Finished Fascinator

Here she is, all finished!

Top view of the red fascinator, all attached to the base and the headband.  I think it came out beautifully.

 

My customer asked for a little more height, so I added a small bandeau-like base, to lift it up and cup it forward, and I made a bunch more of the lavender beaded flowers to place around it.

It's all stitched together. I think glue would have added too much extra weight.

I think she's going to look wonderful!

Another fascinator!

This was an exercise in "If you can't find it - MAKE it yourself"

Here's the dress fabric I was trying to coordinate with:

But all the nicer silk flowers right now are either magenta, electric red, or screaming orange, and I really needed something sort of more in the brick to raspberry range. So I combined about four different existing flowers, and painted each layer till it looked cohesive and had depth and shading.

I think it produced a beautiful result!

I really didn't have the right color purple to do the curly feather thing that I did on the others. (which is too bad - cause I really did like that effect) BUT - I found some fabulous cut crystal beads that were the right purple with an over-wash of a red-gold tone. I knew they belonged in there somewhere, but I wasn't sure where.

So I took apart a nicer looking silk hydrangea, and added the beads in as stamen-like centers. I also made a centerpiece for the red flower out of the same beads.  

I love the purple-red combo!

And then...Fascinators!

And then sometimes....Fascinators!

I'm putting these here because I made them, and I think they are the epitome of spring. 

I like the low-key but elegant silk covered button in the centers of the first two.

Playing with these colors was a lot of fun, and made up for the not quite flowerdyness of my yard...

 Then there's this one, which has a silk ribbon flower in the center. I like that the green in the center plays as a neutral, making the piece come across as all white - but it isn't monotone. Neat trick :)

 

Some photos that SHOULD have gone with the previous post

Hello all!

Here are a couple of shots of the fascinator that I made in the Izzie Lewis class at Nancy's Sewing Basket here in Seattle.  I think it kinda got a little carried away - I'd brought all this stuff (feathers, netting, organdy, brooch, horsehair) to Maybe use on the fascinator, and I ended up, er....using all of it. It has a bit of a multiple personality disorder, but if we just assume that it's supposed to be "over the top", I'd say we hit that nail on the head. Here are the now standard "finished it on the ferry and took a cell phone picture" shots. I need to put my hair up and take a good photo with it on, though I'd look a leedle bit like a saloon girl. 

(click make big)

Whimsy-R-Us, anyone?

 See what I mean? The left side is all explosive-net-foo-with-a-funky-feather-thing-reminiscent-of- Dr Seuss (LOVE IT), and the right side is all rolled-organdy-elegant drape- lily leaves (Love it too!!) but the only thing they have in common is being black, and being on the same little comb base thingy. 

I clearly need to make more of them to "clarify my vision"  Then I need to figure out what to DO with them. I can only wear maybe one a year with the events that I attend, and I can donate one or two to the charity auction.

Though - I had NO idea how much veiling costs. NO idea. Wowza.

In unrelated news, here's a happy picture of Wayne Wichern (that SF milliner dude of awesomeness) in his shop. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what a lifetime collection of hat blocks looks like. Actually, this picture maybe shows 1/5th of his total collection. I was amazed. LOVED the nets hanging from the ceiling that held a bunch of stuff, too.

I got tons of ideas just spending an hour and a half with him. his work is SOOO clean, and his eye is artistic, and he was so delightfully real. Any of you who actually know me should know how important that is to me. I've got about ten seconds of patience for people who are not real.

If you ever get a chance - buy this guy's work. He's totally worth it.

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!!!!