Vintage Hat Pins, The Millinery Competition, Etc.

I was out all day yesterday, running various errands.  I finally ended up at my favorite local thrift shop where I found the five vintage hat pins in the images.  I had seen them several times before.  They started out in the boutique, and since they didn't sell they were kicked out of the boutique and landed in with the regular stuff.  Lucky me because I purchased the five pins for $12, the longest pin being 10 1/2 inches long.


The little vintage child singer sewing machine (ca. 1951) is something that I always wanted.  I picked it up in an antique store a few years back. It was perfect when I purchased it; it came in its original box with a book and everything.  So I put it up in a closet hidden away, but I would always hear my grandmother's voice, "If you don't use it, some other woman will."  So, when my granddaughter became old enough to lift the machine, I gave it to her.  In my grandmother's house there were no special dishes or silverware, etc., that was reserved for special occasions or special people.  She believed that things should be used by those she loved and not saved for others, or the next wife if there should ever be a next wife.  My grandfather had his thing also.  He vowed that his  grandchildren would always sit at the table and eat when everyone else ate.  In other words we would not eat after the preacher (or any adult) ate, if the preacher was a guest.  Apparently, my grandfather had bad memories of preachers eating up all of the little food his family had and the children going hungry.  Apparently preachers did a lot of traveling and eating back in those days.

I'm Resuming My Rigorous Routine!

After a serious car accident, I'm finally ready to resume life as usual, although I don't think my body or mind will ever be the same.  Not having a car for months limited my ventures, and long walks bothered my back.  Well I'm ready to resume some serious hooping, regardless of the pain, and to travel further away from home to find more goodies like those above, although I'm still suffering from shell shock.  So, watch out world!

The Millinery Competition

Th final day for getting your millinery entries in are near, August 15, 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time.  So, please make sure that you have followed all of the guidelines for the competition--you must be a follower of this site, etc.  I don't want to disqualify anyone after they have put in all of their hard work.  Also, and very important, if your screen name is different from your given name, you must let me know; otherwise I will not be able to identify you.  For rules and guidelines, please visit the posts below.

Thanks and Good Luck!

Judges Announced for the Hatstruck Elegant, Fun Couture Hats Competition!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, usually I make a hat before I post but laziness has taken over, and once again, I'm posting one of my old hats.  I think I made this hat maybe five or six years ago, more or less.  It's a leather purse top hat trimmed with a leather flower.  The removable top has a mirror inside for checking makeup.  That year I also won Best in Show for a black cloche.  I reblocked the cloche into another shape a couple of months ago, and it's still on the block.  For this hat I won Most Innovative, also.  Anyway let's get to the important stuff.

This is a little emotional for me because months ago when I was thinking about putting a competition together I had at least two people I wanted to be judges.  One I knew "had my back" as always, and the other, although I wanted her to be one of my judges, I felt as if I was imposing on her; she too has been so supportive over the past several years.  I didn't want to ask her and put her in a position of declining my judge request.   Even after I asked and she accepted I still felt the need to protect her, asking her if she really wanted to do this.   I would have more than understand if she had declined.  Plus I didn't know if she, a world famous milliner, would really want to be associated with being a judge for a contest given by an unknown lady that practices millinery as a hobby. 

Harper's Bazaar Arabia/Ruven Afanador

So in alphabetical order, my first judge (she) is Anya Caliendo.  By-the-way, the link is to her blog, the best millinery blog on the Web.  If you are into couture millinery and fashion, chances are that you know Anya's work.  If you've been on another planet and you haven't seen her work, view a partial collection I've pulled up in a Pinterest search!  Anya's hats have graced the covers of many magazines, one of the latest being Harper's Bazaar July 2014 issue where Rihanna is shown on  its cover wearing one of her hats.  Anya interned under the great milliner Stephen Jones.

Twice Anya has brought tears to my eyes: when  she accepted my judge request, and when  she sent me an invitation to Fashion Week in New York.  I'm so sorry I couldn't  make it.  I think I'm so touched because, not only is she a wonderful person, but she is a confident, caring, and sharing person.  This is hard to find amongst many milliners, sorry to say.

My next judge is Mrs. Essie Edward.  Those of you that follow my blog know Mrs. Edwards as one of my millinery instructors.  Mrs. Edwards has well over 60 years of millinery experience.  She worked for the school district her in Southern California for over 40 years.  She is an excellent seamstress and milliner and just an all-around beautiful person.


