Scenes from the Shop

A beautiful, clear, cold winter day in Melbourne and here are some photo's I took this morning in the lovely early morning light. The shop manages to get all the winter sun and so the light is wonderful.

The Finished Hat

Finished the black hat with contrast stitching , have added faux patent headband and finished the brim with some velvet. This is the first time I have used the new stretch velvet to edge a brim and I think that although it is way easier to get a good edge the colour is not quite black enough to my liking although no one else would notice but to my eye it is just not black/black. Added a lining that matched the stitching which is a nice touch and unexpected. Note the double brim so that I only have the detail stitching on the top, just another detail which is probably lost on many (but not me) !

Adding some Swarovski detail

Just one of the many little jobs I need to get through in a day...here I am adding the Swarovski crystal detail to the center of some pretty little flowers. This is for a wholesale job and will eventually end up as the trim on a little straw hat...only 120 to go !

Diamante Trim

New diamante trim has just arrived if anyone
is looking for it....here it is.

Royal Ascot Hats

and in the 'oh dear' category

Stitch Detail

Some works in progress, love the combination of black/cream. I have used a strong 'pearlized' vintage cotton here for the feature stitching.



Stitching rows gradually build up - I am not expert at getting all the rows perfectly even as I tend to run the machine too fast being an impatient modern girl but I think it all works out in the long run. When I was doing my Millinery training at Philip Somerville in London, England there was an old milliner called Edith who used to specialize in this type of work and I can now see that this is necessary. As I only attempt this type of work every now and again I am not a perfect machinist. Edith used to make the ENTIRE hat using this method including the crown. I tend to only use it as a feature. This is a work in progress and I will be adding to the detail so I'll keep you posted.
Keep your cotton ends all in check as this will save time with trimming them off in the long run.

Just some snaps of other stitched detail hats I am working on at the moment. Look at the amazingly lovely long even stitches my old 'singer' manages - it makes this type of work a breeze as it is so solid and dependable - don't forget to fill TWO bobbins with your cotton FIRST so that if you run out out you have another ready to go.

How to Make a Hat with Stitch Detail

I attach the ribbon by stitching in place from the underside hiding all the stitches under the headfitting.

Where the ribbon meets I decide to have a small feature in the center of the ribbons, this is just the same ribbon width however I have folded it so that it is narrower as this always looks better.

Using pins I decide where I have to curve the ribbon with the iron and where I will stop the curve and have the ribbon straight so that it sits flat on the brim.

Matching the ribbon for around the crown luckily I have the exact colour in a vintage petersham. I have also heavily stitched this ribbon so that it matches in both colour and texture.

Stitching from the underside is trimmed of loose ends.

You have to be prepared to squish the crown to get the stitching where you want it. No stiffener on this brim (some slight sizing on the crown) and so it is all quite flexible - my trusty ol 'singer' is perfect for this job as she will stitch any thickness and gives a beautiful even long stitch length.

Working out the pattern I used a silver pencil so I had a rough guide for my stitches, pins are there also just as a guide and as I draw with the silver pencil I remove the pins as pins in a brim while you are doing this intense stitching can throw you off and cause your stitching to go haywire. I want the stitching to emulate a ribbon detail that you would find on a 1940's style hat.

Making hats for the shop and this is how I go about making a felt hat with stitched detail. The colour of the hat and stitching pretty much needs to be spot on as I think it looks better unless it is decided that a contrast would be good ie. black with cream stitching. I made this hat from a lovely burgandy coloured Peach bloom hood. The cotton I have stitched with matches perfectly as does the ribbon I have used on the headfitting and hat band.