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.