Blog & Podcast – Page 4 – Hattin' Around & Leanne Fredrick Millinery

My Hat in a Gallery!

I would like to introduce, Migration, a hat I made of teal pleated sinamay with hand beaded butterflies and a seed beaded crown. This piece was inspired by a mix of several pieces from the Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum of Childhood (MoC).

Over the last several months I have designed and made three different hats for three hat contests. Not all the hats made it to the second round of judging, but to my delight I got an email that my hat, Migration, was accepted by the V&A Inspired by… contest and that it would be exhibited at the Morley Gallery in London.

If you would like to read more about my “Inspired by…” entry, Migration. I am in the Exhibition Catalogue on page 3.
If you want to learn more about the UK based “Inspired by…” contest or details on the exhibition Inspired by…2016 is on exhibit from 17 May 2016 – 17 June 2016. Please check the website for the details regarding opening hours.

I recently attended the Gallery Preview and Awards night at Morley College. It was a thrill to see a hat I made on display in a gallery. I just discovered a video of the event on the Inspired by…website. My hat shows up around :13 as well as my family and I on the left side at 1:21 for 1 second! It was a lovely evening with good weather, fabulous music, and creative people.

Inspired by… is an event for adult learners throughout the UK to submit photos of a piece of art/craft they have created with inspiration from something in the V&A collection. The V&A is the world’s leading museum of art and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. The V&A Museum of Childhood (MoC) is located in Bethnal Green and where I drew my inspiration for this piece. MoC have effectively created a place that is interesting and fun for both adults and children.

I have been attending classes at Morley College for several years and it is a wonderful place to learn new things and meet people. Many of my friendships have grown from classes at Morley.

This is a collage of images highlighting the pieces I was inspired by as well as the hat making process.

Inspired by… at Morley Gallery is a small and diverse exhibit, I encourage you to go take a look. It is around the corner from the Imperial War Museum, just a short (5 -15 min) walk from Lambeth North or Elephant & Castle tube stations and Waterloo station.

Loving living in London!

and remember…interesting people wear hats.

London Hat Week
6-12 October 2016

Registration for London Hat Week Opens on 20 May 2016! Milliners, Hatters and Headwear enthusiasts 6 thru 12th of October 2016 is a great time to be in London. There will be many workshops and events for you to learn new skills, meet master milliners, and talk with like minded people.

If you want to see the master schedule of all the things going on for LHW2016, go to London Hat Week..

If you want to see more about the workshops I am hosting and sign up for them, go to Workshop & Events Page.

I have enjoyed participating in this event for the last couple of years and each one gets better. Last year I hosted the Milliner’s Question Time and a Milliner’s Roundtable Discussion. Both event were very well received and fun to host. At the end of the week I was knackered while being creatively and emotionally energized!

This year I am again hosting the Milliner’s Roundtable Discussion as well as expanding my offering to include some practical hands on millinery skills in A Study of Peaks and The Milliner’s Ribbon – Petersham. In an effort to keep some balance and since many of us creative/maker types find pricing our products difficult, I thought a course on a Pricing Spreadsheet and Other Useful Tools would be helpful. I love spreadsheets and worked for many years in technical support, training and marketing for spreadsheets.

You may have noticed that there currently isn’t a Milliner’s Question Time (MQT) listed. This may change, however in the meantime, I will work on posting last year’s MQT 2015 podcast with Edwina Ibbotson, Rachel Trevor Morgan and Noel Stewart.

I love the attitude of mutual learning and sharing of ideas that is found during London Hat Week and would love to meet and share ideas about millinery, technology and business with you.

and remember… interesting people wear hats.

Heads and Tales
by Aage Thaarup

Heads and Tales by Aage Thaarup is a book I saw at Jane Smith‘s class at Morley College as well as in her workroom, then I saw it referenced in the Forward of Susie Hopkins book, The Century of Hats as part of the forward written by Philip Somerville. The cover sleeve image alone is enticing enough, but the combination of all three was irresistible. I had to read it.

