Day 1- Monday 6th April 2009
Today was the first day of my millinery elective. In the weeks before I have been putting together my research based on the brief theme 'royal ascot', the brief is fairly open and I've been looking at past styles as well as the history of the event which was founded in 1711 by Queen Anne. I have decided to base my hat around the idea of traditional decoration in a modern twist. I have been looking at the fashion/millinery styles of 1711 and have established that flowers, ribbons and feather were key, I want to take these styles and develop them on and into a contemporary version of an avant garde 1711 millinery style. I have produced some designs that are quite different and experimental which I hope will satisfy the brief.
Today I have been starting on my crown for my hat, I didn't buy quite enough of the sinamay I need, but have still managed to make a single layer of the crown and start on a wired flower sinamay corsage as a detail for my hat. I'm pleased with my work today and I'm trying to be really patient so that I can get a good neat result.
Today was the first day of my millinery elective. In the weeks before I have been putting together my research based on the brief theme 'royal ascot', the brief is fairly open and I've been looking at past styles as well as the history of the event which was founded in 1711 by Queen Anne. I have decided to base my hat around the idea of traditional decoration in a modern twist. I have been looking at the fashion/millinery styles of 1711 and have established that flowers, ribbons and feather were key, I want to take these styles and develop them on and into a contemporary version of an avant garde 1711 millinery style. I have produced some designs that are quite different and experimental which I hope will satisfy the brief.
Today I have been starting on my crown for my hat, I didn't buy quite enough of the sinamay I need, but have still managed to make a single layer of the crown and start on a wired flower sinamay corsage as a detail for my hat. I'm pleased with my work today and I'm trying to be really patient so that I can get a good neat result.
Day 2- Tuesday 7th April 2009
Today I have been working on the second layer of the crown of my hat as well as finishing the corsage. I have bought some white feather that compliment the electric blue sinamay and I want to put them in the centre of my flower as a stalk. This is proving a little tricky as I can't easily find a way to sew the feathers to the centre of the flower, however, I will carry on and hopefully the answer I will come! So far I'm pleased with my work. I've chosen a modern block which I think compliments the detail and is relevant to the brief.
Day 3- Wednesday 8th April 2009
This morning I made the two layers of the brim from my sinamay, put stifner on them and left them to dry! In the afternoon I tacked the wire and bias binding onto the edge of the brim then machine stitched these on. I'm generally fairly pleased with the finish. The stitching is neat except at the join where I had a couple of problems with bulkiness. This afternoon I also finished the corsage for the hat and managed to stitch the feathers on through hand stitching. I have covered the stitching with gold thread which brings out the colours.
Day 4- Thursday 9th April 2009
Today is the final day of the elective. This morning I worked on hand stitching together the brim and crown. This worked well and I am pleased with the result. I also added bias binding to cover the join and finally hand stitched in the pettersham ribbon inside the hat. I did this twice as the first time I was not satisfied with the neatness. The second time I concentrated more and managed to sew it only very neatly with very small stitches.
This afternoon I made a small facinator piece out of the left over sinamay and feathers. It is just a small extra piece but I think it works well with the hat. Finally, I bound all my paper work together. The deadline for the module isn't until 27th April but I will be in London then and so I hope to hand it all in in the next week. I only have my evaluation.
All in all, I am pleased with my hat and work. I have worked hard to make it neat and professional, and I think it is very appropriate for Ascot. Considering this is only the second hat I've ever made, I'm generally pleased with how much I have learnt and progressed. Hopefully I should do well!
