Hat class in LA was awesome!

Though I do admit that I am glad to be home again, the class was a total win-win!

They even fed us beautiful homemade food for lunch and dinner!! I have pics of that somewhere...

yes...the class:

I taught three cockades that I learned from Candace Kling, gave a lecture with samples about millinery materials and sources, a hands-on section about feather work, (buying, curling, wiring, combining) and a demo of pulling a felt hat.

The only thing I forgot was my super-neat stack of crinoline squares, but my generous host, Giles, had some double buckram that I disassembled and made work. Not bad, all things considered.

It was very well attended: 15 students, two of them from the blog universe (Hi Austin and Coleen!) and the rest from the SCA. The group was a perfect size. Here they are, in the next two images:

 It seems that I only managed to take photos during the cockades classes, since the materials class was just me talking about a handout with samples and the pulling demo was, well, I had my hands full then. I could/should have taken photos of the featherwork section, but we were running behind and I was prepping for the pulling demo.
Here are some great shots of some of the students' cockade work:

In other news, I had a stack of custom orders kindof piling up for me at home, and I've wasted no time getting them started. After going to hat class at Izzie's (hooray! only a two month hiatus. Sheesh) I began two baby hats.

Hmm....blogthing won't let me add more piccies right now. Will post this and post more ab out the baby hats later. Also will post about the shop-of-chaos, which is going to get cleaned this long weekend.

After we go crabbing :)

Cheers all - and THANKS to everyone who came to the workshop and who made it possible. I know it was a lot of work, a lot of prep, a lot of cooking (thanks Joe and entire kitchen crew!!) but mostly a LOT of fun.

Two cockades - process shots

Here are some of my process shots of a couple of the cockades I made

 in the Candace Kling Cockades Class (hereafter known as the CKCC)

Here is a paper mockup:

 And here are the loops I cut out of 1.5" ribbon:

 The loops all sewn together in that very specific way...

 And the cockade laid out on crinoline and pinned out on the grid, all ready to stitch in place.

 The crinoline trimmed down, the loops pinned with teensy clips, stitching with strong thread. You can see what it is going to look like here, just needs the crinoline to be trimmed back and a button stitched over the center.

 A different cockade, I made 22 (I think) of these motifs. Made them in the green paper first - just to figure out what I was doing.

 All pinned to the grid. I didn't get this stitched till many days later, but isn't it AWESOME!

And....that's all she wrote today.

Cockade class! and Houston trip teasers

 So - I do not yet have time to do a full descriptive write-up of ANY of the groovy things that have transpired in the last month, but I will throw out some quick descriptions and some teaser pics:

Cockades class at Nancy's Sewing Basket: First of all, this place Rawkes. It is scary that I can get on a bus from my work and be there in 18 minutes. They had this black wool fabric embroidered allover with solid chainstiched flowers that is screaming to be another Jacobean jacket (which I don't need)...and this amazing ribbon room...and these very awesome people there...and I bought a porcupine quill. Yep. I actually did need one of those, if you must know, and though I have since found them for much cheaper, I would have to have bought 50 when  I just need ONE)

The class itself (which I squealed about being signed up for four months ago) was absolutely everything it was cracked up to be. Candace Kling : www.candacekling.com is a fabulous teacher. I have not had such an intensive and fast paced class since the MFA program. Candace told us that she was going to teach to the fastest student, meaning that the speedy folks would get more assignments, and not sit there waiting for the slower folks to finish up. This was a brilliant way to do it, and I really just want to pack her up and bring her home with me.

If you haven't had the chance to take one of her classes, Run, do not walk, to sign up. Her "art bar" is very high, her process is well thought out and well practiced, her enthusiasm is contagious and her research and experience is extensive. What more could you want? Maybe the best part was that she taught us to fish. You know - did not just tell us how to make three cockades. Told us how to invent them, and how to look at extant pieces and pictures in ribbon books from 1920 something and figure out what the books SHOULD have told us about how to make the cockades therein.  I got eyes that can look at the fabulous things I see and go home and probably figure out how to make many of them myself.  Score!

Here are some quick and dirty shots of a few of my samples from the class:

 And one process shot of making the stripey cockade with the gold button:

Here's one - all ready for me to figure out what to do with it now:

On to the Houston hat sales event - (of which I took almost Zero photos.) I was too busy hugging people I haven't seen in way too long and putting hats on people to take photos.  Here's one shot of me and my youngest godson (who now haz a trulyhat but did not have said hat yet), and then a photo of a hat and its newly adopted person. I even had a grey feather to add to his hat, making it beyond perfect for his outfit.

And....just so that I remember HOW great I used to have it, here are two photos of just ONE of the ginormous fabric stores in Houston.  This is High Fashion Fabrics. (insert angel choir music here) There's a whole wall of embroidered silks, and the wool gabardine section is separate from the wool suiting section.  *le SIGH*

That's ok. I'm going to Britex in June. And then the LA fabric district. And then New York for a supply run. I should be all fabric'd out by August, don't you think?

Me neither. :)