File - Glamour Project

HATalk
Issue 59, February 2011
Next issue due February 16, 2011
the e-magazine for those who make hats
In this month’s HATalk...
Millinery in Practice
People at work in the world of hats. This month:
Glamour Project - using hats to bring hope.
Hats of the Month
Two sinamay fascinators by Lynn Pilley.
How to…
Adapt a brim block to make a flying saucer hat;
Create a fabric inner headband.
Focus on...
Hat terms beginning with S; Dutch bonnets.
Plus – Letters to the Editor, this month’s
Give Away and The Back Page.
Published by how2hats.com
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Contents:
Issue 59
February 2011
Millinery in Practice
People at work in the world of hats. This month: Glamour Project - how hats are helping to
bring hope to homeless women in the USA.
Hats of the Month
Learn about two lovely fascinators and something about Lynn Pilley, who created them.
How to...
Diane Ferris adapts a brim block to make a flying saucer hat.
Another Way...
Create a customised inner headband to finish off your hats in a unique way.
The A to Z of Hats...
Millinery terms and famous names beginning with S.
Hats Across Cultures...
A look at some of the traditional headwear of the Netherlands.
This Month’s Give Away
A popular Give Away returns - don’t miss your chance to win a useful pin pusher.
Letters to the Editor
This month - A great little trick for keeping things where they’re supposed to be.
The Back Page
Interesting hat facts; books; contact us and take part!
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The Glamour Project
Millinery for Social Change
No woman feels glamorous all of the time. After a stressful
day at work, or at home with the kids, feeling beautiful doesn’t
come naturally. The remedy? A steamy bath, a gorgeous
dress, fresh make up, high heels and, of course, a stunning
hat - a fail safe concoction for getting the glamour back.
But what about women who never have the opportunity to dress
up and feel great because they have no home? A make over may
seem pretty low on the list of necessities for homeless women,
but three women in the United States believe that a little bit of
glamour goes a long way when it comes to enabling these women
to gain confidence and get back on their feet.
Glamour Project was founded by photographer Kara Fox and make-up artist Evvy
Shapero, who share a vision for letting women who have suffered great loss know
that they are special, beautiful and cared for individuals. To this end, they visit
homeless shelters in parts of Los Angeles, California, such as ‘Skid Row’ (above),
bringing make-up, props and cameras. Life’s troubles can be forgotten during
an afternoon that can best be described as the girlish pastime of ‘dressing up’ something the residents normally have very little time for. Downcast faces begin
to smile as hidden beauty emerges in the mirror. Each woman is given a make-up
application, a fashion styling and her ‘glamour shot’ as a gift - a heartfelt reminder
that she is acknowledged and cared for despite her current circumstances. All of
this is done at no charge to the facility or the women who participate.
Initially, the Project was funded personally by Kara and Evvy. Soon,
donations of make-up, jewellery, shawls and scarves began to come
in. When milliner Marilyn Feldman heard about Glamour Project, she
was eager to get involved. Putting on a hat can be like assuming a
new identity - what better accessory for women looking to discover
who they really are?
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“When I was in school studying millinery design,” says Marilyn, “I was the
only student who saw a way for my headwear to be used as a therapeutic
tool for social change and not just for the runway, retail or fashion
merchandizing. My other degrees, education and professional work as a
social worker, teacher and make up artist were ways to align everything
into one context.” Marilyn began to work alongside Kara and Evvy in the
Los Angeles shelters, bringing boxes of hats along for the women to wear,
some of which you can see on the tables behind (right).
The majority of the hats used in the photography sessions are hand-made
by Marilyn, although hats donated by collectors and friends have been
used. Marilyn also buys vintage hats to clean and retrim. She loves her
millinery work and says that she feels fortunate to have Glamour Project
as an outlet for her creations.
Marilyn’s involvement has led to Glamour Project’s expansion into the Boston, Massachusetts area. The
Project recently partnered with the Family Nurturing Center of Boston, a non-profit charity. This connection
has created new opportunities for fundraising through grants, private and in kind donations, and events such
as fashion shows. They have recently received more press attention,
which in turn has increased their supporter base. You can even watch a
video of the team in action at Los Angeles’ Downtown Women’s Center,
as shown on the city’s ABC-7 TV channel here.
As Glamour Project grows, the goal remains the same - to give homeless
women fresh hope. Marilyn, Evvy and Kara, pictured left to right, believe
that the Project is a model which would work in cities around the world
and they would love to hear from anyone who would like to start a similar
initiative elsewhere. As well as volunteering time and financial support,
Glamour Project is always open to donations of millinery supplies and
other fashion items. Scraps of fabric, ribbon, feathers, needles, thread,
blocks and any other millinery findings, no matter how small, are used
by Marilyn to increase the number of hats available for the Project’s use.
