Finally finished!!!

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!

I've wanted to work on making curled feather flowers for a while now, but bridal season commissions and tax season have all gotten in the way.

I was originally planning on just using the turquoise coque feathers against the orange, complimentary colors and all that, which I spent a long time hand striping myself, and just swirling them round the base in a halo.

But as I was curling the pink feathers and starting the place them together in a flower shape, it struck me that they would make the perfect oversized stamen for the centre of the oversized flower and the color combination worked perfectly with this seasons neon and color blocking trends!

Also, I'm now totally obsessed with making feather flowers :)

Bridal Commission Piece

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.

Sketchbook

“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.

Smartie Blocks

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.
Old Gold Birdie Mini.

The Vintage Bride

Union Jack Mini

Dainty Miss Leopard Mini  Freshly Picked Calla Lilies

Very Vintage Chocolate Lattice
Stars and Stripes Mini

Very Vintage Red Petals

Origami Waterlily Mini

And the competition winning Fame and Glory Ascot mini.

Finally finished….in time for the luau

My 1950s Tiki Luau inspired raffia mini topper is also finally finished, photographed and ready to go. Is now available in the shop

Finally Finished

The big leopard print disc, and it is now photographed and ready to go! And now its available in the shop.

What I’ve been working on today…

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.

Just a few of my new blocks…

Ostrich Feathers

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.

Royal Ascot Ladies Day

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!