Welcome to Wonderland

Welcome to Wonderland ….

This fabulous Mini Tricorn Hat- was one of my recent commissions for Salli Gainsford’s photography workshops. The Hatter.

Have you ever wondered just how a little hat like this is created, and actually how much work and planning goes into the whole hat making process?

Firstly I start by collecting all the required fabrics, feathers, trims, wires and buckrum I need. Colour matching everything correctly is essential and perfecting all those little finishing details are what makes the piece special!

I then begin mapping out a paper or cardboard pattern to check dimensions and proportions. This may be cut and changed several times before I finally get the shape which I’m 100% satisfied with.

Each section of the hat is then hand blocked in buckrum on traditional wooden millinery hat blocks. Millinery buckrum is a foundation fabric used for making the main ‘body’ of the hat, it’s plyable when damp and rigid when blocked, therefore ‘holds’ the required shape of the blocked hat.

Each individual piece is stiffened, measured, cut and wired accurately. The buckrum base is covered with layers of fabric, then finally each section is meticulously hand stitched together.

The brim is also wired by hand, using millinery wire. Millinery wire is an imperative part of hat making, as the wire ensures the hat holds it's shape correctly.

For this particular brim I hand stitched a special millinery “Petersham Ribbon" on the edge ( a specific ribbon which curves around circles ) before adding a gorgeous old gold braid on the top edge, to echo the gold in the fabric.

Once the hat is assembled the exciting part is adding the final trims- in this case I used some wonderful ostrich feathers For a real statement!!

See images below for a peek into the creation process.

Hand blocked sections of the hat on a wooden hat block

Covering the little crown of the hat

Selecting fabrics for the top of the crown

Hand bound edge- millinery Petersham Ribbon, and a gorgeous old gold braid.

This is when the hat really starts to take shape!!

Perfecting the angles of the brim

Those fabulous finishing touches!!

After many many hours of work and here’s the finished result.