“I can’t go no lower,” said the Hatter. “I am on the floor as it is. . . .” Alice in Wonderland

It was an intriguing opening quote. It didn’t sound up beat or encouraging. An odd way to start a book. However by the end of the book, I understood. The book was first published in 1956 and Aage Thaarup had already experienced a roller coaster ride through starting up a couture millinery business, a World War, money issues and a passion for travel.

The book is a fabulous collection of stories told by Aage Thaarup that conveys not just his experiences and attitudes but it also reflects a different era. There are many of references to Princess Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and other society ladies.

Aage Thaarup (1906–1987) was a Danish-born milliner who ran a celebrated hatmaking business in London from the 1930s up to the 1970s. His hats adorned many famous and beautiful heads.

He made hats for the Queen Mother and her princess daughters, later one of them would become Queen.

A young Queen Elizabeth needed a hat for Trouping the Colour, which is the queen’s official birthday, not to be confused with her actual birthday (earlier this week – 21 April 1926). This would become arguably his most famous hat.

What I enjoyed about the book was Mr. Thaarup’s determination and resilience. Although money management was not one of his strengths.

He was creative, resourceful and brave. Heads and Tales was written while he was trying to recover from his second round of bankruptcy. He describes how low he was at the time, which clarified why he choose the opening Alice in Wonderland quote I mentioned above.

He seemed to cultivate a good relationship with the press as well as clients and could design with different ends in mind, some for attention and some for beauty.

Being from California, I believe California’s generally align with Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Sacramento. I am from the San Jose Bay Area, also known as Silicon Valley and the small(ish) coastal town of Santa Cruz and although I am not from San Francisco, I feel like it is my representative Californian city, and thus felt a sense of pride when I encountered the following quote on page 204.

“I flew back to San Francisco, where people were polite, where the waiters side “Thank you”, and everybody was rather nicely dressed, as befits a city with a soul.”

Other places to see Aage Thaarup and his hats are the V&A as well as some British Pathe films.

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has a few Aage Thaarup pieces. They have much of their collection online which is an extremely useful reference.

Pink Velvet Hat by Aage Thaarup from the V&A Collection.

Daisy hat by Aage Thaarup in the V&A Collection.

British Pathe films – Aage Thaarup designs a hat to look like Royal Albert Hall on British Pathe.

Which seems odd, until you read his book and realize that for a while he was popular for making hats resembling landmarks after doing a hat resembling the Rangitoto volcano while visiting New Zealand.

Aage Thaarup British Pathe

There are several more British Pathe Movies of Aage Thaarup. They are just a couple of minutes and good fun to watch.

In summary, Heads and Tales was an easy read mostly told through anecdotes about travels, clients, WWII, and millinery. It is a reflection of his journey from a small boy in Denmark to a couture milliner in London, starting over again in 1956. It was interesting, educational and inspiring.

When asked which is his favorite hats, “My favourite hat — is the hat I am going to make tomorrow .”

and remember…Interesting people wear hats.

A Hat for My Husband

I have finished my first hat for my husband. I think he looks very handsome in it and you know…. Interesting people wear hats. This hat is a midnight blue fur felt trilby with a simple leather band trim.

jeff 8 midnight felt common

Here are some photos of the process… at this point he wasn’t too sure about this whole hat thing.
jeff 1 midnight felt start

He is still uneasy about were things are going

The brim is being blocked using a brim block that I carved last summer in Jane Smith’s block carving class at Morley College.

Jeff is tall and my original crown shape had a fairly deep crevice in the top which made the hat sit high on his head. The combination would have made riding the London Tube a little difficult. I didn’t want to carve a new crown block so it was time to do some hand shaping. I was able to combine steam from my kitchen kettle with an egg iron in a stand (thank you Susie Hopkins), a head block, along with some tips from a great video on hand shaping a hat by Kevin from Pork Pie Hatters. It took some time but looks much better.

