aMuse For Shoes/Sierra Leone Fundraiser

Bear with me on this next blog entry--lengthy but important. I have never used my name or shop or talents to help raise funds for any charities--except breast cancer research and that's another story. I choose to keep my charitible giving a private matter in most cases, as do most people. However, I now feel compelled to ask for your help in raising funds for a dear friend who has been called to war-torn Sierra Leone, West Africa. Here is his story. Donation widget box is below.




The widget box above will take you to PayPal, and, as I'm sure you know, the transaction will be secure and private. We'll know who is giving but other private info is totally secure. You will have to have a PayPal account, but I'm sure most of you have accounts anyway.

Several years ago I had the privilege of studying with Glen Leasure at his shoemaking workshop outside Lexington, Virginia. Working with him, and enjoying the wonderful hospitality of he and his wife Peggy, was a truly eye-opening experience. They are, without doubt, the most dedicated, humble, giving people I have ever met. These people gave up what most of us would call ‘the good life’ many years ago to raise their family among like-minded folks—growing their own food, home-schooling their children in a communal setting, building their amazing log cabin by themselves, eschewing television, all to live close to the land, relying on each other for the basics in life. Part of their compound is shown above--breathtakingly beautiful and serene.

Recently Glen was asked by the non-governmental organization Child Help Sierra Leone, to go to Sierra Leone, West Africa, to teach shoemaking in January 2010.

The people of Sierra Leone are survivors of a war beyond imagination. Due to 11 years of chaos, they have become the most desperately poor people on earth and have lost the skills required to rebuild their country. They are now focused on recovery, but the problems are many and deep. The average life expectancy is less than 41 years. Diseases are rampant and treatment is largely unavailable. Many are stricken by water and vector borne diseases. Shoeing the shoeless will save lives by providing protection from disease. It is their dream and goal to become shoe self-sufficient; shoes are a short-term solution to the many problems these people face daily.

His students will be selected from the local population by Child Help Sierra Leone. They will be from their late teens to early twenties, and priority will be given to women, who are the most disadvantaged, suffering from the scars of abuse and isolation. These young women are also trying to provide for their own children and all those orphaned and abandoned. As the director of Child Help says, ‘empowered women make a nation.’

It is one of my greatest wishes to help Glen help these people. Glen will need to cover his own expenses in getting to West Africa, including airfare, shots, medications and food. Glen and his family live by modest means themselves; that is why I am asking you to help me help him. We can all make a difference by donating what you can to help cover his expenses.

Below are some pictures of my time spent studying shoemaking with Glen. You will see him in a couple of the shots, hard at work.

Incentives!
For Wilmington and surrounding areas: 'Style Girl' Jess James and I are raffling off a ‘holiday makeover,’ with raffle proceeds going to help expense Glen’s trip to Sierra Leone. Raffle tickets are going for $5 each. For each $5 you donate your name is entered in the drawing. The more you give the better your chances to win. On November 1, we will draw a winner! You can buy your raffle tickets by clicking the widget box below. Go to the Style Girl page to see the great shops/services included in the makeover! You'll be pleased!!! Clothing, hair, make-up, shoes, hat/headpiece, styling, and more!! THIS IS A $700+ VALUE!

For my millinery students: Donate at least $30 and you will have your supply fee waived for any upcoming class through January 2010. (Value $35--$75!) Those would be classes in Mendocino, Chicago, Gatlinburg, and Washington, DC.



Please know that each and every dollar will go directly to Glen and the Child Help Sierra Leone cause.



Thank you for caring...and for giving!!

Fiber Folks at aMuse--Felting, Knitting, Painting, Quilting, Hatmaking

Last night I hosted the first meeting of a group of local fiber artists. It is something I've been wanting to explore for about two years--a group that loves working with all fibers and fabrics, loves to paint, stitch, structure, manipulate, dye, discharge, yeah, do about anything to them. And with beautiful results!

So we got together, got very excited about what each of the others was doing with their work, what we could learn from each other, and decided to keep getting together in the future to learn new skills from each other, to learn of resources (classes, publications, etc.), and to support each other.

What processes were represented? Felting, knitting/crocheting, floor cloth painting, and hatmaking. Everyone brought either samles of their work or a portfolio. Lots of surface design examples. Below you see the group, minus me--l to r--Nancy, Ginny, Louise and Diane. Hoping the group will grow as we find others who have a love of all things fiber/fabric.

I'll be posting some of our work as we progress. But before our next meeting in November each person will be working on a 'challenge' piece to share with the group. Everyone is to take an 8" square of fabric, or create an 8" square of felt, then stitch it, paint it, dye it, distress it, discharge it, work it work it work it. Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! I'll show it when I see it.

