Fringe festival hats!

Working in Edinburgh means being at the heart of its biggest events of the year. While out and about I caught these two in Princes street. I just love these felt hats, very crazy and eye catching, something you could certainly attach a memory of a brilliant fringe too.
It is a shame that you can't see the left hat very well because of the light, using a new phone can cause so much trouble for the first few shops and to actually take a picture on one of the few days to have sun.
The left hat is very simple in shape, just a overly large cone with a brim, the colours ( what you can't see :( ) ) is really what what catches the eyes.
The right hat, has got me thinking about how I could do something similar with a future hat design, with little orange strands.
I'm hoping these pair enjoy the Fringe!

Blogger mobile!

Been so busy but now I've got a better job so that I can fund myself making hats. Also now that I have blogger on my iPhone I can take pictures of hats that I see in the streets and blog. Them to you all! Far better, no? I've seen so many hats in the past and no camera to take pictures to share( last camera phone was naff). Well let's see how this goes.

Don't dare say Baseball caps are dull.

Reading through the pages of articles on Departures magazine's website, I found one on artistic baseball caps and I just love them!

I am certainly inspired by this one to make a very very heavy glass titled hat, perhaps a corset or dress, maybe both... but I just love it!

The Japanese lover in me adores this hat and could see my brother Jamie wearing it.

Clearly this one is not going to function as a hat... so does this one actually function as a type writer?

Check the Departures link and have a look at the awesome baseball caps.

Fun, weird and funky!

When I was reading up on some of my favourite Japanese things I was looking at Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and I saw the art work for her new album, this one is for her limited edition version. I have to say I love the hat! I love how fun and how it breaks up the the very bubbly, pastle and sweet with the terror that only a shark brings.
 Her head though looks so dwarfed, but then that just helps the appeal of the cute appearence.
 According to a interview in NEO Magazine, she designs her clothes herself with the help of her stylist. I wonder if that includes the hat? I can see why she likes Katy Perry, it's something I could see her wear as well and why she gets compared to Lady GaGa.
 There is a potentinal for fun toy hats, though I suspect if I touch any of my little brother's toys I would be six foot under for even considering it.

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