As far as being a good judge, well let's just say that she is more flexible than I am and much more fashionable also.  She taught me how to be more flexible in my dealings with millinery, while maintaining the highest of quality in my work.

My final judge is Shurie Southcott.  When I sent out a hint Shurie immediately volunteered, and I thought wow!  My response came because Shurie is into couture steam punk millinery.  I had seen some extremely beautiful steam punk hats made in another contest by other milliners that were above exceptional--the hats were extremely well made, the trim was exquisite, and the designs were awesome--not too far out, right in my "sweets spot."  None of those hats even placed.  So Shurie will complement this team.  I really wanted a team made up of milliners that would represent as many tastes as possible. 

Shurie teaches millinery and she also works at Clockworks Couture here in Southern California.  Actually, it was a book I ran across in the bookstore written by Clockworks (the owner) that led to my understanding of Steam Punk millinery and clothing.  Naturally, I purchased the book.  Shurie is also published in another book.  One last thing, Shurie and I had the same millinery instructor, at least I took a block carving class from her mentor and instructor, the late Jill Pfeiffer, perhaps a decade or so earlier.

Thank you so much ladies, and let it be known that I deeply appreciate and admire all of you.

Another Prize for the Hatstruck Millinery Competition!

Remember the millinery competition I'm hosting on this site?  Well here is another prize (junk) that I've pulled out, and I'm more than happy to get rid of it.  No, it's not my doll hat block.  No it's not the doll in the background.  One of my friends gave this medical doll to my granddaughter along with a medical bag that came with it.  The doll's head lights up to a bright red when she "has a fever."  We'll my granddaughter saw that and must have figured that it was a devil doll!  She ran away screaming, so I hid it behind the head.  Yes, the prize is the mannequin head display.

I purchased the head from an antique shop because the shop had nothing related to millinery in it that I could purchase at the time.  It's just not a good idea to go into a store hungry (to purchase something); I don't care what type of store it is!  Anyway, I've seen these heads popup on Ebay from time to time, and although some sellers make up some type of story for the purpose of  generating a good sale, no one actually knows where they originated from.  They are vintage; they are hand painted; and they are made of some type of light-weight composition material.  Some believe that the mannequin heads were once department store displays.  This one happens to be more detailed and in better shape than most I've seen, having only a small blemish over the mouth, and having a more detailed painted face.

I have never used this head because I felt that it just did not fit with the type of hats I make.  If you win, it's possible that it could be yours for the taking.  Just don't tell me later  that a famous person made it, and that you're selling it for a million dollars; I just don't want to know. OK, so you don't want it either?  Well sell the thing on Ebay.  I want the space for another display I'm eying!

It just ran across my mind that I'm not giving you much of an incentive to enter my competition--a five section hat block, a vintage hat display..."she has to come up with better junk than that for me to enter."  Well, I'll dig deeper, but I doubt it; stay tuned.

Remember:

• You can only enter one (1) hat.
• You must be a follower of this blog.  Click on the follow button in the right-hand column and follow the instructions.  See image to your right.
• You must inter under your full name--not a screen name.
• No Anonymous entries will be excepted.
• This is an international competition.  I will pay for and ship to the address given, but you are responsible for any problems that you may encounter on your side.
• Please read additional instructions here:  http://hatstruck.blogspot.com/2014/06/millinery-competition-elegant-fun.html in one of my earlier blog posts.

Interested in entering another competition?

Please check out the Mad Hatters Society Group on Facebook.  You may enter up to three (3) hats there.  Plus it's a fantastict group!  They are located at:  https://www.facebook.com/groups ./madhatterssociety/



#HatstruckCoutureMillinery, #Hatstruck, #LeeDuncanMilliner, #MillineryCompetition, #MillineryContest, #HatContest, #HatCompetition

Prizes for the Hatstruck Millinery Competition

I'm so excited about this Hatstruck millinery competition and the task of brainstorming the prizes I'll be awarding its winners; one of the prizes being a five section hat block.  I have an idea which hat block, or should I say I probably know which one I will be rewarding.  Can you guess which one?  It's the one I absolutely don't like.  Well it's winner can always sell it on Ebay.

As always when I get rid of one of my millinery items, I regret it somewhere down the road.  Now let me find more junk around here I can get rid of.  More to come;  you will be surprised.

For contest details, please visit my last blog post.