Millinery Classes/Courses/Instruction

The Hat Magazine just listed me as a millinery instructor in their most recent edition. Thanks, Nigel and Carol! Good folks there. I wish there was more info published about millinery in the United States. Granted we are not the hat-wearing nations that England or Australia or Nigeria are, but we do have our moments.

Thought this would be a good time to post the millinery courses offered for the remainder of 2009. Each venue I teach in is offering different classes so check them out. Click the links for more information from the vendors or to register. You can always go to my webpage for classes, as well-- www.hatshatshats.com/classes.htm .

Sept. 19-20: Mendocino Art Center (Mendocino, CA)--Crowns and Brims: Hatmaking Survey
Oct. 9-11: TLD Designs (Chicago, IL)--Blockmaking; Blocking Felt: Capelines and Hoods
Oct. 26-28: Arrowmont School of Art and Craft (Gatlinburg, TN)--Hats That Felt Good: Retro Hats From Flat Felt

Please check with the venues for registration information. You can contact me at jan@hatshatshats.com or leave a 'comment' here on the blog about class content. I'll get back to you ASAP.

The 2010 schedule is being put together now. However, a few are already listed. Those of you in the Washington, DC, area--I'll be at The Torpedo Factory (Art League School) in very early January. Howz about asking for a millinery Christmas present??

More 2010 millinery classes to be posted as they are confirmed. May be a few surprises in the mix!!

Happy hat making!

The Pretty Big Hat--Crowned

Last year I had a client come into the shop who was vacationing at one of our local beaches. She loved hats but had never been able to find one that fit her head. This is something I hear quite often. Commercial hats are either too large or too small for the purchaser's head. Well, gosh, as a milliner I'm more than happy to show clients what I can do to make a hat they can wear; not gonna fall down on the ears and not gonna squeeze your head. By-the-way, 22"-22.5" is the average headsize for today's women.

OK, so what was so special about this client's plight? She had a headsize of 26"! Now, I've made hats for some large heads, my own headsize is 23", but nowhere near a 26". Just try to find a hatblock even close to this. Believe me, I tried. I realize there are probably some men's hatblocks out there that are close to this. Besides, since she was only in Wilmington for a short period of time we didn't have much time to look for hatblocks in her size.

To be perfectly honest, her headsize isn't really 26". However, she is a lovely African-American woman who wears her hair in many, many tiny braids at all times. THAT is what makes her hat size so large. One of the many reasons I ask clients how they will be wearing their hair when they wear the hat I'm making for them. Hair styles can change the hat size.

She left town with the both of us agreeing we would look for a 26" hatblock and I'd make a hat for her if either of us was successful in finding a block. Long story short--neither of us found a block. Cut to the present.


Same client was back in town recently and came by the shop to see what we could do about making her a hat. I explained that I'd not found a 26" block but that I thought I had a remedy, albeit not the best way of blocking a hat.

Enter my recently purchased hat stretcher! Hat stretcher? To block a hat? Well, in a word--YES. And it worked!!

The capeline above was chosen for its neutral coloring. This hat was going to have to work at many, many different hat-wearing occasions for the client.

Here's the wooden hat stretcher. Jeeze, I've wanted one of these for a long time. And they really do work for stretching out a too small hat. But I digress...

Note that there is a crank on one side that opens up the two halves of the crown.

After I opened it up to 26" I placed Press and Seal clingwrap over the 'block' to protect it and also to somewhat close the gap between the two halves. I was a little worried that the straw would collapse at the place there was no block and thought the clingwrap might help, which it did.

Here's the crown being blocked over the hat stretcher. It may not be overly obvious in this picture but believe me this is a very looong (front to back) crown. Again, not optimum for blocking, but the best I could do at the time. The elastic is to help hold the straw against the block.

Here's the finished product. The client didn't want too much embellishment. We had to place the simple hatband, which she loved anyway, to cover the petersham stitching. So it was decorative and functional. The edge was wired because she wanted the option of changing the brim shape.

When she picked up the hat she told me, "You have a very happy customer!" That's exactly what I love to hear.

As she left town this year we made a plan for me to make a hatblock for her in a different crown shape. Can't wait to see her next year for yet another hat!

Millinery tip: Hair styles can change the hat or head size.

WAWAS Work--Blocking Straw and Felt

Last Friday was the monthly scheduled Studio Crawl for the WAWAS--Wrightsville Avenue Working Artists Studios. I chose to block a parisisal hood and a felt hood so that everyone could see how that is accomplished. While I didn't do anything other than block them during the open studio hours, here you will see the process including the finished product.

