three new blocks!

And by NEW blocks, I mean "custom made by this awesome artisan in the shop at the Seattle Children's Theatre" kindof new. Newly come into the world - just for me -squeaky squawky new. Here they am:

Squee!

From left to right we have:

• A very "I made this up myself" experimental kind of block, which can be sized down by taking off the 5/8" layers at the bottom. These are basically a series of tapered headsize plates. When I remove plates, the hat gets shorter but this style tends to scale down pretty well that way anyway. Each 5/8" layer adds about 1/2" to the circumference. Using the various configurations of this block, I can get various sizes from 21"(Gwenneth size) to 24.5"(Giles size). We'll see if the use of plywood for these plates is workable or not. This multi-block is on a base with two dowels that hold the entire apparatus together - like a spinner with two spindles. I need to sand down the dowels so that the layers can come off more easily, but it is totally working.
• A 23.5", slightly-taller-than-my-current-ones cavalier hat block. This is Thore'-and-everybody-else-who-has-ordered-this-year sized. My largest flat topped block before was 23". (Ok, I've also got this freakishly large 26" block that I made and used one time only for a theatre who needed a hat for this 18th century dude in a periwig, but that hardly counts.) Murphy's law says, of course, that now only people with 22" heads will want cavalier hats. But I'm prepared for that too :)
• A 23.5" tall hat block. Again, I had a 23ish one and a 24ish one, and this has a slightly different profile. (more like one of the extant ones.) Under this block is a spinner with a small enough spindle for the blocks I have. My collection of spinners is now less pathetic, though still not robust.

I can't wait to try these out!

But I haz to to wait. :( Cause I'm preparing to teach a full-day millinery workshop in LA this weekend!)

If ever there was a good reason to have to wait....that's sounds like one to me.

The to-do list is long, but shrinking every day.

Wish me luck :)



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. :)

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?

happy (and gorgeous) customer

Hello all -

I owe a great big post on the awesomeness that was the Texas hat sales event. (took 35 hats, sold 19!! It was good to be down south again for a bit.) But - as I have not managed to take the leedle memory card out of my awesome new camera, that post will have to wait.

In the meantime, for your viewing pleasure, I present to you - Jenn.K (of http://periodmovies.blogspot.com/)who wore her squeaky new Trulyhat to the California Ren Faire and her hubby took the most amazingly awesome portraits!

I lurve me some yummy customer photos. Don't you?

Off to go read her blog now......

Hat shapes, parasisals, and a couple of custom requests

 In hat class last night, I made some more progress on felt hat #2:
Here it is on the block:



I got it off the block, basted a wire into the edge and and tried it on. Despite the fact that my classmates LOVED it on me, and the fact that I think it's coming out really beautifully, I believe I may have struck out for a second time in the "hats I personally want to wear on a daily basis" department.
 It's so funny - I can look at someone else and have a great guess on what will look best on them, but I'm apparently not so great at choosing the best shapes for MY face - at least not just by looking at a block I haven't used before.

The jury may be out till the hat is all done, cause I've got some fun plans for decoration on it, plus - it is shaping up to be a fall hat, and and my wardrobe is shaping up for spring. Spring! Where hats are straw and sinamay and parasisal:

Izzie had a sinamay hat she had just finished, which she let me try on. I don't have a picture but, ladies and gentlemen, THAT was *my* hat shape. Here is the block, covered with plastic and ready to start:

 I asked to start one of those, despite the fact that I'm actually supposed to be in the felt class. Izzie had a gorgeous cranberry red parisisal hood lying around that she let me purchase, which I had been eyeing since day 1.

 

Here it is just initially placed on the block:

and here it is with the string on and after some work:

We ran out of time for me to pull the brim, but I'm really excited about it - since I'm much more certain that it will look good on me, having tried the shape on already!

In other news, I had a request for a custom Greek sun hat like in these two images:  

He wants the point from the second image, but the brim from the first. I can do that.

Something about the images suggested to me that they might be made of straw, and with that in my head, I picked this awesome hat up to use as a blank. (for WAY less than it should have cost)

I look forward to showing it to Izzie and seeing what she thinks of the straw. It's lovely and fine-woven and pliable, and I think it will make a really nice quality hat.

Also had a request for this gorgeous hat:

Which also looks to me that it might be made of straw. (something about the lines that go around the crown).

Maybe I just have straw on the brain?

I don't own the right brim block for this one, and I don't know if Izzie does either. But - the requestor is a friend....so I'll look and see.

And that's entirely enough.

TrulyHats are on the road to Texas! (And new Camera)

And by on the road - I really mean it. Four big boxes of TrulyHats (pretty much everything on the store page and a couple more) are all boxed up and mailed off to my friends Kim and Erik's house in Houston.  The hats will wait patiently for me to arrive and take them to an SCA event there (Stargate Baronial) where two fabulous old friends will be taking on an awful lot of responsibility, AND I'll have a merchanting booth.

(Apparently, out in the real world, these are called  "trunk shows")

I'm quite excited to go back to the land where my hatmaking began, and am hopeful that I will see lots of old friends and meet a bunch of new ones.

Also: Camera!

In other exciting (to me) news, after a long search (ok - only about a month. What can I say, I've got the attention span of a gnat.) I finally stopped with the research and actually ordered a new digital camera. I spent a whopping $89.00 on it, and am quite a proud cheapskate that way.

My real, no, ONLY criterion was that I wanted to be able to take excellent macro shots with it. I couldn't care any less about megapixels or zoom Xs or sepia tones or anything. Good. Clear. Easy. Closeup Shots.

Today - it CAME in the mail! Naturally, being a good technical writer, I read all the instructions first (praise me!) and then tried it out on whatever was handy, which happened to be some jewelry cast-offs that a friend gave me to use as possible hat decor.

Here is my "first time out of the gate" resulting photo:

May I just  please say: Woot!

For anyone who is also shopping for an extremely inexpensive, fabulous macro-mode extrordinaire camera, 

it is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH1, and I got it from Amazon.com