Achieving the Impossible is Hard

 It has become apparent that calling your business Crafty Cunts is a bit of a bad idea. It may well be the most catchy name in the history of the world  to my ears but the internet is not keen on it. I have to rethink and come up with something I like equally as much even though nothing sums the concept up like Crafty Cunts. Of course that also means I have to redesign all my labels etc.  Lesson  learned.

On a brighter note I had my second hat making lesson with Tiffany yesterday and learned how to form  a hat on a head block. Basically when you turn a flat square of fabric  into a curve like that of a balloon  there is a lot of fabric that folds and wrinkles and you have to get rid of all that excess without cutting or removing,  leaving behind a perfectly smooth rounded form.  Basically it’s impossible. Milliners however do not know  this and  do it every day  without a second thought.

We worked through the lining, wetting the fabric,   positioning it on the head block, pinning it to the head block  , pulling it over the head block , roping a lasso tightly around the head block , pulling, pinning , roping,  pulling and pinning,  pulling and pinning until we had that perfect form. The fabric was stretched across the bias and so was more amenable to being shaped in this way.

The middle section. We  wet the buckram, a sized fabric that acts as a stiff frame and as a glue that  holds the lining to the top fabric. Wetting the buckram makes the fabric limp, sticky and malleable. Then much more  positioning, pinning, pulling, roping, pinning, pulling, roping...noticing you have a pin in the wrong place underneath on the lining. Unroping, unpinning, re pinning, re pulling, re roping, pinning, pulling roping , pinning, pulling, pinning, pulling, pinning, pulling, roping.

Impossibility Achieved Three Times

Then after a little confusion, the top layer of vinyl (neither of us have ever used patent leather style  vinyl,) the layer everyone will actually see, yeah all that work before,  isn't even visible(unless it’s done wrong.) We wet it and you guessed it pulling, pinning roping,  discovered that vinyl has no stretch in it at all and so is unsuitable for the task. Unroping , unpinning and  switching to a more flexible fabric where once again we pinned, pulled and roped over and over again until we got the smooth and wrinkle free shape we needed where we needed.

The head was then left to dry over night and is awaiting my return to fight me again soon.

It is very hard work, I will never look at a handmade hat in the same way, now I know how much physical effort goes into the hand shaping. The milliner is after all  doing the impossible and the impossible isn't easy.

This Weeks Addition
Pattern Paper
5 yards Patent Leather look vinyl
5 yards Heavy Weight Buckram
Fusable Interface

Next Weeks List 
French curve number 17
Millinery needles & thread
Notions 
5 yards crown weight buckram

Wish List
Wooden Head Block size 23  & wooden Fedora Brim size 23
Sadly these are essential items for any hat that isnt flat pack  and  they are in excess of $100-00 each so I will be waiting a while for this and watching ebay and etsy  like a hawk. Happily  for me, aside from brim work  my hats will in the main be flat pack for some time and I have a canvas head that is perfectly suited to  the task.

One last thing, this week I also cut the riding hat patterns, 5 sizes in 3 heights. I think I am 2 to 3 weeks away from starting work on them and am very excited. 

Hat Hat Baby

Learning a new discipline can be daunting.  I announced to the world  I was going to make a hat  and due to  Athens GA being such a wonderful town full of wonderful and talented people had an offer of assistance in ten minutes flat and from our best hat designer and maker  at that!.  

Today local milliner and costume designer  Tiffany  Robison  Poucher  gave me a lesson in how to create and adjust hat patterns.  Her years of training, experience and practiced hand make her an excellent teacher and I am feeling very confident  about next months project , a series of Victorian style riding hats.

The paper pattern I made  went seriously off the rails while I learned simple easy shaping methods  and looks kind of silly yet awesome. For a while there we were looking at Nefertiti then when the hugely over sized  (yeah we were so excited we forgot to trim it first ) brim was involved it became all about the ' church lady '  After my next lesson on fabrication  I intend to make it up into my first hat , as is , just for a  giggle,  to be able to look back fondly on my first real hat.

The kind of training I had today was worth its weight in gold and it would have taken me several hats and Im sure several days if not weeks before I eventually worked out what was going on and why. Somethings you can only learn by being shown and doing and I thank Tiffany for taking time out of her busy schedule to come by , show me the ropes and share with me her inspiring  passion for hats.

Whatever is left out of my wages at the end is available and spent on tools, decorations etc for Crafty Cunts

This Fortnights Collection 
Leather/heavy weight/mixed sized , machine needles
10 bobbins
Cutting mat
Rotary cutter
Clear marking out ruler with 1/2inch  seam allowance
Cotton/bobbin/heavyweight thread in black and white
Just a little yard here yard there of fabric I like the look of for cool messenger  bags (at some point) 


Next Up List 

French Curve number 17
Lots of large sized paper
Scotch tape
Fuseable Interface
Buckram
Patent leather look vinyl




Wish List 
Ruffler foot   I spotted this one on Amazon for $10-70 a great price.  I hope it works for my low shank machine, time will tell, Its ordered and I am now officially , almost broke.