In fact, since The Glamour Project was spotlighted in the March 2010
How2hats newsletter, Marilyn says that she has been busy using supplies
generously sent in by our readers. When possible, she sends photos to
donors, showing them just what their gifts have been transformed into.
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Faces of Glamour Project...
“It is important to remember that
being homeless is a circumstance not
an identity. We believe that through a
more glamorous identity comes the
beginning of a new belief in oneself
and in life’s possibilities!”
-The Glamour Project
Find out more at www.glamourproject.org.
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Hats of the Month
by Lynn Pilley
We usually feature a single hat of the month, but this time
we’ve decided to make an exception and share two beautifully
made fascinators with you...
“My mother had two hats, both wrapped in tissue paper, and as a
very small child it was a treat for me to be allowed take them from
the wrappings and try them on,” Lynn told us. “One was a delightful
half hat of white owl feathers, worn for very special occasions. The
other was a small, white velvet pillbox with three little silk bows on
the back and topped off with veiling. This cheap, machine made
pillbox was the start of my love of hats.”
Forty years later this little white pillbox came out of retirement
when Lynn wore it to the very first Goodwood Revival in 1998.
All visitors to this historic racing event were encouraged to dress in vintage
styles, so Lynn’s inherited hat fitted in perfectly. Seeing so many other vintage
hats on show caused Lynn to begin thinking about making hats herself. She
had a couple of vintage millinery books, but wanted to learn from an expert.
She enrolled on one of Rose Cory’s millinery courses and took along her little
pillbox to replicate. Three courses later, Lynn was well on her way and had
even learned how to make a pillbox shaped hat block! She had also discovered
sinamay and was thrilled with its possibilities.
Back at home, Lynn decided to try making a sinamay fascinator as a birthday
present for a colleague. She had acquired some lovely aubergine sinamay,
which happened to be her colleague’s favourite colour, and decided to use
it with an ivory contrast. She felt that the ivory alone would make her friend, a brunette, look washed out,
while aubergine would be lost against her hair. Instead, she used aubergine for the two bottom layers of the
fascinator base and ivory for the top layer. To create the curls, Lynn wound a wide bias strip of ivory, edges
uppermost, round a cardboard tube with a single layer of aubergine tucked in the middle. She then added a
thin strip of curled aubergine bias to catch the eye, as you can see in the two photos above.
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For even more dimension, Lynn made a large ivory petal and a smaller aubergine petal, both with rolled
edges. She added some long strands of ivory sinamay and sewed the whole arrangement to the top of the
fascinator. To secure the fascinator to the head, Lynn covered a clear comb with aubergine sinamay and
stitched it to the base, adding black shirring elastic for extra security. The fascinator was made to be worn with
the pointed end tipped up, showing off the darker colour underneath. It was presented at a grand ‘birthday
afternoon tea’ in a country house and was admired, and paraded, by all present. Lynn was very pleased with
the compliments it received and even more pleased with the orders2
which followed.
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After this success, Lynn decided that the next big birthday party at work was another opportunity to develop
her skills. This time, her colleague was a blonde who usually wears black. To start, she made a black base
using only two layers of black sinamay, allowing the wearer’s blonde hair to create a shadow effect through
the material. She finished it off with a wide black sinamay bias binding, creating a nice, neat edge.
Lynn wanted to make a rolled edge sinamay flower for the middle of her fascinator and created a template to
use. The learning process never stops in millinery, though, and Lynn found that her template didn’t do what
she thought it would. While the flower looked nothing like Lynn’s original design, she was still pleased with it
and decided to finish it off with a spray of tangerine sinamay.
The large leaf shapes were also edge-rolled and again turned out quite
differently from the way Lynn envisioned they would. Manipulating
them was a difficult job which took more than two hours. She tried
to create a large flower, but says that it didn’t look or sit right on
the base. Eventually, she simply5attached the leaves in the crescent
shape seen here, securing the tips to the edging with invisible stitches
and then sewing the smaller flower onto the centre. Lynn finished by
sewing on a black comb covered in black sinamay and white shirring
elastic, again for extra security. The fascinator is to be worn with the
point down, behind the ear.