As some of you know, I love the free form process of blocking a hood over a block. The many, many styles one can achieve using this process never ceases to amaze me. I usually just let the material guide me as to what it wants to be. Something I call 'the spirit within the material,' is real...I've experienced this too many times. Sometimes the material knows what IT wants to be, NOT what I want it to be. Try it; you too will be amazed.

Above you see the folds and pleats I used to come up with the style. See the bead-head pins? They help keep the folds in place until the straw dries. It has been spritzed with water and steamed over a steamer to help control the straw, to get it stabilized into a shape.

Here you see the shape on Deloris, one of my mannequins. It helps immensely to see the hat on a mannequin head or a REAL head. I've made many shapes that looked fabulous on the block and horrible on the head. I find this especially true with the more abstract shapes that free forming gives you.

Deloris wears the finished product. I've stitched two vintage shades-of-green flowers of silk and velvet, plus a few stipped coqs with beads. It is difficult to see but the straw is the palest shade of green, more a natural straw with a tint of green. I really didn't like the color of the straw until I started looking for embellishments. When these flowers were placed against the straws it popped nicely!

Here's the wool felt after it has been blocked on this 'negative' block. The hood is placed into the block instead over the block...at least the crown. Then the brim is pulled over the edges of the block. You are actually looking at the hat upside down! I've used blocking line and pins to hold the felt against the block as there are a few indents in the shape.

This shot was taken outside because I was in the process of spraying felt sizing on the hat to stiffen it and hold the shape.

Inside again. I've taken the blocking lines off the felt and am ready to take the felt out of the block!

The crown has been removed from the block base. This is a two part block--one part for the crown and one part for the brim. Note on the back side of the felt that I was NOT able to pull the hood all the way down onto the brim part of the block. That is why you see a horizontal line across the inside back. Ah, to be remedied later.

The next few shots are experiments in embellishments. People always ask me how long it takes to make a hat. That is an impossible questions to answer! I can tell you, however, that if I am making a hat for the shop, and have every possible option for embellishment, that it can take a long time. What embellishment; how many; what color; what combination of items??

Piece above is a vintage horsehair bit. Yes, real horsehair! What we call horsehair these days is not real (and is usually a braid of sorts) and you can certainly tell the difference in feel and texture.

Next I tried a pheasant feather pad and a swirled fabric pad in gold. Needs more.

What about a combination? I really liked this but in the end thought it was too much for my tastes.

Oh, and by placing the hat on the dollie head I was able to round out that part of the felt that had the horizonal line on one side of the hat. This is not ideal, but that felt was NOT going to go up against the block in that spot. I've used the same block with straw with much better results in blocking. As some of you know, blocking a tough shape in felt can be, um, problematic to say the least.

I finally came up with using the feather pad, fabric pad, a vintage bakelite hat pin on that wide expanse of felt in the front, and a small triple loop of irridescent ribbon to pull it all together.

Another view of the final product. Can you see the indents in the felt from the block? Remember, these were also a result of using the blocking line.

So all in all it took me about 3 days to finalize these hats that are now in the shop for sale.

Summer Style Swap Sensation

The latest Style Swap was held last Thursday at upscale shopping area Lumina Station, out at Wrightsville Beach. This is not only a favorite local place to shop but also a tourist attraction as well. Lots of lovely shops, award-winning restaurants, and a beautiful courtyard where our event was centered.







Here's one of my favorite models and Style Ambassador, Nnenne, checking out the sinamay calla lily headband I made for her to wear for the evening. All the Style Ambassadors met me at Hewitt, an upscale home style shop, to get their headbands before heading out to the courtyard to help with the Style Swap.

That's Style Girl Jess James in the center, getting ready to begin the 'shopping' spree for attendees. Everyone had checked in the items they wanted to 'swap' and the fun was about to begin--special 'swap-tinis' from The Dirty Martini, mini-pedicures from Harbour Club Day Spa, great eats from Port Land Grille and Brasserie du Soliel, and mingling with fellow fashionistas.

Here's one of the special giveaways for the evening, designer Amanda de Leon's 'Gallery Dress'--designed just for the Lumina Station Style Swap!

And here's Amanda (left) and fellow Wilmington designer Alexa Castillo (right). Amanda has on one of her designs, a burgandy sheer short jumpsuit over black leotard. Very chic! Not sure Alexa has on one of her own designs but she looks gorgeous just the same.