Millinery Competition--Elegant, Fun Couture Hats, 2014 Guidelines and Rules

High all!  Below are the refined rules and guidelines for one of the best millinery contests ever--at least in my head.  We will have crazy fun and wonderful prizes will be awarded to the winners.  Please read these rules and guidelines carefully.  If you have questions, please post them in the "Comments" section of this post. 

Totally unrelated....!  I couldn't resist Photoshopping another one of my hats onto First Lady Michelle Obama's head (see image below).  Since I doubt that she will ever be seen in a hat, other than when she is gardening, why not just have fun playing paper doll with a lovely First Lady.  I've done this before, and I really had fun doing it.  In order to give full credit to the image and the article that I copied it from, the story and original image can be found here.  If she sees this image and likes it, I would suggest that she give Anya Caliendo (my choice), Philip Treacy, or Stephen Jones a call.  Oh well, I can dream can't I.  OK, back to the business at hand, the millinery competition.


The Theme:  Elegant, Fun Couture Hats

 Who Qualifies to Enter the Contest: You must be a member of this site.  No Anonymous entries will be accepted.  Your screen name must be accompanied by your full name, if different, when your hat is submitted.  In other words, if you do not want anyone to know who you are, please do not enter.  After the contest, you may unfollow this blog site...but stick around if you like it.  I would be more than happy to have you.  Finally, THIS IS AN INTERNATIONAL CONTEST.

Mandel Ngan/Getty

Competition Dates:  Submissions accepted June 5 to August 15, 2014.  Deadline for submittals,  August 15, 11:59, Pacific time (West Coast, USA).

Number of Hats Accepted for Submission:  One (1).

Guidelines for Finished Hat:  The Hat must be made by the contestant, using any materials and techniques of her/his choice.

Images:  There must be at least four to five images submitted--front, back, side(s), and inside; unless the hat can be seen in its entirety with fewer images.

The hat must be made between June 5 and August 15.

Judges:  So far there are four (4) judges (maybe more to come).  These will be announced shortly.

The Prizes:  Millinery supplies (felts, straws, a hat block, hat stretchers, books, millinery trim, a cash prize, etc.).

Distribution of Prizes:  Best in Competition will pick his/her prize first; Second in Competition gets second pick.  Remaining prizes will be distributed as described in my previous post.
  
Winning Categories:  Best in Competition (highest score), Second in Competition (second highest scorer), Best Overall Design, Workmanship, Originality, Color, Presentation, Best Interpretation of Theme, Most Wearable, Honorable Mention, Judge's Choice (each judge will have her/his choice).

 Scoring--range 1 to 10 in each category (multiplied by point value):  Workmanship, 2 points; Design 1.5 points; all other categories 1 point.  The winners will be those having the highest scores.  If there is a tie between highest scorers (score after adding up all categories), those will be sent back to the judges for selection of the best from the highest scores.  Again, winners will only be chosen based on their scores, ALL SCORING BEING INDEPENDENT--JUDGE BY JUDGE.  The highest score after judges' scores have been added up and combined, will yield the winners; the TOP winners must score high in workmanship.
 
Hat Details:  If you are uncomfortable submitting construction details for your hat, that's quite acceptable.   However, outer details--basic materials used--should be submitted with your hat for description purposes.
. 
Where to Store Images?  I have created a group, Hatstruck Couture Millinery, on Facebook where  the images will be stored.  If you are not a Facebook member, please email the images to me at lduncan@hatstruck.com and I will post the images for you; however I would prefer that you post them to the group.

Note the image to your right, there are two references to photos.  Please note the correct location CIRCLED IN RED where you should store your images.

The "Photos" heading circled in the image, at the top of the Facebook Hatstruck Couture Millinery group page is the correct location to post your images. 

Click on "Photos" and create an album for your images.  Label your album as follows:

Hatstruck Couture Millinery 2014
Elegant, Fun Couture Millinery Competition

Your Name,

The Name of Your Hat (if any)

Hat Description

Have Fun!

Hatstruck Couture Millinery, Millinery Competition--Elegant, Fun Couture Hats, 2014

OK, I'm back.  In my last post I mentioned that I was going to conduct a millinery competition.  I must admit that all of the details have not been finalized, but the important thing is that there will be a competition and that there will be winners and fantastic prizes, most of the junk, sorry I mean prizes will be things that many milliners would love to have.  I'm just over flowing and I've decided to do a self intervention; I'm sure this will end when something else strikes my fancy.  Since I'm trying to generate some excitement around here, at least for a second, this will not be your conventional contest.  I hope you've noticed that I'm not a very conventional person.  This is my fantasy competition, except that you can't erase individual likes and dislikes, something that, no matter what, is still a part of decision making.

