Ench By Sew-030: Hats Off to Downtown Abbey!

This show is created, produced and brought to you by Laurel Shimer.

Hats I made recently in Wayne Wichern's Hat Blocking Class

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About the Show

The Enchanted by Sewing Podcast is, an extension of my regular sewing blog - Me Encanta Coser,  (http://www.meencantacoser.blogspot.com) which,  roughly translated means, Enchanted By Sewing

My blog is written in English. The name celebrates the historical and modern use of the beautiful Spanish Language in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, where I live.

This Month's Show - Hats Off to Downton Abbey!

In this month's Enchanted by Sewing show, I talk about the role of Downton Abbey played in inspiring  the hats I've been making. I also share what I've learned about how to make hats. 

Track 1) Pensamientos Primeros – Making Hats -  Inspired by Downton Abbey, and enabled by local milliner Wayne Wichern

Track 2) Technicos A summary of the Techniques I learned something about while making Hats with Wayne Wichern

Track 3) Pensamientos Finales – Pretty as a Picture Hat - Grandmother Lily’s Wedding  - The story of my Grandmother's wedding hat reminds me that it wasn't only wealthy women who enjoyed wearing beautiful hats. Women of every economic bracket have always enjoyed the magic of the perfect hat.

Downton Abbey Themes- Books and Videos
            


Show Track 1) Pensamientos Primeros – Making Hats -  Inspired by Downton Abbey - Enabled by local milliner, Wayne Wichern ( http://www.waynewichernmillinery.com) 

Why do I love to watch Downton Abbey over and over ?
1) The Romantic setting
2) The fantastic British trained actors
3) The Fashions - my favorite part of Downton Abbey.
The best part of the those fashions? -  Hats! 

So far I see I've linked to over 200
caps, hats and other millinery fashions
on Hats and Other Millinary in Pinterest

I've saved links for many of my favorite hats on my Pinterest board "Hats and Other Millinary". These pictures were great to take to Wayne's class, to give him an idea of what I wanted to  create.

Hey - Am I was the only sewist here who’s excited to find that the newest Cinderella, Lily James, is Downton Abbey’s Rose, and step sister Drusilla is Mrs. Paddmore’s side kick

dear little Daisy? According to the UK’s “Telegraph”, Daisy, aka Sohie McShera, does love the chance to reverse her Upstairs/Downstairs role with Lily, just as much as I’d imagined.

Planning, sewing, and talking about hats lead me to reflect on history associated with women in times past.

Going Beyond Downton Abbey - Flappers Author Judith Mackrell explores life beyond costume dramas, when it comes to celebrity idols of the Flapper era -  British aristocrats Lady Diana Manners and Nancy Cunard, Russian artist Tamara de Lempicka, and three Americans; African American dancer /actress Josephine Baker, Femme fatal, Literati – and Wife of F.Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitzgerald, and Southern Belle turned actress, Tullulah Bankhead. These ladies climbed the ladder from lower or traditionally established life styles, to serve as new role models for women from Daisy to Lady Edith. When it came to these ladies' fears, challenges and dreams, Mackrell gets down to the nitty gritty. She lets everything hang out from the seamy side to the highlights of their lives. 

This Black Straw Cloche is one of three hats I made in Wayne's class 

Show Track 2) Technicos A summary of the techniques I learned something about while making Hats with Wayne Wichern

 

The Gibson Girl Personified the In-Look
for up-to-date professional women like
Grandmother Lily

Show Track 3) Pensamientos Finales – Pretty as a Picture Hat - Grandmother Lily’s Wedding  

In Grandmother Lily's time, picture hats were made popular by the "Gibson Girls" drawn by Charles Dana Gibson. These ladies personified the New Woman feminist movement with which my grandmother and great aunts identified.

Duchess Georgina's
marriage problems, should have
 been
a hint to her descendent
Princess Diana

Ladies have been wearing Picture Hats for several hundreds of years. Early versions were inspired by the Gainsborough Hats worn by Georgiana Spencer Cavendish, the Duchess of Devonshire, ancestress of Princess Diana.

Black Cloche Straw - My New Everyday Downton Abbey Hat

Inspiration for my new black straw cloche
came from several of  the Downton Abbey hats I've pinned on my
Hats and Other Millinery board

This is one of three hats I made in a fantastic 3-day hat blocking workshop in Wayne Wichern's Burlingame studio. earlier in the month. I've got a tiny bit more sewing to finish off the trim on one other, and will be posting about that, and the other I made, soon in this blog (when I score some cute photos - which is always such a challenge!)

