The map is filling up nicely, especially over North America, and through Europe. As expected though, South America and Africa are still elusive, who will be the first to put a pin in it?
Remember the Orange sinamay mini smartie hat I had blocked a looooong time ago which was one of those ongoing nemesis projects that never gets finished because it never looks "just right"?
Well inspiration struck this week! And now its finished - yay!
A big box a ribbons arrived yesterday, grosgrains to match all the sinamays I have in stock at the moment, to edge, tag and detail.
Working from this original design I was commissioned to make one in a colour to match the brides dress and use her own colours and flowers in a 1940s/50s style.
After matching the silk to her vintage dress, I blocked and wired a base, then pleated the top layer, stitched it down, covered the back in plain silk and edged it in bias tape made from the same silk.
As she has very short hair she decided she wanted some kind of small clip to hold it on as a big barrette would slip out and a headband or elastic would show on her head.
To make sure it stayed in place I put 2 strong small clips, but going in opposite directions. The idea is to clip the back one in place first then swing the front one downwards slightly to catch more hair and stop it moving on the head as the hair wouldn’t be pulled back in an updo creating natural tension.
Then we worked on placing the pieces from her own bouquet she had sent to be added, green calla lilies, wired rhinestones and peacock swords, and finished it off wrapped in loops of teal ribbon.
Finally topping it off with a big poof of Ivory English veiling, and a secret rhinestoned initial letter A brooch hidden in the back as a secret love note to her new husband.
I had to run into town for a few bits yesterday and finally managed to get the 1” round labels for my Brother labelmaker. I had had them on order from a store in town who took SEVEN weeks to finally tell me they were on indefinite back order with the manufacturer, even after they told me several times they would be receiving them to send out to me within 5-7 days. Funny that the manufacturer has them for sale on their own website the whole time. From now on we’ll only buy from that store if the item is physically on the shelf ready to buy as this isn’t the first time they have kept us hanging on an exorbitant amount of time with a pre-order item.
But now I have the nice neat little labels needed for my small bridal button looping packaging as well as Thank You stickers and web address stickers for tissue wrapped items and neat business return address labels – Yay!
Now this ‘stuff’ has be niggling at me to buy for a month or so now, and I needed to go to the florist supply store to pick up a tall pillar candle anyway so I finally gave in and bought some. It’s weird! But great! It kind of looks like silly string made into mesh, the receipt lists it as Sisal, but its definitely a man made foamy concoction. It does have some stiffness to it, but I’m going to gently steam it at some point, I do want to keep some of the stiffness in parts to create a cage type feel to the finished hat.
Finally got into the city yesterday to pick up some much needed supplies. Replenishing the basic bridal looping stock as well as adding a brand new colour, Gold, PERFECT for eveningwear and alternative bridal colours.
I needed some wide White lace for another future project, and this one pretty closely matches my Black and Pink ones so it will be perfect.
Then I hit up the millinery store and scored some beautiful Tiffany Blue Starbright straw, which is for a very special top secret project! And some more basic black millinery wire. I found another unusual braid I might have to go back for to use in the top secret project.
“The” Orange mini base which has been sitting there for months waiting the thing that’s going to finish it, well its going to be finished with stripped bright turquoise coque feathers. Complimentary colours and all that.
Some goodies came in the mail today! Miyuki Drop Fringe Seed beads, in from L-R: Red Light Topaz, Matte White Pearl and Lavender.
They are tiny, only about 3mmx4mm, but they are perfect for what I need.
I’m going to wire them and use them as handmade glass flower stamen.
Last month I started a brief post on just a few of my new blocks. Today I’m going to talk about my two smartie blocks.
Both from Guy Morse-Brown in England, the smaller one was a birthday present to myself last year and the larger one was a birthday present from my family this year.
The 4” one I have created my own ‘puller’ to remove it simple from underneath a stiff blocked piece as the edges curve inwards. The ribbon I used is thin enough not to create a raised mark on the outside of the piece. Its knotted tightly over and over underneath to provide something to hook your fingers inside and sharply pull it out.
I’ve made some of my most popular pieces as well as competition winning pieces from it.
The Vintage Bride
Union Jack Mini
Dainty Miss Leopard Mini Freshly Picked Calla Lilies
Very Vintage Chocolate Lattice
Very Vintage Red Petals
Origami Waterlily Mini
And the competition winning Fame and Glory Ascot mini.
A new vintage book arrived today in the mail, How to make Flowers with Dennison Crepe Paper
My 1950s Tiki Luau inspired raffia mini topper is also finally finished, photographed and ready to go. Is now available in the shop
The big leopard print disc, and it is now photographed and ready to go! And now its available in the shop.
One of the things I have been working on is finishing off deco-ing my 4th July hat. The stars are now finished and the brim is wired, all it needs now is fixing the hairband.
So in yesterdays Haaauuuulllll! post you saw the Nandu Ostrich feathers that I got. One each in Yellow, Red, Pink and two in Black.
Well yesterday afternoon I started stripping them down to retrieve the spines to use to decorate some of my hats.
Today is Ladies Day at Royal Ascot at Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire England. This year is the 300th year of the prestigious event, attended annually by members of the royal family. Ladies Day is when the fight is on for who can wear the biggest, best, most outlandish hat to win best dressed of the day. The event of the day is The Gold Cup at 3.50pm.
Our Milliners of Etsy team set the last team contest as Design a Black & White Hat for Ascot. It was judged by the milliner Mark T Burke, the closing date was June 1st and the winner was announced a week later. You can see all the entries here as well as Mark’s comments on each one.
And my entry Fame & Glory was the winner!!
I named it after the favourite to win todays Gold Cup race.
I mixed and matched materials rather than making it all out of sinamay. The base is a simple small black wool felt smartie with a white sinamay saucer perched on the front edged with grosgrain and finished with a swirly twisty knotty length of black and white striped grosgrain ribbon.
I had only just got the 6” saucer block (along with an 8” one) the week before so I was super excited to get working with it at the first opportunity, and so pleased when it helped me win!
……now I just have to hope that the horse it is named after wins this afternoon…….
*Update* Fame and Glory won the Gold Cup!
