Hats By Katrinka

Recycled Jeans Hat

 
This hat has been on my mind for quite awhile. I’ve made several "jeans" hats in the past but have never been really satisfied with the way they look. A big part of the problem is that the denim available in fabric stores just doesn’t have that "worn in" look that your favorite jeans have.

 
Then one day I had a brainstorm. I dropped some things off at the Goodwill Store and went in to do a little shopping on their jeans rack. I found an XXL size pair of jeans for $6.00 which I promptly cut up to use for another trilby. The problem is that the crown sideband of a hat is cut on the bias so I needed a relatively large stretch of fabric to get this. The XXL did the trick. Also, I wanted to incorporate workable jeans parts into the design.
So here’s what I ended up with.

My pictures don’t really do the hat justice but this one will be fun to wear. What do you think?

K Q;-)

Millinery Indulgence

I taught millinery at Houston Community College for ten years and had many wonderful students, some of whom took my classes repeatedly. One of these was Sylvia who once or twice showed us hats she’d purchased while visiting family in Virginia. These were my introduction to the milliner known as Ignatius.

 Saturday I took the Metro into town with a friend to the Smithsonian Crafts Show. In years past I’ve seen as many as five hat booths at this show. This year there was only one - that of Ignatius Creegan and his partner, Rod Givens. This time I was lucky enough to meet Ignatius and visit with him for awhile.
As always, the booth was buzzing with wannabe hat wearers trying on his fanciful hats. Most, however, couldn’t muster the courage to indulge.

This woman did buy - but not this style.

Ignatius and his partner specialize in beautiful stitched straw braid hats. It’s the one form of millinery that I do not practice. Braid stitching machines are hard to come by and tricky to keep in working order. When I was in millinery school at FIT I don’t recall the machines ever working and I took courses over several years. Ignatius appears to have mastered the finicky machines. He told me he owns about a dozen, only three of which are working at any given time. (He must be a gifted mechanic as well as brilliant hat designer.)

 I fell in love with this straw topper which fits me perfectly (always a surprise with my large head) How could I resist? It’s now mine and I will be straying from my usual rule of wearing only my own creations as it’s a classic. Best of all I was invited to visit Ignatius’ Studio next time I’m traveling south in Virginia. I will for I would love to see how he puts these beauties together.

K Q:-)

Hattitude

Looks like Houston socialites have finally begun catching on with what the Houston Hat Net and Dallas Hat Band ladies have known for a very long time. Hats are fun and fabulous! Have a look at the Houston Chronicle slide show that Marie shares with us...

http://www.chron.com/life/photogallery/The_might_hat.html

(Tho' I must say some of these ladies need some "how to" help in terms of wearing their hats.) Thanks to Marie for keeping us up to date!

The Dallas Hat Band gals have been having glamourous fun with hats all along and they know how it's done. See their latest escapades here...

http://dallashatband.blogspot.com/

Many of you will recall that they were the inspiration for Houston Hat Net years ago and we had a number of wonderful combined hat events.

I am no longer in Houston but am doing my bit here in Arlington, Virginia and will teach my new Beryl Trilby in a class for the County on September 27. Will see if we can cause a stir in this conservative Washington area. Perhaps it's time for me to start a Washington area group. What should we name it? Any ideas? There is HOPE for my hometown yet.

K Q;-)

Seeing Red (for my sewing pals)

Elizabeth, from my Paris trip, asked if I’d started sewing up the fabrics I purchased there. Faced with packing and moving, not to mention Christmas, my answer is an emphatic YES!

After much debate over whether to make a jacket or a skirt I made the decision and cut into this beautiful Lacroix wool tweed. It has just a bit of brown thread in it so I thought it would go well with this Ralph Lauren jacket I bought last year. Being fabric frugal, I figured by making a pencil skirt I’d have enough left to make a hat. This toque was also intended to brighten up my black coat. (I made the tassel by unraveling some of the wool.) However, I’m thinking this style is not my best. Let’s face it I look better in a brim. Fortunately, I think I might have just enough left of this to whip up my Beryl Trilby in it or, if not, a beret.