I couldn't post without a hat, and I didn't want to go into my hat archive, so I've started making the hat at your right.  It has not been completed yet, but I'll write more about it in another post.  Now to the competition stuff.

The Theme:  Elegant, Fun Couture Hats
Please, this is serious.  Only submit serious hats.  I have a board on Pinterest labeled "Millinery:  Fun Couture Hats.  There I pin hats that I feel are fun and unique and/or hats that I study and learn from, as I do on all of my boards.  Your idea of a fun couture hat may be different.  Please take a look.

Competition Dates:  June 5 to August 15, 2014
The deadline to submit your hats is 12:00 a.m., Pacific Standard Time--the States' West Coast--August 15, 2014.

Number of Hats to Submit
You are only allowed to submit one hat.  I feel that the load of more than one hat is just too much for the judges to deal with, at least for me that is.  Sorry, but at least you can make that one hat your best hat ever.

•  The hat must be made between June 5 and August 15 (like I can monitor that :) )

The Prizes
The prizes will consist of a variety of millinery supplies (straws, felts, hat stretchers, trim, etc.), an ugly, sorry, I mean a lovely five piece sectional hat block, books, etc., and a little cash if I have any, seriously, if I have any.

Distribution of Prizes
The Best in Competition will choose the prize of her/his choice first.  The Second in Competition will choose her/his choice second.  Prizes for the remaining winners will be written on paper and pulled from a bucket.  I said I was unconventional, didn't I?  One time I won the highest place in a competition, but I would have loved to have received the second place prize.  Also, I once won at a lower level but I felt that the prize I received was better; so, why not let the highest winners pick the prizes of their choice.

The Judges and Judging--To Be Announced at Later Date
There will be from three to five judges; I will be one of them.  Why three to five?  Because I'm biased as to what I like, and I really would like to have judges of varying tastes.  A score card will be distributed to the judges, and each category can be given a one to 10 rating, with workmanship weighted to two.  So it would be possible to get a score of 10 in each category, except in workmanship with a possible rating of up to 20.

• Categories:  Workmanship, Originality, Balance (overall appearance), Color (remember that color means more than bright vibrant colors), Presentation, Theme Appropriateness; and standing on it's own, Judge's Choice.

The winners will be those having the highest scores.  If there is a tie between highest scorers, those will be sent back to the judges for further consideration.  Hopefully, with a range of one to ten and two to 20, this will not occur.  Winners will only be chosen based on their scores, ALL SCORING BEING INDEPENDENT.  So, the total highest score after all categories have been added up, will yield the winners.


Winning Categories (Tentative--I may have to work on this.)
 Best in Competition, Second in Competition, Most Innovative, Most Representative of Theme, Workmanship (weighted--this must be high in order to win Best in Competition), Best Overall Design, Individual Judge's Choice (three to five--OH YES!).  I was in a competition once, having three judges, where two judges chose my hat and one felt that another should win Best in Show.  One of the judges kept moving the award from my hat until the other two judges gave in.  Another time one of three judges said that he preferred my hat.  This happens all the times with others.  So this is a chance for each judge to pick her/his choice.


You must be a follower of this site and you must live on this planet; so yes all are welcome to submit a hat no matter where you live in the world.  If you decide to unfollow this site, that is totally up to you.  However, I would love for you to stick around.

You must submit at least four views of your hat and the images must be clear--front, back, side, and underside--unless the design of the hat does not call for four.

Hat Details

If you are uncomfortable submitting construction details for your hat, that's quite acceptable.   However, outer details--fabric used--should be submitted with your hat for description purposes (for example, my hat above:  Feather cocktail hat, supported with vintage crinoline (crin) tubing and headband, trimmed with a red feather--or something like that.

Where to Store Images?
I have created a group, Hatstruck Couture Millinery, on Facebook where most of the images will be stored.  If you are not a FB member, please email the images to me at
lduncan@hatstruck.com; however I would prefer that you post them to the group.

Note on the image to your right that there are two references to photos.  The "Photos" circled in the image is the correct location to post your images.  Click on "Photos" and create an album for your images.  Label your album as follows:

Hatstruck Couture Millinery 2014
Elegant, Fun Couture Millinery Competition," YourNameHere
HatMaterialsHere (outer covering--see above under Hat Details for an explanation).  If these instructions are not clear please leave me a comment on this post.

