Images From Hatstruck Millinery Class: The Fedoras Stole the Show!

I'm a little disappointed, well very disappointed, because my sweet daughter deleted all but two of my images from the first class session, and many others from the second class session.  So I have no images of the ladies' large straw picture hats, none of my hat blocks, and no pictures of my millinery teacher, Mrs. Edwards; thank you sweet daughter.

On a more upbeat note, the class was a blast!  Mike, our only male, kept things spiced up--you were too funny Mike! Ola, you are too generous; thanks for all of those snacks.  Natasha, you are so nice.  And Mrs. Edwards, thank you so much for sharing your hats and knowledge with us.  Every time I could not remember something, I would consult my dear teacher.

To your upper left, is Natasha.  Natasha was on a mission to make one of her friends a fedora modeled after one of his vintage fedoras.  I must say that she knocked it out of the park.

As mentioned, Mrs. Edwards stopped in.  She  brought two hats from her vintage collection, including two hats that she personally made. She made the beautiful flower hat to your left in the early 1960s.  She also made the pearl-appliqued pillbox to your right.  However, one of her students made the flower many years ago.  Although we originally rolled the edges of these types of flowers using our own saliva (spit-rolled), this one was rolled by adding glue to its edges.

Ola fell in love with my square crown hat block, and besides making an open-crown pork pie floppy straw hat in the first session, she also blocked two felt hats from the square crown block. There are several things that will make a fur felt hat look amateurish, some of which include leaving in a rope line if trim will not be covering it; blunt cut brim edges; turned up brims showing flat surface when the remainder of the hat has a nap.  The latter issue drives me crazy.  So, on this hat, Ola was shown how to turn the upturned brim of this hat into the same velour finish as the crown.

Mike, yes Mike, I threatened to tie his hands and gag him; he had lots of energy.  Anyway, Mike also wanted to make a hat for a friend; so, in the first session he made a fedora, see left image.  Although the block head size was true to his head size, there was a gap between the hat and the sides of his head.  So, I shared with Mike how he could get a custom fit in the same manner that hatters did using a conformature (a head sizing device invented in the 1800s, today costing several thousand dollars), except he could get the same results for little or no cost at all.  So, Mike went home and created his own custom hat block using some of my custom fit suggestion, including the instructions for making your own hat block from a post here on this blog.  He also made his own block spinner (block stand).  See image in upper mid-right.  In this image, Mike is beveling the brim edge.  Anyway, the final hat shape that Mike decided on is what he described as a "modified cattleman."

 Although it was not my intention to turn this into a hatting class, this is where all of the students wanted to go.  Hatting, the making of men hats, is extremely labor intensive. We stayed long hours working on these hats. All but Ola's hat, above, were blocked on an open crown block, a block having no definition.  All of the shaping was done by hand.  Hatting requires many more steps than a milliner would employ to make a fedora, but hatting is fun and exciting despite its labor intensity.

Below are a few more images. They are not in any particular order and there are many procedures missing. Enjoy!

Adding Band Block Before Ironing Brim

Bashing With the Open Crown Block

Ola Sporting a Hat I Made for Show-and-Tell

Singing the Fly-Away Fur

Polishing the Felt

One of Several Fair Projects Submitted, No. 6--The Fedora

Finally, I get to  my last 2011 Los Angeles County Fair millinery submissions.  Before I start, I want to remind you that I'm conducting a "Make Your Own Art" millinery supplies contest and giveaway.  The deadline to enter is August 4.  So if you are considering entering the contest, you only have one more day to do so!

Fur Felt, Trimmed in Soft Leather:  Would you be surprised if I told you that my favorite hat is the fedora?  I thought you would be.  Many Southern women of color talk about their mothers wearing hats when they were growing up, but that wasn't the case deep in the rural area I grew up in.   Although women put on their Sunday best, it was always about the hair.  My grandmother and I would take the Greyhound Bus some 38 miles to the city each month where we would have our hair done  for the first Sunday.  We attended church every Sunday and Wednesday--Sundays for Sunday school and Wednesdays for prayer meetings--but it was the first Sunday that was special.  This was the Sunday that our pastor would preach at our church.  Back in those days, in some rural areas, preachers usually serviced several churches a month.  Although this was an era when men's and women's hats were popular, the wearing of women's hats in my area was almost nonexistent.  My interest in women's hats would develop many years later.

My love for the fedora came from my grandfather.  He had his everyday fedoras, and he had his Sunday fedoras.  He dressed in a suit and tie on Sundays, and if it was cold, he would ware a long trench coat over his suit.  His Stacy Adams (shoes) were polished, and they always looked new.  The heels of the shoes were lowered, yes lowered,  so that their toes tilted slightly upwards.  Yes, my grandfather was a spiffy dresser!.  He would take me to the Juneteenth (June 19) baseball (softball?) games each year.  I wore my frilly cute dress and he wore his fedora, suit and tie, and Stacy Adams.  Now that I think about it, it was summertime. You will have no trouble figuring out my age.

Well, I could go on and on about the good old days when Sears and Roebuck would send our baby chickens through the U.S. mail.  I could talk about phone party lines and when good customer service existed.  If you're a young person, you wouldn't have a clue as to what I'm talking about.  So I'll stop now.

Oh, about the fedora, I was extremely disappointed with it.  I couldn't find the blade to my brim cutter; I didn't have time to add all of the details I had planned, such as a lining, etc.  Next year I'll do better.  Oops!  I said that last year.

Thanks; we made it through this!