Here is another remnant of Lacroix Haute Couture silk. There was only about a meter of this and so it was very reasonably priced and I knew what I wanted to make as soon as I saw it. This is my Marie pattern (the reverse Souwester) and the hatpin will probably have to remain here permanently. The silk is very, very delicate. Many of the threads lay on top and even a rough cuticle pulls them out. It’s definitely dramatic - almost piratical (perhaps if I ever make it to Ascot). My Sweetie will likely hate it but then when he found me I was working in the theater. What does he expect?

Next I took a break from the Paris fabrics and headed to Zürich to a bigger fabric store. We have a wedding to attend in Washington on December 22. It’s at 3 in the afternoon with a formal reception at 6:30. So what do I wear? I have my Inga hat I’ve been holding for the right occasion and I think a winter wedding is it. The hat will go nicely with my black coat. So my dress color options were red, green, black or gold. I don’t like wearing black to weddings so that was out. It being Christmas, I opted for this red Dupioni silk - not a bright red but with a black thread in the weave. I hope that this is suitable and that I’m not breaking *The Rules* wearing red to a wedding. Well, it IS Christmas...

I found this lace at Bischoff Textil last week and added it to the lining to peek out under the hem. I’ll wear black sheer stockings and dressy black shoes (not purchased yet) and will probably check the hat with my coat at the reception. After all, we’ll be dancing.

So that’s enough red for one week. I’ve made up the Lacroix brown fancy weave wool into a shrug but don’t have a picture yet. Next will be the two gold Chanel Haute Couture pieces and the black and white tweed.

K Q:-)

Swiss Chocolate Hat

This is my latest Beryl Trilby just finished yesterday. I must say that I am pleased with this one. It turned out just as I had envisioned it. No, that does not always happen.

This trilby is made from brushed cotton twill and trimmed tone-on-tone with some of the lovely chocolate colored lace my friend Starr snagged for me at the Spring Forster-Rohner lace sale. I had to trim out the straight edged lace to make it work on the angled crown. I also varied this one by eliminating the outside brim seam allowance, wiring the edge and covering it with a self-bias binding. This gives the brim a more defined shape which I like.

When I modeled this hat for my husband he said he really likes it. It’s more subtle than my usual work but I am experimenting with a more sophisticated look these days. I am also experimenting with ways to use lace in a casual context since I have few opportunities to waltz about in a ball gown and haven’t made it to Ascot yet.

This Beryl Trilby is worn with my new Zara jacket purchased in Barcelona and earrings by my dear friend Nina Bagley.

K Q:-)

Cartoon Hat?

This one began as a quickie project. I wanted a brimmed summer hat that would jazz up my black and/or white traveling wardrobe as well as denim and perhaps other colors. When I spotted this poppy print while shopping with my sister-in-law in Annapolis I thought it was fun and fulfilled the need. Quickly I whipped up the hat from my Terri pattern but I just wasn’t happy with it. Because it is made of light cotton it looked flimsy and cheap. Day after day it hung on my bedroom wall. Day after day I decided NOT to wear it.

Finally, one morning while staring at the hat on my wall I knew what I had to do. I ripped it apart. The fabric was too lightweight to keep the brim from buckling so quilting it would add stiffness and heft. I layered each (already interfaced) piece onto a heavier muslin, wound bobbins in red, black and blue, lowered the feed dogs, installed the darning foot and a fresh needle on my Nähmaschine and got to work. It took me three days off and on to freeform stitch around and in each of the flowers in the print (as I do on collage hats) but I knew that all that stitching with the extra layer would stiffen the pieces. I cussed at my newish Bernette 90e as the darning foot bounced up and down blurring my already less than perfect vision. Precision I was not going to get with this equipment. My old Singer Slant-0-Matic did a much better job. (Note: next sewing machine purchase will involve a lot of test driving - including dismantling and cleaning machine parts to check for ease of use and ergonomics.)

