A Plaid Pudding and Petal Power

Work commitments have meant that I've missed even more of the Cert 4 Millinery Class but I'm back to it again and trying to do a bit of catch up - the current exercise is on "Fabric Covered Foundations". That's millinery talk for the most time consuming hats! The 1st one had to be a pill-box and I've made this plump pudding of a hat to match one of my favourite suits -




The suit is in the same plaid fabric and is from a vintage pattern - very early 60s and very Jackie Kennedy! I love the colours and crazy one-way check but the fabric is acrylic which made things difficult - a wool fabric would've been much easier!





The 2nd hat has to have a straw brim, a fabric covered crown and fabric trims - and I must have a bad dose of Spring Fever because can't think of anything I'd rather make than a hat with petals all over.

Being crazy I'm making the petals myself - and I don't really know how to make silk flowers but I had great fun.

Because the traditional stiffeners are nasty petrochemicals I stiffened the silk fabrics with PVA glue which made the fabric quite paper-like - the white organza petals are painted. Then I 'tooled' and shaped them using the traditional brass silk-flower making tools.