Behind the scenes again!

[labricoleuse]

Last night was photo call, and the show opens Saturday here at work. We're generally busy so i've not got much time for a long post on it yet (i'll make one when i have the photo CD in-hand). I did go around and take some "behind the scenes" photographs of some of the period-pattern half-form projects and some hats in-progress to share. According to the cliche, this is at least as good as me writing several thousand words... :)




Half-form projects in Period Pattern


Another view of same


Here's a hat i began making this summer--feathers and fabric are vintage, hatbody is new.


Finished hat i illustrated blocking in a previous post


Back view of hat with snood-like veil


Spiral braid hat with potential decor pinned on


Rear view of same hat


Detail of straw feather manufacture technique


Front of theatre--check out my parasols on the banners!

Comments

[madamekat.livejournal.com]

I so live for those half form projects! Too cool!

Your hats are amazing, of course! Feel free to send them to me when you are done!

Yay, your parasols are on the theatre banners!! See? Everyone loves a parasol!

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Love, love, love that straw hat with the blue band and straw feather! Did you spiral that onto a block? It's such a complex shape, I'm curious as to the how.

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

That hat was originally an untrimmed blocked blank hat that i bought at a NY Garment District supplier of assembly milliners (folks who buy blanks and trim them up for retailing them, but don't block the blanks themselves).

It was initially a much more extreme scale, the crown was about 2" taller and a brim that was about 1.5" wider. (Think "church hat" in the most ostentatious sense of the phrase!) I took the crown off the brim, unspiraled the straw off the base of it and off the perimeter of the brim, til it was the current shape. I reattached the crown and brim, put in a grosgrain, and voila, now the new shape you see.

It was a demonstration of how you can salvage parts of a spiral-construction hat as-needed. When my students finish their projects next week, i'll post pictures of their results; a couple of them did stitched spiral hats from scavenged straw where they retained part of a previous hat shape's crown.

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

So the original crown was fairly consistent in size?
This is great--I'd have never thought to do that. *plots trip to thrift store*

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was basically this hat to begin with:

Click on "COUTURE" then check out style #1030 (http://www.rosebudny.com/index2.html) (they have their images protected or i'd direct-link to it), and that's the base hat before i reduced the crown height and brim width. Or, if you imagine it without all the blingy frippery, at least.

I've got another one in a different style that i'm planning to do a step-by-step with later, when things aren't so busy. It's a cool trick--the base hats can be had for fairly inexpensively, and can turn into such totally different things!

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Wow--kudos to you for seeing what was possible.

[kavavita.livejournal.com]

wow those are gorgeous hats...

[unicornemporium.livejournal.com]

I love the half-form projects too! I really like the guy's outfit on this one. I made a dress years ago, very similar to the light colored one with the white fur (It was actually my wedding dress), but I used rabbit fur (I know, shame on me ;) )

[anabeig.livejournal.com]

The banners with the parisols are lovely!

I adore the straw braid hat (everything else is quite nice, but I adore that).

I must remember to go back to your posts on parisols - my sister wants to have a Second Line at her wedding next autumn (she lives in NOLA).

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Are y'all going to do custom covers on the Second Line parasols for your sister's wedding? Or trim them out matching, etc?

I have a fair number of good posts on parasols, all tagged:

http://labricoleuse.livejournal.com/tag/parasols

...as well as having literally written the book on parasol canopy construction:

http://www.lulu.com/content/1745945

(Not to blow my own horn or be all salesy, of course, just sayin' if you are planning to recover a bunch of parasols for a wedding, might be a good reference!)

[anabeig.livejournal.com]

I'm going to add that book to my "for presents!" wishlist!

Not sure exactly what the plan was - I was initially seeing if I could find a crochet pattern for a parasol (I crochet, my sister knits (http://flickr.com/photos/64141303@N00/2385865337/)). But I sew better than I crochet... Maybe I'll do a set of wedding party parasols in the wedding colours as a wedding gift.

(toot your horn all you want! you deserve it!)

[bluekitsune.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought that far, says the sister! It looks like it might be in my best interest to make this book arrive at my sister's doorstep, hm? ;) I was thinking about knitting them myself, but I am trying not to take on way too many projects in the next year.

I've gone back through your parasol tags -- oh my goodness gracious, they're gorgeous. Gorgeous!