When I pin different hats on my " Hats and Other Millinery" board on Pinterest, I often notice people saying that they wished they had reasons to wear hats, or that hats looked right with the clothes they actually wear as modern folks. I like making hats that actually do fit in with my life style. This black straw cloche has already gone on a number of walks with me and I loved wearing it. Yup, I still put on my SPF 50 sunscreen too!

This cloche, and one of the other hats I made at Wayne's, are definitely inspired by ones I saw on Downton Abbey. I brought photos from my pinterest board into class with me and Wayne helped me pick out hat blocks from his collection of nearly 1,000 vintage hat forms, to find similarly styled blocks. For my third hat I chose a combination of two blocks to create a classic fedora. All three hats are absolutely practical for my modern day life, and will be heading out on many walks with me, just like the ones that Sybil, Mary and Edith wore daily at Downton Abbey.

This is the second class I've taken with Wayne. I blogged about the first one which I took at Cañada College last year, in my post, Matters Millinery. Am I planning more visits with Wayne? Oh yes! He has open labs for folks who've taken these three day labs, and I already have hopes of making a 30's inspired visor in a colorful wool.

Wayne Wichern''s studio is in Burlingame is in the San Francisco Bay Area - on the Penninsula near the San Francisco Airport. Classes like Wayne's aren't a typical activity in most areas. If I lived outside the area, I'd consider setting aside funds to take a mini vacation for one of these workshops. He usually teaches them once a month. You can email him to discuss integrating one of his classes into your schedule. And let me know if you're coming!

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Web Resources

Matters Millinery http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2013/09/matters-millinery-making-my-own-hats.html

My "Hats and Other Millinery" board on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/lrshimer/hats-and-other-millinary/

Wayne's Workshop Schedule - Burlingame CA (San Mateo County, San Francisco Bay Area) http://www.waynewichernmillinery.com

Downton Abbey Cloche Hat Works Today - Starting to Make My Own (Hats, Millinery)

Do you remember when Lady Sybil wore this cloche? It was in the episode when Branson drove
her to a political meeting she wasn't supposed to attend. So it wasn't a super dressy occasion.
I want to create a head fitting pattern out of multiple pie-shaped wedges like this. 
I'd also like it to have a nice rolled brim
that displays some kind of lovely lining.
I'm thinking about trying for something like this in lightweight denim.
Sybil's hat appears to have some kind of ribbon around the crown as well.

I'm enchanted by the cloche hats on Downton Abbey. A lot of them would be very wearable for modern times, especially for folks like me who live in a mild-winter California climate and walk a lot. We need to protect our skin (in addition to our SPF 50!) and keep the sunlight out of our eyes. So far I've mostly created fabric caps for this purpose. I like those, but I'd also like something with a brim that goes around the entire hat, not just a bill in the front. 

I use an inexpensive foam wig stand for
storing this straw hat I produced from the first millinery class I took (Wayne* blocked the straws for us, we trimmed them).
See the tissue sticking out underneath?
I need that because my head is 2 inches bigger than
the crown of the stand. My hat is 3 inches bigger than the
stand (for comfort)
It's important to store hats on something that holds the material of the hat in place,
because otherwise eventually, they will collapse.

The wig stand is only 21" around the crown
The crown of my head is 23" - and that's a very tight fit
When I make a hat, it's 24 or 24 1/2 inches, for a comfortable fit.

I want to create a pattern for a cloche hat.
This one measures about 24" around, after I strapped a number of layers of duct tape tightly over my head.
My cloche will have some kind of a brim to keep the sun out of my eyes,
but the first thing is to get a well-fitted shape around my skull
I made this one out of duct tape and a nylon stocking (the knee high kind)
The stocking (more or less!) kept the duct tape from sticking to my hair
I got my ideas for this form from this post on Crafster

After I peeled the duct tape form off my head (pulling out a few stray hairs along the way!) and trimmed the knee high stocking, the rest of the stocking started to peel away, so I applied leftover (tee shirt) cotton knit scraps on the inside. Then I reinforced the edge all the way around with more duct tape. It was actually helpful, making the head/hat block more stable.

The cloche form needs to be stuffed with something to fit well on the foam head block
I could use leftover cotton knit scraps
 (I left the scraps sticking out in this photo just to make the point)

Or I could stuff it with tissue scraps
 (again, I'd actually stuff the tissue all up inside)

At this point, I can start creating a pattern that fits my head, with or without a brim.

