Flamboyant fascinstor..

My Philip Treacy fascinator is all finished and I'm slightly in love with it! There's things which I could have done to improve the quality overall and I'm sure I will like my next fascinator even more but for now this is my best creation! I love the colours, I wanted it to all link together which I think it does. The picture of my first hat which I made on the postcard links in with the colour of the sinamay and the feathers. It's not really a wearable piece as the postcard can move back and forward so that you can see both sides of it, it's more of an example of my skills. 

                                                 

Until my next creation, 

Sophie.. 

Postcard

For the center piece of my fascinator I made a postcard, not just a normal postcard but one printed onto fabric.

Firstly I made a design on Word and printed it onto transfer paper, I had to reverse the text and pictures because once it's been transferred onto the fabric it will be the opposite way round. I used a picture of Philip Treacy and photo shopped a crown onto the picture so it would look like a stamp instead of the queens normal stamp. 

Then I used a heat press at 200 degrees to transfer the image onto plain fabric. 

Now it was time to get sewing! I sewed round the stamp in different stitches to get the effect on zig zags which you find on a normal stamp, if I was doing this again I would also sew a watermark onto the stamp but at the time I hadn't thought about that!

Then embroidered into some of the letters so the capitals stood out from the other text.  Finally I sewed the two sides together with blanket stitch to create a postcard! 

Sophie..

Next Creation..

Now that I've learnt the basics my next creation is a fascinator for Philip Treacy. He completely inspires my work so this fascinator is for him! 

For the base of this fascinator I trapped feathers inside the two layers of sinamay, just to give it a little twist which I think looks really good.

I cut out the shape I wanted then made bias binding and hand sewed that around the edge. 

After I'd made the sinamay swirls and a postcard (which I'll so a separate post about) I started playing around with the position of them. I had three different colors of sinamay so I had to balance the different colors together and see which ones worked well. I also added some feathers as that linked back to my first hat which was on the postcard. 

I prefer layering the sinamay on top of each other instead of having them side by side, I think it makes it more interesting to look at and gives a more exciting look. I also tired twisting the different color sinamays together which I really like! 

Once I was happy with the composition I sewed them all done, then sewed a comb to the bottom of the fascinator so it could be worn. I'm really happy with it overall, there are things I need to keep working on. Like the bottom of the fascinator isn't very neat, the comb I bought was quite thick so next time I would use a thinner one which would make it look a lot neater. But for my second facsinator I'm really happy with it and can't wait to create more! 

Sophie.. 

Lesson Three..

Lesson three was all about attaching. This is where the fascinator came together and actually became a fascinator! Firstly I attached bias binding around the edge of my base.. 

Then I played around with the swirls in different positions to see which worked best.. 

After I had a composition I was happy with I sewed them together using small stitches and layering them on top of each other. I also used some of the left over bias binding to create a swirl for the middle of the flower. 

And that's my first fascinator created! I can do a lot better than this but it's a good practice and it's amazing to think it was all created from scratch by hand. 

Sophie.. 

Lesson Two..

I used to be scared of hand sewing because I thought it was all so small and fiddly and there was no way I could do it.. I was wrong! Once you know how to do it properly it's actually pretty fun!

I started off by making some bias binding out of sinamay. This goes round the base of the fasinator which I cut out in my first lesson and makes the edge a lot cleaner. For this I cut a strip of sinamay on the bias and folded the sides into the middle.

Then folded the sides into each other so you have like a little envelope for your base to fit into.

Once you put the sinamay into the little envelope you hand sew it so it's secure. The stiching is quite hard to explain. Secure the thread first and then you go through the top couple of layers, then back and straight through to the other side, then repeat on that side  till your finished! So that's not the best explanation but it's easier to actually do it then say it! 

The next technique was making a seam out on the sinamay without sewing, just using the sinamay! Again it's quite hard to write a description, I cut oval shapes out of sinamay for my base. Then starting at the left side you take the sinamay in between your thumb and forefinger and roll it up and down pulling as you do. It's a really hard technique to get the hang off, the tighter you pull as your rolling the better the seam. Went round all the edge like this and then once the edges are done you can twist them into different shapes and swirls.  

 Practice definitely makes perfect with this technique! 

Sophie.. 

Lesson one..

I didn't really know how a fascinator became a fascinator or it had never occurred to me to think about how it was made. So my first lesson was an eye opener and it got me so excited at all the limitless possibilities that you can make! I love learning new processes, seeing all the different stages and watching something be created with your hands in front of your eyes.. magical!

My materials.. 

- sinamay in a range of colours

- Millinery Stiffener 

- Hat Block 

- Cling Film 

- Needle and Thread 

- Hat Pins

And that is literally all the materials you need to make a fasinator! 

I covered my hat block in cling film so that the sinamay wouldn't stick to the wood once it had stiffener on it. Then I cut out two squares of sinamay and placed them over each other on the bias to check they covered the hat block. Then I added some millinery stiffener to water and soaked the pieces in it. The stiffener is like a glue helping and does what the name suggests, stiffens the fabric once it's dried. 

I plaed them the pieces on the hat mold and pulled the sides down securing them with hat pins while it dried. 

Once it was dried I drew on it with chalk the size I wanted the base of the fasinator to be, then cut it out ready for the next stage! 

And that was my first lesson! 

Sophie.. 

Where it all started..

So I thought I would start the blog off by telling you where my love of hats all started! I’m currently studying Art and Design at West Cheshire College. In the first year we work through different units in different areas of art; fine art, fashion/textiles and 3D. When I started fashion and textiles I became obsessed! I spent all my time filling my sketchbook with sample after sample to the stage where the sketchbook started to come apart.. yep I fell in love with the subject utterly and completely.

Our brief was about skins and surfaces of animals and the different patterns they make. I looked at a wide range of animals but fell for flamingos. They are extraordinary birds, did you know a flock of flamingos is called a flamboyance? I know countless random facts about flamingos now but I won’t bore you with them! After choosing my animal that led me onto Alice in Wonderland as they use a flamingo in the croquet game. I looked at a lot of other things but Alice in Wonderland really inspired me.

Flamingos and Alice in Wondeland just fitted perfectly together for me. Alice in Wonderland is so flamboyant and over the top, the colours are so bright and imaginative. I wanted to portray this is my piece, I decided to make a hat inspired by the mad hatters hat and by flamingos. So obviously everything was pink on my hat! I used a lot of different techniques; weaving, fake fur, twisted chords and in the end created something that is exactly what I imagined in my head. Has that ever happened for you? You have a vision, a picture in your head of what you want something to look like and then once you’ve actually made it it’s exactly what you had envisaged and even more! It’s an amazing feeling!

That’s the story of my love of hats so far, but I’m now having lessons in creating fascinators/small hats. I’m using all hand sewing and making them out of sinema which is my new obsession! I’m going to document my lessons and my progress on here, hopefully you will see some amazing hats soon! In the meantime here’s some pictures off my flamingo hat! 

Sophie..