Edwardian hat - and new camera Luvin'

Did I Mention that I Love my new camera? I think I may have mentioned this at some point. Please allow the picture below to illustrate the degree to which I Love my new camera:

What is it a picture of, you ask? It is a yes-you-can-actually-count-the-threads-if-you-wanted-to closeup of the detail on my new Edwardian hat - which I made to go with a vintage dress that I wanted to wear to the fundraiser gala for the Seattle Children's Theatre.

Here is a more "Oh - NOW I get it" photo of said hat:

My excuse for wanting to make said hat for said fundraiser was that the theatre had done "go, dog, Go" this season, complete with the scenes where the pink dog asks "Do you like my hat?" and I wanted to be able to go up to the dog characters and ask that. That's my excuse - had nothing to do with just wanting to wear a white linen dress actually from 1909, which fit me pretty well.

The hat came out pretty spiffily, (despite the mad rush I was in to get it made) and it wore well too. My solution to how to keep it on my head was entirely due to an error I made, which I shall entitle "how teensy should the headsize be when I have my hair done up all big like." Let's just say - I originally made it my headsize (21.5") and it should have been about 19" in order to not squish the hairdo.

So - I had to make a new little...headsize reducer thingy. Which I'll try to photograph and "hexplain" later  but which totally allowed me to NAIL this sucker to my very backcombed and hairsprayed hairdo, and then pin the outer edges of the "headsize fixit reducer" to the underside of the hat - keeping the whole thing on come wind or weather.

Right,- so I can't seem to get the photos of me in the dress AND the hat to upload, so I'll just go with what we have so far, and update later as I can.

Ok - it's later: Here we are at the event. I think we look like Tim is running for some political office in 1909 :)

Oh - and that thing I'm holding is a bacon wrapped pretzel.

Bacon. Wrapped. Pretzel.

They asked me if I wanted Nutella on it. I declined. It was already perfect.

Another shot - this one is "tryin it all out - hey Zach, take a picture of Mom"

The dress looked better pressed, and I did end up wearing a corset under it all, which slimmed up the line a lot, even though it was not the right corset. I ain't gonna even SAY how wrong it was, just that it was better With it than without it.

Also of note is that some of the head postures that I think of as "feminine" (chin raised, or head cocked to the side a little) seem to me to be derived entirely from the wearing of large brimmed hats. It's really funny to realize that when wearing large brimmed hats, in order not to slice someone in the face with your hat brim when greeting them with a friendly hug, one MUST tilt one's chin WAY up, and cock the head to the side to tilt the brim out of the way. One must also not stand close to walls. Or Columns. Or tall men. Very interesting and entertaining. I think such a hat changes a lady's grace, posture, and movement as much as do high heels, or a high stiff collar, or a corset. All of them together would produce a very specific set of movements which are totally indicative of an era.

Just pontificatin'

So

Do You like my hat?

Some better photos of the Green Hat of awesomeness

In this episode, the hatmaker remembers what her day job is and actually reads her camera manual to learn to take clear closeups.

(it isn't a very manual camera, so she must have thought that "point-and-shoot" should be taken literally. Sometimes marketing gets in the way a little bit.)

Although it is not the most current, highest resolution, fabulous megapixelled macro settable digital camera out there, it does seem to have the ability to take macro shots after all, when properly configured to do so:

Here is the leedle green candycane hat, in all her biasy stripedy sassy glory. You can clicky these photos to see them even bigger.

An in-focus closeup of the "let's try this technique and see what happens" ribbon flowers, (with which I am thrilled!) 

and a back view of ribbon flower "buds"

 A little vanity shot of my theatrical milliner friend's headsize ribbon lining technique, which seems to have worked very well (tiny handstitches at the top of the ribbon - the beige lining does not come all the way down to the head opening, which reduces bulk.) and the elasticy cord that I poked through the hat - which keeps her on my head at the appropriately jaunty angle.

And a final side view of the hat, from the non-flower side.

And I can't wait to see what this post looks like, so I'll just end here.

Cheers!

teensy green hatsy

Any photograph taken in the ladies' room of a moving ferry boat  after 11:00 PM is going to be horrific.
We all concede this point, yes?

Nonetheless, because I have the patience of a gnat on speed, here is the first photo of the little green hat that I made in the Izzie Lewis Millinery class:

I see a little bobble where the sideband meets the tip right at the CF which I'm totally going to have to fix. I like the little hat too much to let that slide. I'm thrilled with my shot-in-the-dark ribbon flowers. Think how awesome they will be when I know what I'm doing!

I did notice something funny: When you are on a late night ferry boat wearing a bright yellow coat and a teensy green fascinator hat with four stripped ostrich feathers bobbling cheerfully with every step you take.....

No one will look you in the eye.

I was assuming that I'd be the object of great amusement for folks - or at least something to stare at. It being really late (and I being really punchy by then) I decided to wear it for the egress anyway. Contrary to my expectations, a little green perchy hat makes you just strange enough for people to want to go out of their way to avoid you.

This amused me very much.

I need to make the hat a dress, don't you think? Or a green Chinese silk brocade corset or something. Tim voted for the corset. I know we're all surprised about that.

Anyway - hopefully more and better pictures to come, but I just wante to share cause it is SO CUTE!!!!

Sneak peek of the leedle buckram hat

Edited simply to correct my hideous spelling error in the original post.
(sheesh) (and they let me help my son with spelling homework)

My little buckram hat that I'm making in the Izzie lewis class is coming along swimmingly.

Here are some sneak peeks:

It's going to be absolutely adorable!! It's about the size of a salad plate and I am ALMOST overcome with "teh cuteness".

Almost - but not quite.

:)