete failure…

Scrap sinamay facinator

This facinator came out of a piece of scrap sinamay our instructor was letting us play with.  It was just BARELY enough to cover the facinator block!  I didn’t need to trim off any excess – there wasn’t any – and from there I wired the edge (very carefully!) and then bound the sinamay with black bias trim.  This was done with only one layer of sinamay.

From here I’ll mostly just need to add elastic trim for the comb I’ll use to wear the facinator, and decorate the hat – I will likely use the two petals I made with the matching sinamay and the red twirly thing.  I’ll need something to cover the end too….

Small white facinator

This facinator came out some of my own purchased stock… I should have cut the larger hat first, and then used the remains to cut this, but the one block that fit me was being used to block up a felt at the time (or rather, waiting for the felt to dry..) and I was impatient….

This used the same block as the scrap sinamay facinator, and I still need to trim the excess, wire, bind, and decorate this one.  I have NO ideas right now – I’m thinking perhaps a hair-flower I picked up from Ardene’s a few weeks ago and perhaps some of the little feathers I picked up from the instructor or from my small collection of feathers.  If anyone has ideas – leave them in the comments below!

Indented facinator

Indented mini facinator with sinamay waiting to dry

The next facinator is a cute little shape with an indent at the top (there is no tipper for this, so a fellow student made one with upholstery cord – when she was done with it, I used it too!). In class all I got done was blocking and then drying the hat – the sinamay took extra long to dry because the block and the tipper were both wrapped in plastic – so the sizing didn’t really have anywhere to go!  This was only one layer of sinamay. Another student used it after me, and I think that the instructor took it home – because it still hadn’t dried.  They seemed friendly so it’s likely that the instructor will get it back to her once it is dry.

Sinamay 3/4 hat

Back when I was making the mini tricorn hats during the first class I considered instead of tiny little mini-hats, to do 3/4 size hats instead. Unfortunately the instructor didn’t have any blocks that were fully 3/4 size, so I used a block slightly larger than 3/4.  I started off by blocking (and then sizing) two layers on the crown, and while it was drying I blocked two layers for the brim as well. I only found out afterwards that I could have done this single-layer.

Once the sinamay was dry, I took it off the blocks, trimmed the crown, marked the brim, cut out the centre from the brim, and hand-stitched a sinamay collar (leftover from the trim of the crown) to the tabs on the brim.  Only as I was finishing the hand-stitching did the instructor let me know that I should have use buckram instead.  Oops! From there I attached the crown to the brim, and then trimmed and wired the brim edge.

I still need to trim the brim (I’m thinking gold duppioni silk) , add the sweatband, and then trim the hat itself (with the same fabric as the brim trim).    Any thoughts if I decide not to go with the gold? I like a bit of texture rather than smooth fabric – so I think duppioni will be a good fabric… but I’m open on colour!  If you have any suggestions – please add them to the comments below!

Sinamay failure

my blue sinamay waiting to dry

This is the blue sinamay that I brought from home – the sinamay is much loosely woven, and had no sizing – it also didn’t seem to absorb the water or sizing I added, and the result was a fairly floppy mess.  I could have tried to figure something out to make it work (I thought of binding it and wiring the edge) but I didn’t have the supplies or tools needed in class to give it a go – and I wanted to spend my time on more successful projects too!

Side comment on sinamay

One of the things that I found annoying about sinamay was similar to the buckram.  Firstly the sizing really dried out my skin.  I didn’t like that at all!  Also, when working with the sinamay, just like the buckram, it has a tendency to catch threads, poke out, and even at one point I got stabbed by the sinamay in the finger to the point of drawing blood.  I think that if I were to work with it again, that trying to use a pair of gloves might be something to consider….

Works in progress – Fur felt

Brown fur felt cloche

Brown fur felt cloche

I love how luxurious the fur felt looks… I didn’t like cloche hats on me when I was working on straws, but as soon as I put the hood on my head, I knew this would work a LOT better.  I basically just started off with the rounded block in my size, and blocked the felt on it.  It took a LOT of steam to get it to stretch and be smooth – but the result worked out very well.  From there I let it cool, tried it on, and then turned up the brim at the front.  From there I steamed and shaped that.  After trying it on again, I think that I could have made the crown shorter – but at this point it’s a bit too late.

