Now, my Christmas holiday is over and I´m back to millinery again.
I wanted a matching hat for all the off-white lace gowns, I made over the last month. By mischance, I had no woolfelt hat body in a suitable color. So I had to take a straw one (Sisol).
A while ago I bought it with some other items from a milliner, who can´t work fulltime on her profession anymore. That´s what happens to most of the remaining german milliners sooner or later. It´s not a country for hats. And you have to be courageous, to go on with a craft so ancient, nobody these days cares anymore. (At least here in Germany….)
The straw cone had a cut-out. I think, she took a piece for a fascinator. And what was left, looked like a hood or the entrance to a cave….Perfect for a 1920s helmet-cap.
During the 1920s, straw hats where even worn in winter, the hat crown lined with different kinds of fabric like silk, cotton or thin linen. Often the crown was also covered with many kinds of embellishments, embroidery or another layer of fabric.
I had some vintage lace-pieces from Plauen in Germany, probably from the late 50s or 60s and some beautiful glass-gagate-beads from Paris around 1900.
I didn´t want to use only the lace without a different shade of color, because that would be to much “bridal”. So black and light brown hat to go with the lace.
It was lots of work, to tie all the small lace-pieces together, embellish all with the glass beads and stretch it somehow over the cap, but it was also fun and experience….
And rag-cat came over, to waste her good advice on me now, after her princess throwed her out for the day….
Now it´s finished and I think, it´s not so bad at all!