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

Upcomming Millinery Class for Men and Women Straw and Felt Hats

I just received an email that stated that I was only giving a hatting (men hat making) class, and to please inform "me" when a women hat making class was being given.  I don't know where this came from, but the upcoming class (August 27th and 3rd) is a straw and felt blocking class, women hats included. A gentleman attending my class is interested in making hats for men, and of course, I'm more than pleased to accommodate him because the fedora is my favorite hat.  We will be touching on the most important hatting techniques.  As a matter of fact, I use some hatting techniques when making my hats, especially felt hats.  If it's anything I hate is a dead unpolished felt hat.

Also, as I've mentioned to those inquiring about a class schedule, I do not have a schedule; I do not give regular classes; and I probably will never give regular classes.  As much as love millinery, there are many other things, including my furthered millinery learning, I have to explore before I leave this earth, if God is willing.  This class was scheduled because of the large number of people requesting a class.   Unfortunately, most of those have not responded, and I put off a trip out of state.  My family has aged and is passing away, and I would really love to move about without having other commitments holding me back.  So catch me when you can, or if there are those out there that would like some referrals, I would be more than glad to refer out.  This does not take anything away from me.

Back to This Class

For all of those that say "I know how to block straw and felt,"  well more goes into it than steaming material and pulling it over a hat block and tying it down--classic YouTube.  It includes a knowledge of how hat blocks work and how they are used, and how they are underutilized.  If you're new to millinery and many of the not so new, I know you think you already know all about that.  Well, the hat to your upper left looks nothing like the block it was blocked on, yet many will leave the hat just as it came off the block (although anything goes), because they just don't know any different.  I have a pretty common cap block, and when I see some others block on it, I often wonder why they've left the hat unfinished.  It's because they don't understand how to use the block.

Although I don't make hats entirely how I was taught, there are many critical techniques I will never abandon.   For example, I would never leave this type of brim (purple hat) unfinished and razor flat.  You may say, it is finished, and if you said that, chances are you were never taught how to finish a brim that doubles back under when taken from the hat block.  That's why this brim stands at attention and will always do so when finished correctly, because of the structure behind it.  The same goes for many small hats and the underlying structures that many milliners fail to incorporate into those finished hats today, especially those hats made on vintage blocks.

So how do you polish your felt hats, or how do you conceal your machine stitching when sewing felt hats by sewing machine or by hand to get that rich finish look, rather than that manufactured look. How do you finish your cut felt brims?  What do you remove from your felt hats after you block them to remove some of that dull look before polishing?  Unless you are using a European style hat block (having no rope lines, usually pinned underneath) rather than an American style block (having real estate for rope lines), you should understand why all of that pinning may not yield any better results than a single rope or two, thus saving your blocks from destruction.

Do you know what an open crown block is?  No it's not a hat block with a hole in the middle.  But many men use them to block their unshaped hats, only to put the details in by hand.  This is a great technique to incorporated into women hats for those of you that are so dependent on hat blocks and are frustrated because you feel that you have to purchase every block that comes along, but you don't have the budget to purchase them. 

Finally, if you look at your blocked felt or straw hats and they look like they have cellulite (they're not smooth after blocking), their brims are undulating and look like they are frozen in a 120-mile wind storm, you still have more to learn about felt and straw blocking.