In this case, any ‘design failures’ were surely blessings in disguise we love the unusual shape Lynn has achieved. The fascinator was
presented in a restaurant and, once again, was passed around for
everyone to try on. Again, Lynn received requests for wedding and
special occasion pieces and is now busy creating even more unique
sinamay shapes. We look forward to seeing what she comes up with
in the future!
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Make a Flying Saucer Hat
with Diane Ferris
We recently visited the studio of Diane Ferris, owner of The Hat Box. Diane, who was featured in
HATalk Issue 25, has over 150 hats, fascinators and handbags available on her website to rent or to
buy. Always experimenting with new designs, Diane showed us how she makes gorgeous sinamay
flying saucer hats using a clever trick which you can try out with your own brim blocks...
When a new style appears at Ascot, it’s not long before
requests are coming in for this style of hat for wedding clients!
Diane was keen to make a ‘flying saucer’ type of hat, the
kind with a small crown and brim which sits on the side of
the head, but she didn’t have the requisite block. However,
milliners are resourceful people and Diane decided that some
‘thinking outside the box’ was called for. She had a brim block
from the Guy Morse-Brown Vintage Smalls range which
would work, but how to create the crown? She remembered
that she had bought a polystyrene ring from a craft supplier
to use as a brim block for a small top hat once – perhaps she
could find a ball from the same source. This she did, finding
just what she wanted on the internet.
When the ball came, she used a hot wire cutter to cut off a
slice that would fit onto the flat central part of the brim block.
An easy way to mark where to cut the ball is to draw a circle
of the required diameter on a piece of card with a pair of
compasses, cut out the card inside the line, then place the
hole over the ball and draw round where it fits.
The segment of ball now fits onto the brim block and can
be fixed in place with the screws which would normally hold
a crown block in place. Screw them in very gently – the
polystyrene is not as tough as a wooden block would be!
Alternatively, you could join them using sticky fixers.
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Having covered it with cling film, sinamay can now be blocked over this shape. Hold the fabric down at the
junction between crown and brim with a loop of string. Pin through this into the brim block. When the stiffened
sinamay is dry, take it off the block and decide what shape and size your brim should be. It can be as wide
as the brim block, or narrower, as you decide. You may choose to make it asymmetric – it’s up to you. Wire
and bind the brim edge. Now you can trim the hat and fix it to a hair band.
Above, Diane shows a completed pink hat beside
the block combination. She has trimmed this hat with
rolled edge leaves of the same sinamay. It has been
a very popular shape, and, of course, Diane can now
make it in any colour her client desires! A view of the
underside of the hat (above right) shows Diane’s label
and the clear plastic hair band stitched in place.
Another very attractive hat of the same design, this
time in aqua and trimmed with an ostrich feather and
a series of sinamay petals graded in size, is shown in
the righthand photo.
To see more of Diane’s hats, visit her website www.the-hatbox.co.uk.
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Another Way...
To Make an Inner Headband
Wide petersham (grosgrain) ribbon is widely used for the
inner headband on a hat. However, there are occasions when
you might like to create your own customised ribbon for
this purpose. It’s quite possible to do so using any medium
weight fabric, silk dupion being an obvious choice.
If you are already using silk as a
trim on your hat, then to use a little
more to create the inner headband
will draw the design of the whole
hat together beautifully. The same
will be true of any fabric you use for
trimming, as long as it is not too light
and flimsy. Polyester lining fabric and other lining fabrics, such as bengaline,
would work well. If you have had your own lining printed with your name or logo,
as demonstrated in HATalk Issue 10, then using it for creating inner headbands
will make a lot of sense!
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The above photo shows the underside of a hat finished with a hand-made fabric
headband - perfectly matching the silk binding on the brim edge. Read on to find
out how to create a headband like this yourself...
You will need...
• A bias strip of fabric 1 ½ inches (4cm) wide and 2 inches (5cm) longer
than the head-size of your hat
• A 1 inch (2 ½ cm) wide strip of medium weight iron-on interfacing of
the same length.
• An iron and ironing board
• Thread to match your fabric
• A sewing machine
• A hand sewing needle
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Place the iron-on interfacing strip centrally over
the bias fabric strip with the iron-on surface
against the fabric and iron it in place, as shown
in Figure 1 on the previous page. Finger press,
then iron, the ¼ inch of fabric on each side over
towards the interfacing on each side (Figure 2
on page 9).
Set the sewing machine on a straight stitch and
use it to sew the folds of fabric in place (Fig 3).
Now carefully measure the desired length of
the headband. One easy way to do this is to
place it round a wooden collar of the right size.
