Eureka! Edwardian hats demystified!

I found this fabulous extant vintage/antique clothing site with numerous photos of each item (and shoes and hats!) from a variety of angles, including inerior shots!

Here it is: http://www.contentmentfarm.com/index.html

Check out both the Online store AND the sold archives.  Great for all you steam punks out there :)

My Eureka moment?
Looking at the underside photos of the really large crowned edwardian hats they have pictured (this type)

 has given me the answer to my age-old question of "HOW do those hats look like they are floating on those big hairdos! If the crowns were really that wide, they would squish the hair!

I've read some more about the pompadour frames now, too - and though I'm sure that those helped the hats stay on and the hair stay big, the actual answer seems to be that the brim of the hat comes all the way in to the head size, or even smaller than the head size, and are made to sort of perch, while the crown as seen from the outside of the hat is WAY bigger than the headsize, which enhances the already extreme size of the hair.

First hat, on the outside, with way wider than head sized crown:

Same hat inside view. You can see how much bigger the exterior crown is than the actual headsize opening from where it slants:

And another, outside:

and inside:

 I'm absolutely thrilled with my new-found discovery. SO thrilled that I may have to make one to go with an actual 1912 dress that I own - that fits me! I think I'll do it in buckram though, since I'm kinda back into that, and I've never touched straw before in my life.

Boing Boing!

(all these photos came from the website above.)

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!!!!

custom order and a groovy new tool

This was the most amazing weekend! I'm not at all sure how there was so much leisure AND we got so much done, but we did! Made of awesome.  I finished one of my two "hot" custom orders, and it came out really nicely. Here are some shots:

I love this trim. Cheeptrims.com rocks my world.

 And a nice, doubled, wired plume:

And....AND! I finally won an auction on ebay for a hat stretcher! I've felt pretty sure that I needed one for a while now but I didn't know what size I needed or if they would work well and there were always other things I KNEW that I needed, etc.

After losing dozens of auctions because I wasn't willing to go over $50, I finally decided that it was just time to pay what the thing cost. It came last week, and this custom order was the first time I've had to use it.
The big surprise to me was that I think I'll be using it primarily for double checking the size of hats, which I need to do much more often than stretching them.
Though it may be obvious, this thing expands or contracts when you turn the handle in the center and is intended to stretch a hat that is a tiny bit too snug. I hadn't really considered that I could use it to determine the exact size of existing hats.

 When I put the stretcher into a hat, I turn the crank till it "fits" the hat, and then I can read the little gauge on the metal expander piece. It reads in inches on one side, and in hat size on the other. I am absolutely thrilled about this, and it's going to become on eof the most used pieces of equipment I own.

I am absolutely certain that the custom order I just boxed up is exactly 24 inches around :)
Hooray for the right tools!

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.

:)

More Website Pride: functional online form!!!!

Ok - I'm probably a little too excited a little too soon - but I've just made a functional web order form!!!

My new groovy online form is currently residing on the Contact page - which may or may not be where it stays, but I've tested it twice and it actually WORKS! I placed two fake orders and they totally showed up in my mailbox!!

Way chuffed.

Best of all it was free and I know how to update it myself! I can create up to five forms a month with the free account. I can't imagine that I need five forms - though I begin to think about an email list subscription form....

Nah. I should just make hats, not make more technical trouble for myself than necessary.

Ok - back to your regularly scheduled lives.

(boing! boing!)

Website update!

Website Update Accomplishments:

• I fixed the links page! Another rollicking success!
• I actually put some links on the links page! This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the millinery supply places I've used, but it's a heck of a good start. I'll try to be better about adding them when I visit them, (or when I find new ones).
• I added the last of the on-the-shelf pictures, only to discover that only only one was missing, and it is one that is already Sold. I put the picture up anyway.

Now - if I can just figure out how to make a fillable order form on this website.....
          And put some standard sizing information up there......
               And measure the felts and write some descriptions.......
                     And make a felt color chart for the Cav hats...........
                              and finish that hat article on the linen Mary Stewart Caps.......

OR - I could just take a minute and feel pleased about the things I did get done.

(And do my homework for my millinery class on Thursday.)