A Suggestion for Newbies
I figure that all of us are at different levels in our millinery journey.  Some may not possess the workmanship skills, but may have great design skills, or they may be very innovative.  I would love for all to be comfortable submitting a hat.  I must admit that I have a thing for workmanship.  However, in the real world innovation and design may many times win out; actually they are extremely important because workmanship can be mechanical.  But in order to win the Best in Competition, workmanship must be in place.  So if you are new to millinery I would suggest that you don't tackle something that is beyond your skill level.  It would still be possible to make an absolutely beautiful hat, well designed and neat, and still win the big prize, provided that you stick to this suggestion.   Also, I have a another Pinterest board, Millinery: How Other Milliners and Hatters Do It, where I pin many millinery techniques that I find on the Web, some are merely references for my followers, as I don't always agree with some of the techniques and/or workmanship, but you will also find some good things there.  Do some research and practice. 

Good Luck!  I'm sure I will have to revise some of this stuff.

My Hat Submissions to the Mad Hatters Society Millinery Competition on Facebook

I thought I'd share the hats that I submitted in The Mad Hatters Society's 2014 MHS Annual Competition on Facebook.  I'm sure that everyone that follows me on Facebook has seen these hats too many times already, but I wanted to share them here with my blog followers that don't follow me there, or with those just passing by.  By the way, if you are not a follower of this blog, please consider following it and signing up for email alerts.  Your support would be greatly appreciated.  The same invitation goes out to those that follow my Pinterest boards.

Interring millinery competitions gives me an opportunity to make hats more often, and also to sort of "push the envelop" (be a little more creative than I would usually be).  I also have a tendency to reevaluate and to make a conscious effort to improve my millinery skills while working on a hat for a competition.

 I've finally gotten to the point where winning or loosing a competition means very little to me, except for the mere excitement of actually seeing the finished entries.  After all, winners are almost always chosen subjectively, and too many are left feeling inadequate even if they have wonderful design and/or workmanship skills.

There is no denying that I love the prizes, if there are any to be had.  The last time I won a Mad Hatters' competition, second place prize, I received a $125 gift certificate from Judith M Millinery Supply House.  Let's just say that I have enough wire, wire joiners, and horsehair to last me for quite some time.  My winning entry  was "Outside of My Window," a plexiglass hat (left) fabricated in almost the same manner as "The Copper Lady" above, except that I used metal cutting scissors to cut out the copper hat and a  jeweler's saw to cut out the plexiglass hat.  Note that I could have also used the jewel's saw on the copper; it was just a matter of how I felt at the time.

I created the "The Copper Lady" from copper sheet metal that I hammered into a dome.  If you follow me you may remember how I write about how small my place is.  Well, for my last millinery class I decided to make a brim ironing board for use at home, easy transport, and because let's face it, I just have to know that I can perform a task on my own in case I have to.  One day I'll seek some therapy for this condition.

 Using a folding wooden food tray, I cut out a half circle with my jeweler's saw and some carving tools.  Crazy, yes!  Well, conditions may not always be perfect, so I believe in using what I have on hand to accomplish what I need to at the moment.  Anyway, I will not be doing that again with those particular tools, but at least I know if I had to do it I could.  Since I needed a concave wooden area to dome my sheet for my hat, I carved one into the brim ironing board, to its side.  Now I don't have to pull out my steel doming block to make a pair of earrings because I can use the same concave area for them.  Plus, I can iron my hat brims, I can attach my jeweler's saw block, I can make large earrings, and I can dome little cute hats all in one tiny area without unfolding my work table, if I had to.  Finally, I finished "The Copper Lady" off with  a removable vintage Trifari brooch for interchangeability.  I was extremely pleased with this hat, so simple, but so bold and elegant.

The next submission, "Flight of the Midnight Butterfly," (left) also earned my stamp of approval.  It was built on a wire frame that was blocked over a very large wooden fruit bowl.  The wire was then covered with ribbon, net, lace, and vintage file tubing to cover the wire spokes.

I made flower from silk satin, making one bud myself and adding another vintage bud  to balance it off.

The flower on Flight of the Midnight Butterfly was made from silk satin.  The fabric was sized with a fabric stiffener, stretched over my flower drying rack, then left to dry before moistening again, then tooling  (shaping) the flower.
 I've often seen demonstrations where this fabric is hung up vertically to dry.  Well, what happens if you hang fabric to dry vertically?  It drys from the top first down to the bottom last.  If the fabric has starch in it, then it will be stiffer at the bottom than at the top.  So therefore, it is best to lay the fabric horizontally rather than vertically.  If you don't have flower irons and would like to try your hand at at simple flower making, I have two Youtube videos on flower making: one for a simple leather flower and the other for a simple fabric flower, neither requiring flower irons. 

