Hat goes for a walk, work in progress

Well yesterday I decided to take my steampunk hat out for a walk... complete with outfit.that I made.. it could do with more but I'll just have to work to add more to it all.
 Of course it did generate some stares and laughs, some people even asked about it. Sweetest thing was the little boy who asked be about it and then said he thought it was ugly, I pretended to be offened and asked him what would make it prettier he then changed his mind, said it was pretty.
 One person asked if I was going to a wedding, another was impressed that I was bold enough to go out as I choose to go.
My brother took the photographs, at my request he really enjoys photgraphy and I mislaid my camera at the time.



The waistcoat is actually made from the recycled leather from our old couch, but given my recent work outs I need to take it in again. I added a length of fabric around the bottom of the waist coat to give a drape across the back, it was reconised in the shop I bought it from when I went in.
Which is why I went out in the first place, now that I've blocked the new hat for my friend ( for another friend) and this time it worked out far better! This time I choose red wine instead of chocolate brown, fushia pink petersham ribbon and on the crown I have added some embordiered stitch ( my fingers still hurt from pushing the needle through)

To finish the decoration on the crown, I've attached a snake of green glass beads I bought at Bufty's beads years ago in London.

What I still had to get was a inner headband ribbon, lining and a ribbon  for the outerhead band.

Grazia next top Milliner... Should I?

Grazia launches tis competetion to find the next big milliner in the UK, where two of the judges are none other than Philp Treacy and Stephen Jones!

Part of me wants to go and book a ticket for London, grab my steampunk hat and give it a go... but at the same time I think I need another year before to build up some experience and neerve to even face doing something as big a deal as this.The rub is... what if there isn't one next year?
It does go to show how big millinery is coming to be though, if a magazine like Grazia is putting on a competition like this.
There is a lot of fear in presenting my work to the countries top... and I  just realised that I can't go even if I wanted to go! Prior legal commitments that will not see me going to a millinery competition as a valid reason to go!

Bugger... but what do you think? If I entered this hat do you think I would have had a shot? Or perhaps maybe I would be better of if I just making a new one that I have the actual blocks for... encase I need to make another one.

Ack! Learning curve...

Mistake: Choosing to make my first hat on my blocks in two parts and not playing around with fitting the hat blocks together properly... i.e with screws. Also stretching the crown to try and fit the crown... that should have been the first indication something was wrong My excuse though I did have the cold and wasn't thinking straight.

Result: Mis-shaped and a hat far to large for my head,let alone the friend that I had intended it to be for.

Learned: Using my blocks it would be better to block the hats all in one, using the screws they came with to hold them together first and stop when things are going wrong!

Next: Well I've ordered another piece of felt to make a new hat with and I'm going to recycle the failed one for parts. That I think is one of the brilliance of hat making... even if I do make a mistake I can just recycle the mistake and move on. This time though the hat will be perfection, because I will not accept any less!

MISTAKES, THEY HAPPEN OKAY!
I'm sure I'm not the only one to have made a disaster piece, would anyone else like to share ?
Nobody ever gets anything right first time, trial and error. I've studied clothing design and the advantage was that then I could make a toile(practice piece) to make sure my patterns were right, to get the fit right but with hats you don't have that luxury. It gets made there and then and if it's a disaster send it to the scraps bin!
So what about my readers? Have you tried to make a hat or dress go wrong? Or did your cooking go askew? I've shared why don't you? :D

Let's get started!

Trying to keep the steam going once you've made the decision isn't easy. Getting everything organized and sorted can be bambozling which is why I'm glad that I already knew about Business Gateway. I went along to a introduction, which gave the basics and a lot to think about.
Then because I'm only 24, my name was passed on to the Princes Business Youth Trust and with them I now can apply for a Test Grant to help me try out my business idea, it's perfect because with that my millinery idea can be tested by creating a small range of hats that will be available for rent or for sale, which ever someone wants.

My lovely mom for my chirstmas has paid for my very first set of hat blocks, from Hat Block Direct http://www.hatblocksdirect.co.uk , so currently I am waiting for them to arrive.

In the mean time I have decided to keep myself busy making other items for the head, decorative hair combs.

So far I only have 5, but getting the picture of the 5th one is a bit tricky, when you don't have steady enough hands.

I didn't even have enough ribbon to make the last cockade for the last comb, so instead I made a comb with little metal smilies. Whichs is why it is really hard to get pictures, they are so small and the metal just refects the light so it's next to impossible to get a picture with my camera. I've put in a few examples, though not all are actually mine.

I do have a few things already made, as part of the City and Guilds course I sat at Telford College, but I have to wait till the external examner has been and then in May I have the College exhibition, after that I can add some of it too the collection, but I think I will keep my hats that I made strickly for rent.

The first one I made is for my steampunk outfit. I may have gone a little over the top? The goggles make this cocktail sized hat a little too heavy at the front. However that does mean I have to keep my head upright at all times.
I think though its rather worth it for a first hat and as part of my steampunk outfit. As soon as that is finished I'll post the complete outfit.
My other hat is my straw hat, I wasn't as endugent with the decoration with it but I can't wait till the summer when it's far more approprate to wear.

The smileys say noob, not because I am one, but because... well that's what I had. I got the plastic smilieys at a wargames convention I usually go with my family every year and saw these game tolken smileys. I used the Epic fails on the combs further up the page.
One of the most ime consuming things I had to make though had to be the feather pad. The majority of day was spent stitching feathers not to mention the lengths I had to go to find them. I had to travel quite a distance to finda fishing shop in fife that stocked feathers, ending up in Cowdenbeath at Deals on Reels.
Great way though to using all those scraps though, that w ay I don't have to loose much to waste, because then I can just make more than just hats. Same with scraps of straw. Rolling and fraying can make a cute little facinator.

I really should take a picture of frayed facinator that I've made. It has a large space in the middle that I can add something into it. The classic might be a rose or something, but the fun side of me things perhaps a small teddy or something to the like? Maybe I could make a little face and stick that inside?Well there is a lot I can do with it. Though if someone has any suggestions once I have a picture up, that would be awesome.