A Bit of Hat Making

Last week, I took a millinery (hat making) class at Stitch Lab in downtown Austin. I had been on the wait list for ages, and when I arrived at the class and the instructor introduced herself, I understood why. Our instructor, Laura Del Villaggio is one of only a small handful of millinery instructors left in the United States! How lucky I am to have her in my hometown! And how sad that this is a dying art.

The class I took was for making Retro Fascinators, specifically a classic garrison cap. Laura provided us with the bases, out of a paribuntal straw (a close-weave, traditional straw), and walked us through some of the basics about how a base like that would be formed.

The bulk of our class focused on decorating the bases. We talked through techniques for using feathers, ribbon, and veiling. Did you know you can do anything to a feather you can do to human hair? Want your feathers curled? Just use a curling iron! It was fascinating. We also used a lot of steam to manipulate the materials we were working with.

My creation.

I ended up taking ostrich feathers and cutting them in half to get this fan effect. Then I stitched those down to the brim of the hat. The teal feathers are called goose biot, and I used steam and a pair of scissors to get them to a curl slightly. They're sewn together and then stitched down to the hat. That makes it seem like it all just came to me fully formed, but I ended up spending about three hours just playing with materials and pinning different ideas down. 

Ta da! Perched atop my recently cut flapper bob. With some friends from Oddfellow Orphanage behind me.

I had a wonderful time, and hope to attend classes at Stitch Lab again soon. Laura's next class will be on creating felt cloches. Maybe I'll be able to make it on the list!