"Elenore" (left) was another one of my four entries.  Surprisingly, she was my hardest hat to make.  I wanted to take a shortcut, but that was just not going to happen.  I had blocked several hats weeks earlier.  They just sit on the hat blocks waiting for me to do something.  At the last moment, needing a fourth hat for the contest, a vintage 1930s/1940s sophisticated shape was chosen, and thus Elenore was
born.

This fur felt, beaver finish hat looked simple enough to complete, but it was not.  Like most of my hat blocks, it was the first time I had blocked on it.  So I had no idea that I would be unable to take a much needed shortcut; much needed because I was exhausted having worked on a project with my daughter while working on my own project.  Manny times, in vintage hats, a sprung wire was required.  Springing the wire is a simple technique that has a simple meaning--straightening standard millinery wire, NOT STEEL WIRE--in order to add tension in the correct place(s) on a hat.

Sprung wire sits inside of a hat, and usually it does not have to be sewn into the hat  when needed.  Well, Elenore required the oposite, and the manipulation and placement of that wire affected the shape and integrity of the hat.  The hat would not stand at attention without the wire.  I've taken up many shortcuts since I've started making hats, but this is one technique I've not dropped, especially when dropping it affects the integrity of the hat.  Hat blocks are funny objects, their finished products require different applications, some of these applications are realized only after the material has been taking off the block and after one has started working on it
 

Finally there is "Belle" to your left. Belle's buckram crown was blocked over a wooden candy dish.  It was covered with sequin braid, velvet tip; trimmed with horsehair, and graced with a vintage Trifari brooch (yes, I like vintage brooches).  "Belle's" lining was blocked over the same candy bowl as her crown was.  This hat was just not worth the time  it would take to make a tailored lining.


 I was not pleased with, "Belle."  There was just something lacking in workmanship with her.  Perhaps it was the lack of control I had over the cut, fringed horsehair trim; perhaps I should have double layered it.  That's what I'll do next time.  "Belle's" lining was blocked over a candy bowl.  This hat was just not worth the time to make a talored lining. 

 I have quite a few hat blocks, but surprisingly I use wooden bowls to create most of my hats.  I even pin into these bowls, something I would usually never do with my hat blocks.  I guess I use wooden bowls because using them keeps me grounded, knowing that this craft can be as simple or as complicated, and as economical or as expensive as I make it.

Words of Inspiration

More than sharing these hats with you, I hope you go away with the understanding that millinery, contrary to what some may say, is not always an expensive craft.  Especially couture "French Room" millinery, also referred to as piece-good hats a few hundred years back.  Yes, straw and felt are expensive today.  When I was buying more of it, before millinery became popular again, the prices were much lower.  It's a matter of supply and demand today.  Again, you can make this craft as economical or as expensive as you would like.  There are beautiful linens and silks and leathers, etc., out there.  There are discount fabric shops; bowls to block on, etc.  If you can't afford all of the bells and whistles starting out, start out little and accumulate over time; that what I did.  I have many bells and whistles and I continue to accumulate them, but I very seldom use them.  I think I'm more of a collector of millinery tools and equipment than a milliner sometimes.  Lastly, considering French room millinery (covered hats, hand made hats), would allows you to create more unique hats, in my opinion.

A little while ago I created a YouTube video, "Couture Millinery: How Many Hats and Accessories Can You Make From One Yard of Fabric?"  Check it out and also consider some nontraditional materials to make wonderful, beautiful hats.  Remember that it only takes a fraction of a yard of fabric to make it.  This makes silks, etc., affordable.

Lastly, or did I say that already, learning is your responsibility.  Don't let anything or anyone be a barrier to it.  I spent all day Wednesday learning a new millinery techniques.  If you don't have access to millinery instruction, remember that through observation, you can learn a lot.  Take a sewing class, observe, observe.  For free online millinery books, check out my Pinterest board, Books:  Free Online Millinery and Related Books.  Also my board, "How Other Milliners and Hatters Do It," is a compilation of how other milliners and hatters make there hats, etc.  Although, I may not like some of the techniques, they are there to jump start your and my imagination and thinking.  Again, if you have access to a good instructor, take a few classes.