Pac Man or Nam Cap

This cap is super cute on it's own, I just have to pile stuff on top I can't leave anything alone. It has a really nifty double brim I just love that type brim, it looks so finished before it's finished.

I started out thinking I would do that vine thing again but I got all caught up making pods that look like Ms Pacman.. I sewed 4 leaf shapes together to make one pod. I added some old stamens wrapped black wire with thin strips of the felt and wrapped the three together. I wanted it to stand on it's own but it got too heavy and bounced all over the hat. Very distracting.

I tried the trim a couple of ways one using gravity and ended with it looped together on one side.

Pheasant Tail Feather Experiment

This is how I started out my day, with a hammer. Just a typical day, I wasn't intending to smash feathers but that's what happens when I'm left alone with a hammer.
I pounded along the spine of a Pheasant Tail feather thinking maybe, just maybe it would make the spine pliable enough to bend easily after steaming. NO, the spine split perfectly down the middle. Hey, I can dig it. I've tried to cut a feather in half with an exacto knife. It was the perfect recipe for disaster, for the feather and my person. In my world those knives aren't so "exact-o.
I cut into the flues just above the black marks on each side of the feather to give it that step look. So far OK.

I then steamed it in a bamboo steamer on top of the stove, my usual, and while that was happening I covered my ironing board with a piece of clean muslin, not my usual, then pulled the feather out of the steam pinned it into curls and steam ironed the heck out of it. I pressed down with pressure and lifted and moved to the next spot shooting steam onto it. I smelled a plastic burn and realized I was melting the supposed glass top straight pins I bought a gajillion years ago. Note to self "Do the burn test on everything first and cover the world with muslin for protection.
After all that pressing back and front the result? Just O.K. The inside of the spine is white so I used a permanent marker in black to cover that up. I added another feather with more or less the same treatment to make it look fuller. I'll look at it for a bit and decide what to do next. Maybe somebody can come up with a better way to curl? I have a palette knife I use for curling. These curls I wanted to go in the opposite direction than if I used the knife.
The End or is it? BTW I just watched an amazing film "Stairway to Heaven" Director Michael Powell. He did The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus. Beautiful..

Hounds Tooth Hula Hopper Beret ..Hey

Another Beret ..Hey.


I think it's from the 40's but I could be wrong.


I bought the feather Butterflies from Micheals Craft Store. They look like the ones Philip Treacy used a while ago. I doubt they are the same these are very reasonable in price.

I was going to try the vintage glass cherries I've been hoarding somewhere on it but I think I stacked it up with enough stuff "don't ya think?" Uhm K? So I'll save the yummy little bits for another hat..

Asymetrical Half Hat

This is a sweet little block. I bought it from eBay a few weeks ago. I wasn't going to buy anymore blocks, you know where I'm going with this. But, I just couldn't stop myself from buying it.
The Pheasant Tail Feathers I cut and shaped then wrapped with a thin strip of the felt. I wasn't sure if I liked the way it looked on the hat, so I tried a small curled Ostrich Feather in light gray. If I come up with another feather from the box that was just delivered from eBay I'll post it later. BTW eBay is a really good source for vintage feathers..

40's Surreal-ish

This block is really insane and I made it more so by blocking it in one of "those" wool felts. It's the one that I worked for days on.. Needless to say it was hard. It reminds me of a barnacle. If I block it again, I'll do it in a straw or in a velour that I'll drape with satin into a Turban. The veiling was a flesh tone, I dyed it black and in the process I tore 3 holes in it. I don't like to dye veiling.
I call it surreal, it is isn't it? Or it isn't is it?

Just Hat

I've been working on another difficult block for 4 days, it's been driving me mad. I decided to take a break from it yesterday and I blocked this Cloche. I just needed to finish something.
I tried to use every last bit of the capeline, and I almost did. There are the few pieces left in front of the mannequin. The last photo is what the leaves look like before they're sewn and the strip is what the vine was cut from.

Josephine and Louise and Michelle and Montez

I made these when I was into covering everything in felt and making long ropes. I met a neat gal, Michelle Shelton when we were in the last throes of life in Ann Arbor. She had these fantastic Braids, it was a new thing back then and I wanted them too. My hair just wouldn't do it so I made mine out of felt. The other was just a project in Portland Oregon, I covered a copper pipe, left over from ice machine hookup for our Fridge and handmade felt balls. Here's a close up of my first Label.. it's kinda sorry looking.

I updated some photos for "Quills and Spills"