Ah. A crowd shot in front of swell shop Beanie + Cecil and The Dirty Martini.

Two fashionistas awaiting a game of musical chairs to see who wins Amanda's dress. There were many fabulous giveaways from Lumina shops including--Paysage, Ziabird, Hewitt, Sole Searching, Harbour Club Day Spa, and others. Everything from complete outfits to jewelry to homewares to spa services were up for grabs. Some REALLY great prizes!

And here's Tuesday wearing the feather and jeweled headband she won from me. She not only was a Style Ambassador for the event but is an assistant to Amanda de Leon as well. A very lucky young lady.

Next Style Swap is September 10 in CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA. Love to see you there if you are in the neighborhood. Style on....

Indiana Jones and Millinery?

It happens quite frequently. I am contacted by someone who wants me to make a hat 'exactly' like one in a movie. Could be My Fair Lady, Gone With the Wind, Gigi, or...Indiana Jones?? No, not Indiana Jones himself. In this case it was to create a hat worn by the character Dr. Elsa Schneider, in a particular scene of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.





After a lengthy look for the right color and weave of straw, finding a suitable navy fabric for the under brim, making the crown block, and creating a 'toile', I was able to re-create it pretty darn close. See what you think.





Here is my client as Elsa. Scroll down to see what Elsa looked like in the movie. But if you are an Indy fan you will certainly recognize her character from my client's picture above.

Here's a full shot of her in front of a vintage train, complete with hat, bag, shoes, gloves and that smashing suit. My gosh, she does look the part! Very impressive!!

My client was wearing this outfit to a convention of Indiana Jones fans. This particular group is very interested in vintage clothes as well, so they tend to wear authentic looks from the Indiana Jones movies. The group met on an Indiana Jones fan forum and now meet in person couple of times a year. Love to run into this group in full costume in a restaurant! What fun!

Wish I had a better still from the movie, but this is about as good as I could get of the hat in the movie.

What a fun project this was! Mostly because it turned out beautifully. Whew! But I must say I get very nervous when someone wants something 'exactly' like it is in a movie, or a magazine fashion editorial. 'Exactly' is a scary word!

I always explain to clients that I'll get as close as I can without ripping someone else's work off, but it can be a problem trying to re-create something 'exactly' for several reasons other than copyright. a) We can't see the entire work at hand. Most of the time we are only seeing one side of the hat or headpiece. What does it look like in back? b) We can't be assured that the materials will be available to us. This is especially true if we are working in vintage materials. A particular straw may not even be produced any longer. c) We don't have the equipment needed. In this case I had to create the hatblock in order to get the shape of the crown that was needed for Elsa's hat.

What are your experiences?

Hat Girl Names and a Millinery Clarification

Several weeks ago I posted a blog entry about the new mannequins I acquired recently. I asked you guys to help name them and I'm pleased to announce their names today.

"(She) looks like a gal with a past. She strikes me as a former Vegas showgirl, so you better keep an eye on her and keep her in very stylish hats! She looks like a Deloris." Atlanta milliner Diane Shagott

"I think a good name for the wonderful silver head would be Luna (moon in Spanish), because it reminds me of the moon light." Spanish milliner Cristina De Prada

Thanks, ladies! They will forever be known as Deloris and Luna.

OK, now for the clarification:

In the last entry I mentioned that milliners don't use GLUE--ever. Well, I'd like to amend that. Duh. Sometimes we DO use glue. But we do NOT use glue to adhere our flowers, feathers, ribbon, labels, etc., to the hats. That would have the vast potential to ruin the embellishments as well as the hat if things don't get placed correctly the first time, something that is very easy to do. You can easily ruin the embellishments or the hat by trying to pull them apart. That is why we sew the embellishments to the hat. It allows us to get the elements (flowers, feathers, etc.) exactly where we want them without globs of glue everywhere. And we can re-use the embellishments as well as the hat if we decide to re-use them later. The very worst glue (if there is a scale) would be hot glue--yuk, strings of glue everywhere except where it might be needed!

I do use glue to make the French flowers, as you saw on a recent blog entry. And I do use glue in bridal millinery quite often. That would be most often on bridal tulle. If you are adding rhinestones or pearls to the tulle you are better off glueing them rather than trying to sew them on. Sewing makes ugly puckers in the tulle where glueing doesn't. I also use glue to secure knots in thread that doesn't hold a knot very well.