The hat is getting closer and Jeff is starting to believe that it might actually be wearable in public. There was still a significant amount of cutting, brushing, sanding and stitching to go, but I was getting excited to see the finished hat on Jeffrey.

He wore his new hat to the Hidden London Underground tour we took last weekend at the Charing Cross Tube station. It was a good tour and he looked so handsome in his fur felt trilby, despite the high vis vest.

Hatting Happiness is both of us wearing hats I’ve made. I love my green velvet 8 piece cap with hand dyed silk lining.

and remember… interesting people wear hats.

Hats 1740 – 1780
by Jean-Étienne Liotard, artist

Liotard was known for his amazing detail in painting the fashion of the day, which was the mid to late 18th century. The sitters often wore hats and they were painted with fantastic detail which is very interesting for people like me who are a bit obsessed with hats.

Jean-Étienne Liotard exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts (commonly referred to as “The Royal Academy” has now closed, sorry, but if someone asks if you want to see a Liotard exhibit, do not make my mistake and ask if they mean the stretchy garment that dancers wear.

690px-Jean_Etienne_Lìotard_-_Ritratto_di_Maria_Adelaide_di_Francia_vestita_alla_turca_-_Google_Art_Project — Marie Adelaide of France, Dressed in Turkish Costume

Liotard Simon Lutrell Turban — Jean-Etienne Liotard. Simon Lutrell of Lutrellstown, 1753-54

He was know to travel a lot so there are a variety of styles of head wear, of which the turban was featured in many pictures. I am quite fond the turbans, particularly the glamorous movie star style. These images highlighted the many ways of doing the wrapping and folding found in a turban.

Jean-Etienne Liotard Laughing Self Portrait — Jean-Étienne Liotard, Laughing (Self-portrait), c.1770

Jean-Étienne Leotard was a man before his time when it came to personal promotion. This late 18th Century self portrait shows a large smile, missing tooth, toque hat and turkish style of dress. Another unusual element is that he is not holding a paint brush but instead is pointing his finger. These elements were unique for the time.

800px-Lady_Ann_Somerset,_Countess_of_Northampton,_attributed_to_Jean-Étienne_Liotard_(1702-1789) — Lady Ann Somerset, Countess Of Northampton

Liotard’s use of pastels is also noteworthy, my friend, Dusia who coordinated the visit, brought to my attention his common use of two specific colors which he uses in nearly all his paintings, a beautiful blue (“rich sonorous blue” or “electric blue”, and a salmony red. It is interesting how consistently these colours appear in his paintings.

Jean-Étienne Liotard - Portrait of Marie Fargues, in Turks costume — Marie Fargues

Grown-Up tip – To avoid the sleepy feeling I often get at museums & exhibits, I have discovered that if I focus my attention on a particular interest, such as hats and head pieces, my endurance in greatly improved. I have used a similar technique with my children, by asking them what they are going to look for, or offer a suggestion of what animal they can find.

Liotard exhibit — Unofficial name: Its all about the hat

Leanne Dusia Kitty at Liotard RA — Me (Leanne), Dusia, and Kitty – my museum buddies.

Thank you to Dusia and Kitty, for a fun afternoon of learning and inspiration.

I will keep my eye open for more Liotard paintings. I really enjoyed the subjects, the use of colour and of course the Hats.

And remember, interesting people wear hats.

Petershams
at Elephant and Castle

Hurray a new millinery supply place in town that is close to me. This could be dangerous.

Back in October, I rode my bike over on a Tuesday and was greeted by the owner Michelle. Petershams.com has been around awhile online, but has just opened a physical shop at The Art Works Elephant which is around the corner from the Elephant and Castle tube station in London at Elephant Road & Walworth Road. Look for the orange door inside the courtyard.

Petershams at Art Works Elephant — Petershams look for the orange door

Petershams has a lovely selection of sinamay and feathers.

