I’m off for a weeks holiday in Italy so I thought I’d talk about one of it’s most famous hats, the borsalino. To begin with Borsalino is the name of the hat company (founded in 1834 by Giuseppe Borsalino), which developped this particular felt hat in 1837.  The hat is made out of rabbit or hare felt (which [...]

Just a quick post to say that I’m currently being featured on a blog called Sarta Mexicana, run by a fellow Etsy seller, MonijoCreations. You can read a bit more about me and my work. Go check it out! Juste un petit post pour dire que  je suis sous la lumière des projecteurs en ce [...]

I’m making a few flowers to decorate a felt headpiece, I’m using sinamay because I thought it’d be interesting to use two very contrasting materials. Each individual petal is made out of a square piece of sinamay that is curved (almost folded) diagonaly, then the two tips left are drawn under (without being folded or twisted) the first tip. Easier [...]

This week I’ve been working on some new headbands, using pleats to give a nice frilly effect. I’ve been testing out different widthes and lengthes and have not yet decided on a definitive model. I’m making these headbands for my Etsy store (http://www.chalkiesbazaar.etsy.com) but they won’t be avaible until the end of August (I’m off on [...]

I’ve finished making this hat for a friend (inspired by the ‘Tutti Frutti’ hat that you can see in the gallery section) and I thought I’d take some pics with my brand new digital camera. I’d like to find a fun name for the hat but my brain is a bit sizzled tonight. Do any of you [...]

I started to have quite a few hats laying about in my flat so I thought I’d make some neat stands to put them on display and out of the way!  I used an empty tube from a roll of fabric (picked up from work), seeing as it is quite thick I used a little saw to cut [...]

Unfortunately, my digital camera has broken so I can’t show you what I’ve been making this past couple of weeks. So, I’ve decided to do a quick review of this book, ‘Uniforms’ by Bill Dunn. The book takes a look at a wide selection of uniforms, past and present. It’s divided into several chapters : [...]

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   I recently picked up the last issue of ‘The Hat Magazine’. This magazine comes out four times per year and is really quite  expensive (21 euros).  I buy it because I like to know what’s happening in the hat world (the new designers, the new trends…), it’s good to be upto date! Regular features include trade [...]

I’ve just tried out this great rubber stamp I bought off Etsy (the shop’s called ‘Love to Create Stamps’). I really like it, it’s got quite a girly, elegant look to it but also a nice handmade feel to it (compared to a cold printed ‘logo’). The stamp wasn’t that expensive, only 18 US$ (not [...]

When I went to Paris I had enough time to go see the Vionnet fashion exhibition at the ‘Arts Décoratifs’ museum. Madeleine Vionnet was a famous french fashion designer who worked in the 20′s-30′s (she closed her fashion house in 1939). She was the first person to really develope the use of the biais cut [...]