You can also place it round the head which is
to wear the hat, of course! Pin the seam, right
sides together, then stitch it on the machine (Figure 4). Trim off any excess seam allowance and open the
seam out. Press it flat.
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Now you can place the band into the brim with the seam at centre back with one long edge at the angle
between crown and brim. Pin at centre back, centre front, then sides, then divide the band equally between
pinning points until it is pinned in place all round (Figure 5). Check that there are no points at which the band
is more stretched or loose than others. Re-pin
any such points if necessary.
Using a doubled, knotted thread, stitch the band
into the brim using millinery backstitch with tiny
backstitches on the visible inner side of the hat,
and longer stitches on the outside which will be
covered by the crown of the hat when it is added
later (Figure 6).
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What a great way to show that your hat truly
is one of a kind! We’re sure you’ll find some
ingenious ways to use and develop this
technique - don’t forget to send in photos to
[email protected].
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The A to Z of Hats
Part 15: S
Sailor Cap - A round, flat hat with no visor. First introduced in 1811 as part of the Russian navy uniform, the
shape is similar to a peaked cap but has been adapted to make it suitable for life at sea.
Schiaparelli, Elsa - A fashion designer who was born in Rome in 1890 and spent time in Boston, New York
and Paris. A rival of Coco Chanel, Schiaparelli was one of the most important personalities in the fashion
world between the World Wars. Her clothes and hats were often inspired by Surrealism and she collaborated
with artist Salvador Dali to create cutting edge designs such as the famous ‘Shoe Hat’.
Sequins - Small, shiny discs, originally made of metal but now made of plastic, and used for decoration.
Shako - A tall, cylindrical military headdress with a small peak,
popular in the 1800s.
Shepherdess Hat - A Leghorn straw hat with a shallow crown and
a flat brim which can be turned up or down. Called bergère hats in
French, they are usually trimmed with ribbons or flowers. A classic
example is shown in this 1753 Portrait of Eleanor Frances Dixie (left),
painted by Henry Pickering.
Shilling, David - A contemporary British milliner, artist and designer,
born in 1956, who became famous at the age of 12, when he created an
extravagant hat for his mother to wear to Royal Ascot. She continued
to wear his creations to Ascot until her death in 1999. David opened
his first shop in London in 1976 and has since enjoyed massive
success. His clientelle includes many celebrities and his pieces have
been shown in exhibitions all over the world. Some David Shilling
hats have been sold for as much as 1 million pounds.
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Sideband - The part of the hat that circles the head, supporting the tip on top and the brim on the bottom.
Side to side - Measurement from just above one ear to just above the other ear, over the top of the head.
Silk - A natural fibre produced by the silkworm. Silk is used to make hats and a huge variety of trimmings.
Sinamay - Since its introduction to the millinery market in the late 1980s, sinamay has become a favourite
with many milliners. It is woven from the fibres of the abaca plant, native to the Philippines, and can be
bought in sheets which are stiffened and then blocked in layers.
Sisal - A type of straw, made using a one over one weave, which is slightly coarser than parasisal.
Skaut - A starched and pleated white cotton headdress, traditionally worn by married Norwegian women.
Skull cap - A small fabric cap which fits snugly on the back of the head.
Slouch hat - A soft felt hat with a wide, floppy brim, often worn as part of a military uniform. They became
fashionable in the 1930s after designer Adrian created one for Greta Garbo to wear in the 1928 film A Woman
of Affairs. Slouch hats are usually worn at an angle and pulled down over the forehead.
Smoking cap - A men’s cap worn in the 1800s to stop the hair from smelling of tobacco.
Smith, Graham - Born in 1938 in Kent, England, Graham Smith attended both the Bromley College of Art
and London’s Royal College of Art to study millinery. Smith then worked for Lanvin-Castillo in Paris and
Michael of Carlos Place in London, where his work was promoted by Fortnum & Mason. He set up his own
business in 1967, making hats for a number of designers, including Jean Muir and Zandra Rhodes. He has
worked with Kangol, British Home Stores and designed the headwear of British Airways flight attendants.
There are lots more millinery terms starting with
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S - the rest will be listed next month!
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Hats Across Cultures
The Dutch Bonnet
Each nation has its own unique take on
headwear, influenced by culture, religion
and climate. This month, we look at
Dutch bonnets, worn by women in the
Netherlands for hundreds of years.
Spakenburg, a quaint harbour town forming
part of the municipality of Bunschoten in
the province of Utrecht, is one of the few
places left in the Netherlands where people
still wear their traditional regional costume.