Sinamay feathers petershams — Sinamy and feathers

Shelves of basic hat bodies, combs, headbands, veiling, etc.

Supplies Petershams — Miscellaneous Millinery Supplies

And a few skeins of strip straw. This red was so amazingly vibrant. I was very tempted, but I already had a table full of feathers, sinamay, and tubular crin.

strip straw Petershams — A few skeins of strip straw

Let us not forget the petersham ribbon.

Petershams — A variety of petersham ribbon

The shop is small and does not have every size of every colour, of every item, but it probably does have something that will work. And if you are in need of ideas, she has a box of vintage hats under the cutting table that are good fun to look at and try on. I thought these two were fun. The red straw with strawberries and the little beehive of tiny blue tubular crin.

red vintage hat petershams — vintage hats under the cutting table

tiny tublecrin vintage hat petershams — vintage hats under the cutting table

Michelle is also from California. How many people do you think are from California, living in London and making hats? More than two?

Michelle Petershams — Here is Michelle Osborne the owner of Petershams.com

And if all of this is not enough, Michelle has a new puppy, that can be found in the back workroom. I am sorry that I didn’t get a photo of puppy cuteness.

Winter Holiday Markets and Wonderful Hats

I had the joy of seeing many of my hat class friends put their hats out for sale at both Temple Church and Morley College Winter Fairs last week. The cold brought out the winter hats “On the Street” at Somerset House, and my daughter made me a tree ornament. Take a look.

Holiday Markets are always fun. I love seeing the amazing creativity and craftsmanship of people, especially my friends.

The first was a fantastically hidden market, the Temple Christmas Fair on Thursday, 3 December at the Middle Temple Hall. It was an intense and beautifully dark carved wood venue with gorgeous products for sale. A couple of hatting friends from Morley College and Edwina Ibbots on‘s were selling their own custom made hats. Petula and Maggie must not have slept for a month prior to the show. My picture above only shows and few of their charming hats.

Not to go too far a field, but the Temple Church was selling a book at one of the stalls that was about the truth and fiction of the Knights Templar and the Temple Church in London. I had no idea that going to a Winter fair was going to link up with the Knights Templar from the book Da Vinci Code. I love London.

Temple Church Knights Templar — Book explaining the Knights Templar, Temple Church and the Da Vinci Code

Morley College hosted its Winter Fair on Sunday, 6 December. Many of my Jane Smith, Hat Class friends, Stefania, Dusia, and Clare, were there with their hats, even Jane herself. There were so many hats that they ran out of display space. Morley is also a lovely venue and the main hall has large murals along both walls, that deserve more than a passing glance.

The Somerset House is hosting outdoor skating this Winter and Fortum & Mason have taken over part of the building for a swanky Pop-Up Shop.

One of the best parts of this time of year is that it is cold and people on the streets are wearing warm hats. These lovely ladies allowed me to capture them while doing a bit of shopping at the Somerset House.

Hopefully I will be organized enough next year to post the dates of these fairs before they occur.

Also on the winter hat theme, my daughter surprised me with an adorable ornament for our tree. She made it while I was out at the Morley Winter Fair, from a shape found online and a piece of Harris Tweed from my fabric stash. It even has the date in the loop. The second best part…she cleaned up the project mess before I got home. I love her and my new ornament.

and remember, Interesting People Wear Hats.

Blocking Success, Lessons Learned

I have dozens of things to write about from my Hattin’ Around adventures. Blocks, feather dyeing, new shops and vintage hats.

This post is about my vintage Bowler Block from Victoria Grant. My repair efforts were a total success! See what repairs I made in a previous post, New Old Bowler Block Repair. I am completely in love with this new block. I sprained my left thumb and got minor steam burns on my hands trying to block with it and it took me three tries to get it done satisfactorily, but isn’t she pretty.

Successfully blocked on new old repaired bowler — Successfully blocked on repaired vintage bowler hat block.