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Web Resources

My tapestry cap inspired an Enchanted by Sewing show. In August of 2014 I recorded an entire audio podcast about sewing fabric caps, including technique and pattern talk http://www.enchantedbysewing.blogspot.com/2014/08/ench-by-sew-023-capping-off-summer.html

*In this posting I talked about my experiences in Wayne Wichern's millinery class. We focused most of our time on a fabric-covered buckram hat. http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2013/09/matters-millinery-making-my-own-hats.html,  Early this year, I'll be taking a three full day hat making workshop from Wayne in his studio in Burlingame. I expect to block my own straw and felt hats there. 

My first fabric cap in 2013, was a lovely subtle denim print. I've just about worn this out! http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2012/06/caps-off-chewing-bun-with-tuppence.html

Alvan's Crafster post about making a duct tape cloche hat form helped me with my form. Thanks! http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=gjkdubsculiivgd9tu5t1g50k3&topic=361109.0

Floracraft makes an Inexpensive form for base of a head block - a foam wig stand http://www.michaels.com/floracraft-wig-head/10315631.html

Matters Millinery - Making My Own Hats

I created this fabric covered buckram hat
from black silk dupioni in Wayne Wichern's class.
The pink silk band and bow makes  a nice looking trim,
but so far I've only worn it plain.

Have you ever read the fascinating book The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould? The author presents stories about the historical study of phrenology (the Victorian idea of a noble brow is a typical example of phrenology). One aspect of phrenology was that researchers tried to prove that head size was linked to mental superiority.

It didn't pan out.

I'd love to think that my larger than normal head means I have an extra measure of brains. But according to Gould, that's not the case. About the only thing my 24.5 inch head size does for me is make it impossible to find a woman's hat that fits. Gals are supposed to have 22.5 inch head circumferences. Hence the Minnie Mouse look whenever I try on a cute hat. Over the counter hats perch up on top of my curls, making me a perfect cartoon model.

But of course, being a sewist, I can make my own hats and leave Minnie's at Disneyland.

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You may have read a posting I wrote last fall called "Chewing a Bun with Tuppence" (http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2012/06/caps-off-chewing-bun-with-tuppence.html )  about the first fabric cap I made. I also wrote about another cap I made, using the same pattern a month or so later. I wear one or the other of these caps every single day. They protect my skin better than a regular baseball cap and are a lot cuter too! 

But I wanted to know how to make more than caps. I wanted to be able to make a structured hat.

I like my black silk duping hat plain

I took Wayne Wichern's Millinery class at Cañada College last spring. It was a lovely three-session, weekend class, perfect for full-time workers who want to squeeze in some creative time with recreational and artistic sewing. We had a lot of fun chatting while we stitched away - the majority of this kind of sewing is by hand. By the way, Wayne is not only a fun person, he's also a great teacher.


Most of our time in class was devoted to making fabric-covered buckram hats. I made a simple style in black silk dupioni. I played around with trims for this hat, but mostly I like it plain. It will be easy enough to add trims anytime in the future. I bought the fabric at Thai Silks in Los Altos. If you stop by their shop, ask about special discounts for fashion students and Cañada fashion students. It's a really nice store. They've been there a long time and have a good reputation in the area. They sell online too.

We also learned about the process of making straw hats. We didn't have the resources and room to block our own, but we gave Wayne our measurements, choose colors and styles and he blocked them for us.  We did the really hard part - we trimmed them with ribbons, lace and anything else we could come up with :-) So now I have a straw hat that fits, in addition to my black silk hat!

In addition we made fascinators or cocktail hats. I gave mine to Holly the Dolly to use as a regular doll's hat. I'll put up a picture of that in a future posting.

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We loved showing off our creations at the reunion
in Wayne Wichern's Burlingame studio

In late summer Wayne invited us to his Burlingame studio for a follow-up party where we showed off our creations. Wayne teaches a variety of workshops in his studio. If you live in the area, or might come for a visit, I can promise you'll have a wonderful time in this sociable setting. Warning! These popular workshops fill quickly.

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Whenever I see an appealing hat, cocktail hat or fascinator on the web, I pin it to http://www.pinterest.com/lrshimer/hats-and-other-millinary/

Wayne Wichern Millinery http://www.waynewichernmillinery.com

Wayne's Workshop Schedule - Burlingame CA (San Mateo County, San Francisco Bay Area)
http://www.waynewichernmillinery.com/MillineryWorkshops2012.htm

Thai Silks
252 State Street, Lost Altos, CA
http://www.thaisilks.com