As you can see from these photos, taken
by millliner Margriet Verweij during a visit to
Spakenburg, women wear a delicate white
crocheted bonnet over a slightly smaller black
‘under bonnet’ at the back of the head.
The skill of bonnet making has been passed down through the
generations. Margriet says that the Spakenburg women create these
intricate designs using thread as thin as the kind you would use for
sewing and a 0.6 crochet hook, which is how they achieve the lace-like
appearance. No two bonnets are the same - patterns can be adapted
to create a myriad of beautiful designs.
While it is mainly only the older women who still wear traditional clothing
throughout the year, young and old alike don their caps and clogs for
the Spakenburgse Dagen festival, literally translated Spakenburg
Days, each summer. This year, a parade showcasing various Dutch
costumes will take place on July 20th - the place to be if you want to see
some authentic Dutch bonnets for yourself!
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This Month’s GIVE AWAY
This month, another popular HATalk Give Away returns. A
pin pusher, pictured left, is an ingenious tool which can be
indispensable in some blocking situations. Below, for example,
a pin pusher is being used to pin pressing pads into dimples
on a western style crown - an impossible job with just blocking
pins. The wooden handle of a pin pusher fits comfortably in your
hand and the metal tube into which dressmaker’s pins can be
dropped (head first) has a magnet at the bottom. This magnet
holds the pin inside so that it doesn’t fall out, regardless of the
angle of the tool. Dressmaker’s pins are difficult to press into
wooden blocks by hand, and a thimble is awkward to use, as it
easily slips off the pin head. A pin pusher gives the user extra
mechanical power: the pin goes into the wood with ease and stays there without causing pain in the hands
and wrists. Between uses, the tool can be kept in a small container so that it is positioned ready for the next
pin to be dropped in, allowing you to work one-handed.
Three of you will be the lucky winners of a pin pusher this month.
For anyone else who would like to obtain one of these useful tools,
pin pushers can be purchased from the How2hats ebay shop.
To enter the draw to win one of the
three pin pushers being given away,
email us before 2nd February, 2011 at
[email protected]
with ‘Pin Pusher’ as the title.
Please include your name and full address.
The winners in last month’s ‘calendar’ draw were:
Gwen Hunter, Norma Miles & Myra van de Korput
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PRIZE DRAW RULES
Entry to the draw is free to subscribers to HATalk and
no further purchase is necessary. Only one entry per
subscriber. Entry is not open to employees or associates
of the publishers or to their families. The winners will
be drawn by an independent person two weeks after
publication date. They will be notified by email and their
names published in the next issue of HATalk and on
Facebook. The organiser's decision is final.
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Send us your questions and comments! Do
you have a problem needing a solution?
Or information that you’d like to share?
Email us! [email protected]
Problem:
Do you have any ideas for different ways to hold things in place
while making hats?
Solution:
Diane Ferris, who shared her technique for making a flying saucer
hat back on pages 7 and 8, has a really helpful answer to this
question:
She says, “Pegs of all kinds are useful, but, until my husband (who
has an engineering background) suggested it, I had not thought
of using crocodile clips. These are widely available from electrical
suppliers and come in various types. They are small, inexpensive
and easy to handle, and because the inner part of the clip is toothed,
have a really firm grip. See them in use here holding a buckram
band to a brim headband (below).”
Crocodile clips, shown above, are sometimes called
spring clips. An alligator clip, made for labarotory use, is
a smaller version of this type of clip and may also come
in handy for some millinery tasks. Crocodile and alligator
clips can be purchased from online suppliers such as
www.rapidonline.com.
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The
BACK PAGE
Karen Hillmer sent in this picture in response to our
call for old photographs last month. She told us, “This
is my Jugendstil Lady. I got the picture in a junk store
in Berlin years ago. I still like to look at her. Judging
from the postmark on the back of the frame, she was
an actress.”
This elegant lady was pictured on a German postcard
which was originally posted on 24th August, 1931.
Large picture hats like this one were more popular in
the early 1900s, but did make a comeback in the 30s.
If you’d like to recreate the look, the How2hats ebook
‘Hints and Tips’ has a useful section which explains
how to create an oversized Edwardian crown and
then attach it to a brim.
A book to enjoy: Victorian and Edwardian
Fashion: A Photographic Survey, Alison
Gernsheim; Dover Publications Inc.; 1982.
Containing over 235 photographs and illustrations,
this book is a treasure trove of inspiration for your
latest historically inspired hat.
Contact Us! Questions, comments, photos - we
always love to hear from our readers! Email us at
[email protected] or join us on Facebook.
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