I still need to add the sweatband and hat band – I think that I’ll leave the edges raw – they won’t fray, and I like the look.  I was also thinking of adding a brass buckle to the hatband (I just need to find one – all of what I have is silver-toned) and perhaps cut a keyhole out of the back so that I can tilt my head back without disturbing the hat (the brim is very long at the back…).  I’m thinking it might have a vaguely steampunk feel – although I also adore the idea of doing a lavishly decorated cloche like the examples here  - if I can find the right colour and scale for the embellishments…

Black and silver fur felt toppers

Not quite top hats (the brims are turned instead of blocked on their own and reattached, and the crowns don’t have the typical ‘hourglass’ shape), I liked the silver topper so much, that I decided to do it in black as well.  First I stretched these out with steam over the rounded block, and then I flipped the block upside down (since the instructor didn’t have a top hat/flat top block in my size) and used a plastic template to solidify the bottom (as per my instructor’s suggestion).  I also used  a scrap felt piece on the second topper to absorb all of the pressure I was putting on the curved block as per the instructor’s request.  From there I blocked the topper into the top-hat /flat top shape, waited for it to dry, and then curled up the brim much like the cloche.

After it was all dry, our instructor suggested I stiffen the sharp line where the crown met the band, which I did first with the water-glue mixture.  This ended up taking a while to dry, but wasn’t very stiff at all, and left considerable marks.  Luckily since it’s a fur felt, there’s enough thickness (and texture!) so that none of that showed through to the right side.  I later used her spray starch as well which had much, much better results.

So, still do do on both of these – a lining (to hide the stiffening!) a sweatband, and a hatband with decoration.  I think I’ll leave the raw edges of the felt on the brim, though I might change my mind at some point.  The black would look slick with a black satin band and black satin binding I bet. (plus then  I could wire and perhaps further shape the brim.)

Black fur felt topper

Side comment on fur felts

With one of the fur felts I wasn’t getting the stretch out of it that I had with the others, so I found myself tugging extra hard to work it down on the block to get it to do what I wanted out of it… during the class I didn’t notice it – but later in the day and more so even the next day, the base of my thumbs (haha.. the drumbstick of my hands!) were exceptionally sore.  I hadn’t realized how much work I was doing until I was done! Ouch!

Finished versions

Well, I don’t have anything to put here right now!  Hahaha….   Perhaps in time I’ll finish these off and have some final pictures in spotlight posts!

Millinery: Freeform felt

While I am thinking about millinery and felt, I thought I would share this video with you about freeform felt hats – a kind of interesting concept – but nothing that we explored in class ourselves.

What do you think?  I bet that to hold all those tiny ridges some additional sizing or stitching might be needed…?

Robots on Granville

While I was in Vancouver, I walked past Granville Optical and fell in love with their creative and eye-catching window display.  Since I know a lot of folks who read my blog love all things even vaguely steampunk, and more than a few love robots too… I had to post some of the photos!

Robots on Granville

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Robots on Granville

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Robots on Granville

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Robots on Granville

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Robots on Granville

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Robots on Granville

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Robots on Granville

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Robots on Granville

Steampunk fashion in music videos (3)

In a previous post I looked at the fashion in steampunk and pop music videos, this time around I’m looking at rock and metal music. I originally intended to have all of them together, but the list just got so long, and download times would be insane… so – breaking it up!

(please note – I’m linking directly to YouTube videos… so if the owners take them off YouTube – the links will break. I’ve included the artist and title so you can search for them in the future should that happen…. )

Rock/metal music + steampunk fashion

Music I love (generally, but not always) where steampunk fashion has been used for the visuals.
First up – my beloved Apocalyptica and the video for Hope version 2 (with vocals). I’ll admit, this might be KIND of cheating… the reason I’m putting this in is because of the clips from a movie (Vidocq) which are included in the official video…it’s a stretch, I’ll admit, but since they’re one of my very-most-favorite bands, and this is the official video for the song, I’ll allow it. *S*

I love the dark mood and feel of Nine Inch Nails’ The Perfect Drug -plus, gorgeous costumes in a vaguely Victorian feel…

Smashing Pumpkins’ Tonight, Tonight. I’d say the fashion is more “Victorian” than neo-Victorian, but still interesting to look at for the fashion – plus a good song too.

Like the Smashing Pumpkins video, the next video has more “Victorian” rather than neo-Victorian fashion, but someone sent me the link so I wanted to include this here as well. This is Helpless Corpse by Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. I’ll admit, that until someone sent me this link I had never heard of this group before. The middle part of the video is completely different than the first or third parts too – so consider this submission only for those first and third parts!

Ok.. so, what am I missing? Fill me in in the comments below! This entry is far shorter than the others, and that must be remedied!