Story: Many years ago I was teaching a straw and felt blocking class and everyone was embellishing their hats at the end of the day. I had given the glue lecture earlier in the day. As everyone was busy putting flowers, feathers, ribbon and such on their hats I left the classroom for a few minutes. Upon my return I was smacked by the unmistakeable smell of hot glue. Someone had the audacity to pull out a hot glue gun in the classroom and proceed to string glue all over the place!! My reaction--I didn't say a word. The class all gave me the 'what are you going to do about it' look, but I figured this--if she was brazen enough to do just the opposite of what I had just discussed at length, then a public reprisal wasn't going to do any good whatsoever. I said not a word. Why waste my breath?

Millinery tip: Sew your embellishments and labels onto your hats. You will be able to remove them easily if needed.

Labels, Weavers and Milliners

This blog entry is actually an answer to Cristina De Prada's blog where she asked how others sew in their labels. (If you haven't checked out her blog, wait no longer! You'll be glad you clicked over.) Since I was just getting ready to put in a few, I decided to make my own blog entry about labels.



First of all, the above beret has somewhat of a story. Back in October of 2008 I had someone contact me about making a headcovering for a religious habit, of sorts. However, she needed a weaver to weave a length of fabric for not only a headcovering but a matching shawl. I contacted a group of weavers here in North Carolina (members of the Surface Design Association) to see if anyone was interested in the job. Long story short, we found someone to dye yarn then weave the fabric in the colors and weave my client needed.



I had some input as the the tightness of the weave I'd need, and the amount I'd need to make this modified beret, based on the initial picture sent by the client. Due to the fact that this handwoven fabric was particularly frayable I used a woven fusible interfacing to cut down on loose threads. It helped immensely in putting the pattern pieces together without losing shape and integrity of the fabric.




OK, so that's the story of the beret. Here is a picture of my preparations for sewing in the label. My labels are fairly simple. I have two, actually. One is white with silver metallic lettering and the other is black with gold metallic lettering. As they are long and skinny they fit nicely on the petersham ribbon inside my hats. In this case the label is sewn on the headband since there is no petersham. Both of my labels read aMuse: artisanal finery, the name of the shop.



Can you see the silver metallic thread? I've found spools of thread that are exactly the same as the lettering on the labels--gold and silver. I attach the labels with stab stitches on the ends. Well, actually the stab stitches are hidden in the scroll work that surrounds the lettering. So really you see no stitches at all!

Voila! The finished product!

And a wider shot showing the inside of the beret with its lining.

I usually don't made fabric hats. For some reason they just don't appeal to my millinery senses. Maybe it is because I was never very good at matching up notches, and seams, and getting things to look professional. But something told me to take on the project. It has been an interesting job because of the coordination between the client, the weaver, and myself. I hope she will wear it in good Faith.

Millinery Tip: Labels can be sewn in in any number of fashions. Do NOT glue in your labels!
In fact, milliners don't GLUE anything. GLUE is a four letter word in the millinery world.

WAWAS, Artists' Studios, and a New Venture for aMuse

I just recently joined a group of artists working in the same area of the city were aMuse is. The group is called the Wrightsville Avenue Working Artist Studios, WAWAS for short. Each first Friday night of the month we open our studios to the general public, have some refreshments, and allow visitors to see us in action--a studio crawl. There are a couple of fine art painters (including Deborah Cavenaugh, a nationally reknowned artist), a stained glass artist, a couple of jewelers and me...a milliner. We are a growing group since so many artists are moving into our area of Wilmington. You never know who might be joining next. This past Friday night, July 3rd, was my first Studio Crawl with the WAWAS.

I used some eye-catching blue and white balloons to draw attention to the shop. Since it was the night before the 4th of July (America's Independence Day for those of you reading internationally) I wasn't sure what kind of turnout we'd get. We did OK and I appreciate everyone who came, but I'm hoping for better turnout when we have these NOT on a holiday weekend when everyone already has plans. But a first Friday is a first Friday...can't control the calendar.

Here I am standing in the doorway to my atelier. I worked on a custom order for a client. A butterscotch colored panama that will have the crown cut away with a new celery green sewn braid crown attached.

That's my friend and one of my best customers--Carroll. Carroll has what I call 'hat sense'. She knows what to ask for in designing a new hat, is great with colors/textures/embellishments, and best of all, is not afraid to go out on a limb with her styles. We've done many hats over the years. I appreciate her patronage immensely.

One of the other WAWAS has recently moved across the street from me! How exciting!! She is a metalsmith, a jeweler. Her name is Mitzy Jonkheer and she does some great work. You can see her WAWAS' sign in front of her studio.

I'm looking forward to the next First Friday and to the many folks who will learn a little more about what goes into making a hand-made hat.