Tips curtesy of the Bowler Block

Wood glue and filler really does work to repair a block. It held surprisingly well.
Cover the block in two pieces of plastic. One for the gully between the crown and the brim and another to cover the hole thing, then cut the gully open. This is important to protect the block from the moisture and stiffener as well as protecting the felt from discoloration.

Stain on white felt from block — Stain on white felt from gap in plastic covering the block. Luckily it was on the edge and cut off.

Make sure a wool felt is really wet before blocking. I first tried just a good steam, but the felt that I had previously stiffened was not flexible enough. Then I gave it a good soaking, wrapped it in a tea towel put the bundle in a plastic bag and put the bag in the refrigerator for several days. Then steamed the felt until dripping and blocked it. It still was not easy, but it was do able.
Pin down the crown first. I tried doing the overall piece first, pinning under the brim, thinking I could then just press the gully into place. It did not work. But pinning the crown first with a piece of torn cloth twisted, pressed and pinned into the valley worked very well.
Bowler finally blocked

Blocking pins and rope working together

Close up of blocking the gully between crown and brim

Side view on the block
Caution: rust risk between white felt and metal pins. Pins these days are not what they use to be and my first attempt left me with a few rust marks. Use fresh pins and set the felt to dry immediately after blocking. I do not have a drying cupboard, so I used the oven on its lowest setting, turning it on & off with the convection setting on to circulate the air. The oven door left open a bit to release moisture and not get too hot. Whew! no rust. The rusty pin hole on the excess felt from my 1st attempt was cut off. No one will every know.

Off the block and looking great. The hat got mangled while removing it from the block, but went right back into shape.

Brushing makes a difference. Brush the felt and scrape a pin over the pin holes to rough up the felt fibers. It is beautiful and I haven’t even trimmed my new bowler hat yet.

The felt was pretty beat up, but recovered with a good brushing.

I used a pin to rough up wool fibers and scrape away the pin holes.

Points 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6 were all bits I learned with advice from Edwina Ibbotson’s Hat Class on Monday nights.

Now for the trimming.

New Old Bowler Hat Block Repair

I acquired an vintage hat block this week at Victoria Grant‘s millinery supply sale. She was having a bit of a clear out.

I spotted a lovely old hat block, a modified bowler and I was hooked. However there was tape along the front. I ran my finger over the edge, to see if I could feel any chips. The outside edge felt sound, so I decided to take a chance. All the way home I was envisioning hats I could make with this new block.

However once I got it home and took the tape off, I realized just what bad shape it was in. A chunk of the front brim fell off. Not only that but there was a hole clear through at the transition point between the crown and the brim where the wood was fairly thin. It had obviously been used extensively.

I looked online for some repair tips and was encouraged by Judith M.’s repairing vintage blocks blog post.

I made a 1 minute movie of the process. See show notes below.

I started by dusting the piece off and removing the loose fragments of wood. Then I glued the large piece on with Evo-Stik Wood Adhesive. I held it in place until the glue set.

Once the glue dried I used Ronseal Multipurpose Wood Filler to fill the hole. Several smaller layers is better than one really thick globby one.

The wood filler did not expand, I just managed to push it through the hole, and finally just figured I would sand off the excess.

Here are my supplies.

This is after the second layer of wood filler. But before the first rough sanding. The wood was so pin marked and splintery that I decided that the filler may help give it some support as well as smooth out the rough wood surface.

Then I sanded took a break, and sanded some more.

It looks dramatically better. It is not perfect, but I am hoping that it will at least be useful.

At least there is no longer a hole and the broken piece is attached.

I have never tried to repair a hat block before. At least nothing beyond, wiping them down and putting on a bit of oil for the wood. I am pleased with the results and since I just finished the repairs a couple hours ago, I will let it set a bit longer before putting it to work.

Have you ever repaired a vintage hat block? What tools and materials did you use and was it successful?

And remember, interesting people wear hats.

