Category: Millinery

I had d a tobacco-colored jacket, I made years ago from a piece of wool fabric, found in a second hand store. Unfortunately it made the acquaintance of the moth (which found the jacket  highly delicious). The holes where to  big to mend and I didn´t want another patchwork thing at that time. So I turned the jacket into a collapsible autumn-hat, style 1920s with a huge decoration made of vintage ribbons.

 

 

 

Small bits and pieces of fabric from former sewing projects can make some nice millinery flowers, if you have  patience, starch, wire and creped paper.  Patterns can be cut of paper or cardboard.  The flowers on the pics are made of satin, ribbon, velvet and dyed scraps of a vintage bedcover.

I hat a vintage florentine hat body from the 50s, but for a long time no concept, how to style it. Until I found this piece of antique straw trimming. It´s in a delicate condition and a bit damaged, but I decided to use it anyway for it´s beauty . It was a bit tricky working with it, but I succeeded!

Finally I got  a cartwheel in a somehow 30s style.

The hat crown is hand shaped and I thought, some vintage japanese velvet leaves and milllinery flowers could be a good match.

Another of my cartwheels. I made this one with  precious pieces of handmade furniture trimmings around 1900. They are a bit heavy and solid, but beautiful  items and I decided to make the hat in a way, that allows me to wear it from both sides. So there is no front or back, but acctually two fronts….

The hatpin I made from some replica-egyptian  revival beads.

To make this hat, I had to learn more about making millinery flowers and embellishment out of vintage ribbon. Luckily I had some ribbons in beautiful shades, perfectly matching with the dark red hatbody I wanted to use.

The first comment I got, after finishing this hat, was “You look like Napoleon!”  I don´t think so, because ACTUALLY it´s an egyptian revival hat, style 1920s.  But it gave me a fancy name for the hat….And Napoleon really WAS in Egypt. So here it comes: “Le Bonaparte”!

The metal applique is genuin 1920s and was meant for book embellishing. The ribbon with hieroglyphics is contemporary.

Once I was a rather boring but happy 1960s hat….until THAT WOMAN found me in a second hand store and turned me into one of those 1920s cloches of hers without asking !

This Time I wanted to try an early  kind of cloche from the end of  the  Art Nouveau era. Fortunately  I posses a hat block around 1917-1920.

The stunning brass stamping is genuine Art Nouveau and was meant to embellish books. When I saw it first, I knew  it´s a must have for me!

It took me long to decide, which hat to garnish with and in the end it turned out to be this severe  piece of millinery. The brass stamping should be the only “actor” on the stage of this hat. No further decorations, but vintage petersham and velvet ribbons in a matching shade.

 

I know, I know…..it´s a BIT to much decoration for a little straw cloche like this….But I wanted something opulent and don´t forget- not every 1920s cloche was made in a minimalist style. Sometimes you can find  vintage cloches in collections, witch are hyperbolic in decoration.

I took a new paper straw cone and a precious piece of gold ribbon with an egypt revial pattern from the 1920s and combined it with a selfmade trim from vintage goldbraids and velvet ribbon.  The woven gold ribbon ist in a delicate condition, which makes it impossible to use it for bags or clothes. But it´s still good enough for millinery! The trim is inspired by the image of an antique piece, made of black Soutache, that I found on the web. I took only the shape and used completely different materials.