All this stitching gave me time to think tho’ and I resolved a brim issue that had bugged me on previous freeform stitched hats. Each brim piece must be quilted separately according to their motifs and then stitched together after the quilting is finished. Simple solution. Don’t know why it took several hats for me to "get it." In the end, my hands, forearms and elbows ached but I was happy with my hat. I tried it on to show my husband and my Sweetie grimaced. "Why don’t you like it?" I asked him. "Cartoon hat," he said. I’m sure it’s the print. (This from a guy who wears Hawaiian shirts in Switzerland?)

Still, I like it and plan to wear it next summer with white or my new red linen dress, denim or black which always needs jazzing up near my pale face. What do you think? Cartoon hat or fun summer chapeau? Would you wear it?

K Q:-)

Madhatter is Ready!

You may have seen this picture on my (at long last updated) website but now the pattern is finally ready for printing. I will be shipping a supply to Judith M next week along with more Daphnes, Jills, etc. So, if you’ve been wanting to try out a new shape give it a try. Madhatter is a bit dramatic but most flattering.

In fact, this is the hat a Roman lady chased me out of a restaurant and tried to buy off my head in Venice last year. It was a couple of inches too big for her or she would have succeeded. The pattern comes in small, medium and large, of course, and the brim and crown are scaled to size. It could be a Madhatter Spring for you!

K Q:-)

Top it Off

I stopped over at Starr’s yesterday to pick up a bit more gold lace for trim and showed her my unfinished surprise. She was delighted! We pulled this ostrich feather out of her stash for a last bit of drama. (The purples match better than in my photo.) Also, the feather seems a bit large for the scale of the hat until we put it on her tall white 18^th century wig. Then it works. I also made large white hairpins out of millinery wire to work through the gold lace on underside of the hat and into the wig. Starr will look for a Murano glass hat pin when she gets to Venice.

Next week when we finish the hand stitching on the gown and before I take off for the USA will try to get a picture of the whole ensemble. I feel certain they will return from Venice with a few photos to post as well.

Now back to my Madhatter pattern. I must finish that up before next week too!

K Q:-)

More on Marie's Chapeaux

Just received my latest issue of The Hat Magazine www.thehatmagazine.com featuring Paris. Oh la la la la! What an eyeful it is. Now I have a list of all the places I need to see when I finally get there.

Page 34 features an interview with Laetitia Mirault, Head Milliner for the Marie Antoinette film. (Sony has pulled the website with all the wonderful pictures - it was there just yesterday - but the dvd is available on amazon.com.) It turns out that I grossly understated the number of hats in the film. Mirault and her very small team (2-5 milliners) designed and made 500 hats and headdresses and finished over 2,000 more imported from Italy for the film. Her description of the 24/7 production schedule - with one hat ordered only hours before the shoot - reminds me of the less than romantic side of theatrical millinery. It's strictly a task for the young! What delicious work they did though. So far as I am concerned the hats looked even more scrumptious than all those cakes.

K Q:-)

Filzhüte

Over the years I have taken several felting classes including workshops with Polly Stirling and Ewa Kuniczak but I’d not really pursued it while living in Houston. It’s just too hot there to wear felt hats most of the time. Here in Switzerland I am seeing see hand felted items in store windows, usually flower pins, necklaces, even some rings, elfen dolls and beautiful scarves. Occasionally, I’ll also see a hand felted hat on someone’s head. After a couple of recent chapeau sightings I decided to get out my bag of wool roving and get back to work. Thanks, Marilyn!!

The day before my birthday I spotted this sweater on sale and bought it. Of course, I needed a hat to go with so here is what I came up with. This is my first attempt in many years so it took a couple of tries to get the felt right. I hope to improve.

Here is attempt No. 2. Since the first hat had thin spots (I had to go back and work more felt in), I was more generous with the roving on this one and it’s a bit too thick. I like the texture tho’and it holds it’s shape nicely without sizing.. It will be a very warm hat! Well, too thin then too thick, perhaps the next one will be just right. Think I’ll move on to another shape too. So stay tuned!

K Q:-)

P.S. I have an article on Valentine cocktail hats in the Jan/Feb 2007 issue of Belle Armoire with instructions on how to make them.