Harris Tweed Hat from Scotland’s Outer Hebrides

Our family trip to Scotland consists of two halves, at least in my mind, the 8 Piece velvet hat (aka 1st half) I made at a class in June and the Harris Tweed hat (aka 2nd half) I bought on the Isle of Lewis & Harris.

Ullapool boat Road to Knockando Harris boat

In true “Leanne Style” I wanted to see Scotland, but had only 9 days. Our trip started with a 7.5 hour train journey from London to Aberdeen. Then a drive to Gardenstown on the East Coast, to a beach house with friends. We enjoyed fish, a sandy beach, art studios (see Jeff’s new knit cap below), tweeds and whisky distilleries (Cardu & Glengrant). Followed by loads of driving, a few ferry trips, beautiful landscape, tons of rain and some more tweeds!

Jeff in his new knit hat from Gardenstown open art studios Harris road

The first half on the East coast had much better weather. Our friends are both Scottish and I was taught how to make proper breaded fish, Scottish style, with fish “that was swimming that morning.”

We visited the Knockando Mill . A working mill, which we choose to visit while the weavers were on their summer holiday 🙁 But I bough some beautiful fabric and learned about Teasels. They are part of a machine that you use to make the surface of the woven material fuzzier.

Knockando Mill

A stop in Johnston’s of Elgin allowed me to stock up on jumpers (sweaters) which I put to use immediately. They also had this nice purple tweed & fur hat.

purple tweed n fur from Johnston's of Elgin

We said farewell to our friends and started driving a counter clockwise journey around the middle of Scotland. A night of camping at the Culloden Moor, a sight seeing day through Inverness, Loch Ness, Urquhart Castle. The castle gift shop had a couple of nice tweed hats also.

A night in Ullapool with a morning ferry to the Isle of Lewis. Lewis is the top of the Outer Hebrides, a set of islands off the West coast of Scotland. We visited a Norse thatched roof kiln and mill.

Isle of Lewis mill n kiln 8 piece hat

The next stop was Rarebird, where I acquired my Harris Tweed hat. I adore the pleating and button detailing, on the left side. I also like the fairly shallow but wrap around peak.

Hiking fairy pools Isle of Skye Harris Tweed Hat (1) Harris tweed hat detail

Steve from Rarebird makes ceramic buttons and cuts the pieces for their shop. He was very generous with his time and showed us how he makes his buttons as well as what a tweed sampler looks like, so you can see how the different colors interact.

The second half of the journey starts…The Isle of Harris which is the lower half of the island which also has the Isle of Lewis. It is not a very big island for having two names. The Isle of Harris is known for its hand woven tweeds that are produced on the island. The craftsmanship is superb and the colors are divine. People would have tweeds woven in colors to match the colors of their estate. What a wonderful way to capture the essence of a place with a tweed of the same colors.

Harris Tweeds

It rained, everyday. But oddly it suited the landscape and I am not sure I would have wanted it any other way, as they have little biting bugs called Midges, which come out when it isn’t rainy & windy. Our brief sample of “Midgies” was enough for me. I guess it was good, as I think the girls would have been disappointed to never have experienced something we heard so much about.

Hiking fairy pools Isle of Skye Harris Tweed Hat West Coast Scotland sunset

Then a Ferry to the Isle of Skye for a wonderful hike to the Fairy pools and a night of camping in Dornie on the West coast of Scotland. A final big day of driving through Cairngorms National Park, back to Aberdeen, for a night of rest and a lovely dinner at Musa, which I am sad to say I was too tired to fully appreciate. When you do a lot of driving you come across things like, a tortilla chip which looks like a hat.

Hat shaped tortilla chip

Our final day in Aberdeen allowed for a trip to the Gordon Highlanders Museum. They are a military regiment. The volunteers who run it were very enthusiastic and proud of their museum. The girls enjoyed trying out the uniforms. I loved getting to take a close look at the hats.

I no longer just look at the landscape without seeing the color palette and think of the tweed that the colors around me can create.

Lewis mill rock closeup