Figure 8 Out

Souped Up Figure 8 with a Little Bowl of Flowers

This is a Figure 8 clamp style Hat from the 30's/40's.  I bought this original years ago and it still had the paper 10 cent price tag on it from Woolworths.  Trust.  The tag disintegrated BOO!  Its a sweet little black number. I styled my leather flowers after the little vintage bouquet pinned to the side of the skull block.

 I started with a length of steel spring wire, felt tubing I made and a felt round I cut from left overs  from a hat.

I sewed the wire to the edge of the round with a wide zigzag stitch, it can also be sewn by hand. I overlapped the wire 1 1/2 inches.

Soft Metallic Leather

 I cut a 1 inch wide strip of leather instead of using the felt to bind and cover the edge of the round. The binding strip is started where the last of the zigzag stitches are and the wire is just a tail hanging alone. 

Sewing the Binding Strip

After the binding strip is sewn onto the round I threaded the felt tubing onto the wire tail and connected the felt tube ends together and I bent the tail wire with a pair of pliers at a right angle close as I could get to the zigzag stitching. Then I turned the binding and glued the edge of leather with some crazy glue called "Tiger __?__ Glue for Leather.  Its nice, it has no smell. I'll post the name later. 

I sewed the leather edges at the center back and added a small piece of the leather to cover the seam.  Looking back I should have used the felt.

I cut flower shapes from felt and the leather, added stamens,wire and brown floral tape and made a little bouquet to sit in the tiny soup bowl on the very top.

Top and Back .... Peace Out

BTW... 

Sunday, November 20, 2011

NBC "The Feast" Thanks to Hannah Snavely and Marco Villalobos

Anything and Everything Passes as Headwear at The Millinery Guild, Beverly's New Haberdashery

Los Angeles' newest haberdashery, The Millinery Guild, opened this fall on Beverly, bringing quirky hatter Susan "Montez" Murphy’s avante-garde, handcrafted creations to the Westside.
The light, bright and airy space stocks  Murphy's own vintage-inspired in-house line, Montez, which she crafts using wooden hat blocks circa the '30s and '40s, plus toppers by Cristina de Prada, Su WeHa, Bijou Van Ness and Carpe Diem.
And, while most folks come by the shop looking to replicate the adorned look of a certain sapphire-bedazzled newly-crowned princess, according to Murphy, anything goes when it comes to headwear, just as long as you're not headed to the movies.

Video by Marco Villalobos . 


  I'm Gobsmacked!