Three day weekend....of HATS!

The three day weekend for me was absolutely, morning-to-night-full of hats!

First, the Cavalier bride order: I love this top view So hard. It's pretty stunning.

I haven't heard yet what she thinks, but I wanted to share it with you just because it's so lovely

 I added a fancy cockade as a wedding prezzie. (It's not every day that two of your friend marry one another)

It looked like it was born there

 Straight on front view:

And another lovely order. in the almost-completed stage. The design is approved, so I'll finish her off tonight and mail her out tomorrow.

 Check out the awesome jeweled hatband! (closeup below) This one is too long for the hat, since I made it to be a billiment on a French Hood, so I'll be reproducing it for this hat.  This whole jewelry making thing is AWESOME!! I've started to look into local classes. My abilities in the jewelry department pretty much amount to stringing beads onto wire and using a crimp bead and glue to keep it all in place. I'd love to have a few more skillz....

But Ain't she sweet?

The peacock sweep wanted to live here too. I LOVE peacock sword feathers.

An our Mr Joe-the-awesome-shopper's hat is done and mailed! First pleated hat of mine - out in the world. I'm very pleased with it.

And in preparation for a whole month far away from my workshop. (Yes, you heard that right - all new orders will need to take the whole month of September out of the picture.)  I am preparing 16 French hoods to take with me since they are so heavy on the hand-sewing. To that end, here is a pile of Billiments, ready to be attached to the black, drapey, hoody-veily-thingies. I've never seen a whole pile of Billiments before, and I've Certainly never made one myself.

 Here's that uber-spiffy band that ended up on the little black hat.

And here's a shot or two of the pleated frill for the earlier French hood style:

I use a smocking pleater to make the folds, and I use the fabric I always think of as "Cloth of Gold" which is metallic silk organza. I should do a whole blog post on those frills....

Here is a shot of the earlier style French hood - with no center point, and a low, curly side ear piece.
(The front billiment is not attached yet.) But you can see how it will look.  It needs the frill on it too. I've got the wrong hairstyle on the wig - this "do" should be pouf-less and flat. Methinks I may need a second black wig so that I can display one of each. Anybody got a decent, cheap wig source??

 Top view of same

And finally, a particularly nice feather spray on a flatcap. Ended up changing out the gold bling for silver bling, so just ignore that bit. I'm showing off the feathers here.

Also got two more custom order hats "Mostly Done" and the sixteen hood bases all cut out wired, and partially mulled.

It was a full, hatty three days, for sure.