More Fun with Turbans

As you can see, I'm getting full use out of my newest acquisition: a 1930s/1940s-era turban hat block.  The decoration possibilities on this lovely tool are endless (and I'm doing my best to explore them all)!

This time, I used a piece of vintage black wool felt, and covered it with a section of light brown vintage fancy veiling.  I created a colorful faux bird (calling to mind a Bird-of-Paradise) out of a frame of wired buckram and spun cotton.  The head and shoulders are covered in tiny electric-blue iridescent peacock body feathers.  The main bird body is covered with brownish-hued, slightly iridescent pheasant body feathers, and the tail fan is made out of four dyed ostrich feathers.

On the Work Table...

My work table always has several unfinished millinery projects on it at any given time.  I love to multi-task (can you tell?).

 

Currently, I'm working on a custom order top hat with faux bird.  However, due to bad weather in other parts of the nation, some of my feather shipments have been delayed.  

So my bald birdie is waiting for his body feathers to arrive in the mail soon...

I also have a new-to-me vintage hat block to play with!  It's a 1930s/1940s turban design, and I have been playing around with different decorating options.  I so loved the dark green felt color of the custom hat order that I purchased some for myself and made a turban on the new block!  

I was gifted some vintage mink tails many years ago, and have never quite known what to do with them until now.  They seemed the perfect finishing touch for the green turban.

I also made myself a lovely pink turban to match my most recent thrift store find (a pastel pink Emma Domb dress).  I created a faux bird for it using a vintage faux bird body, a fan of white ostrich feathers, and some antique goura feathers.  

Decorating Projects

Beginning to get the new millinery/craft studio set up...My top three "must haves" for my new work space are: a red fainting couch, a vintage faux bird hat, and a canvas print of "Vallecita's Leopards" (1906 image available through the Library of Congress).

Speaking of decorating (or in this case REdecorating), here's a close-up of the birdie hat. 

It's my latest restoration project.  It is a 1930s/1940s blue felt tilt hat by Maretta Feeley.  Overall, the hat itself is in decent shape.  The feathers are the main problem (a common issue for hats of this age) - they practically disintegrate upon being touched.  Ideally, I would remove all of the feathers, check structural stability of the bird body frames, and then attach all new feathers.  However, I have been absolutely unable to closely match the lovely blue-grey ombre hues of these feathers.  I adore that color scheme, so I made the decision to remove all feathers, salvage what I could, and re-glue them onto the bird frames.  This meant that the birds continued to appear a little more raggedy-looking than I would have liked, but it preserved the original colors of the hats.  

I recently wore the finished hat (along with a gorgeous matching 1940s power suit) to the annual JPR wine-tasting & auction event in Ashland.  I received numerous compliments on my lovely hat!

Like New (Or Maybe Even Better?)

A few months ago, I purchased a sad little faux bird hat on Ebay.  It was in desperate need of TLC: the veiling was shattered, faux birds missing nearly all their feathers and body parts, etc.  The hat was described by the seller as being "covered by chickens."  That description made me giggle, and I think was one of the reasons I purchased it.  Who else can claim to have a "chicken" hat?

I could see that at one time this hat was truly spectacular.  It was a 1940s black felt tilt hat by Frances Adams.  I knew that I could restore it to its former glory, but it was going to take a complete overhaul.  Beyond the felt hat base and the orange plastic faux bird beaks, everything else would have to be replaced.  I used a vintage black veiling to replace the shattered one, and attached it just as the original had been: looped like a figure "8" and tacked down at the edges.  Rebuilding the faux birds was much harder, as (because they were missing most of their feathers and parts) I did not quite know exactly how the original wings looked.  I did my best to reconstruct the birds as they were originally.  I believe I did a good job, and I hope Frances Adams would agree.

Recent Vintage Scores

After a long summer of no real vintage finds, I struck gold last month.  A peacock blue silk 1960s wiggle dress (with matching bolero jacket) for $10, and a $40 so soft 1950s squirrel fur bolero jacket made by "The Harris Company."

I also grabbed a $10 WWII wool nurse's cape at the thrifty a couple of weeks ago.

And I also finally finished repairing this lovely 1950s feathered Caspar-Davis hat (gift from friends, found at the thrift store in Portland).

I purchased this $35 1957 purple lace prom dress from the daughter of the original owner.  She wore it to her Talent high school prom!

I bought 21 vintage sewing patterns (1930s-1950s) for $1/pattern at a yard sale.  One of my favorites is a 1940s beret and matching purse pattern!

Frank Palma X

I can't believe I forgot to post about this: I bought another Frank Palma hat!  I thought that the ridiculously over-priced white feathered top hat would be the only one I would get for my birthday (and that was three months early), but lo and behold, ON my actual birthday, I snatched up my tenth Frank Palma hat!!!  Thank you to the Hat Gods for my now annual FP Birthday Mojo.

It is an exact copy of the one that sold off of antiquedress.com for about $800.  The best part?  I only paid $80...I think that may very well be the first time in recent history that I grabbed a FP hat for under $100.  It was also in excellent condition (such a relief).

I looooooooooove it...

2nd Chances...

Quite a while back, as I was trolling the internet for hats, I came across an old Ebay listing for a Frank Palma hat (with original hat box!) that had sold a mere month before I purchased my first FP hat!  Talk about breaking my heart - this amazing faux bird tilt hat sold with only 3 bids for a grand total of $28+shipping.  I can't believe I missed this!!  I bookmarked the page, and occasionally went back to the link so I could drool over the picture.

There are two interesting points about this hat:

(1) It is unique in that it reflects something I've never seen before: a "Frank Palma Original" on a white feathered, gilded double faux bird hat.  The only other examples I have seen of this style of FP faux bird hats have always been under the higher-end "Art Bern Hats by Frank Palma" label.  Based on my experience, the "Frank Palma Original" label is earlier than the "Art Bern" label.  So, to me this demonstrates the interesting idea that perhaps Frank Palma began designing these higher end double faux bird hats under his own label first, and then was picked up by Art Bern to continue the design under the more "couture" label later...

(2) The original selling price of this hat reflects the trend of how sometimes being an open source of pictures and information can come back to bite you in the wallet!  When I first began collecting Frank Palma hats, I paid anywhere from $28-$75 for them.  After my first few hats, I began blogging heavily about them, sharing pictures on vintage hat enthusiast forums, and trying to share what limited knowledge I had on this milliner.  Suddenly, the prices began climbing, and some of the hats began slipping through my hands because competition grew fierce and prices even fiercer.   From July 2011, general Frank Palma prices went from under $100 to on average $250 in 2012 to $361 in 2013.  While I am thrilled to share my love of this milliner with others, and provide a base of knowledge for those researching him, I have to say another part of me is a tad annoyed at how it's made it actually more difficult for me to continue collecting the hats.  Ah well...

 When this particular hat came up for auction a 2nd time, I stumbled upon it through mere chance, and my gasp of shocked delight was loud enough to bring my husband over to investigate!  I knew this hat was meant to be mine!  But I also knew it was going to cost me dearly...

I did end up winning it (ironic side note: the seller actually used my blog/webpages as a source of information for the listing's description of the hat!), and the hat came with the original hat box as well!  Unfortunately, this hat is in the worst shape of any of my Frank Palmas.  It's in the worst shape of pretty much all of my other faux bird hats, to be exact.  It was obviously well-loved and very improperly stored in high temperatures.  The hat is incredibly soiled on the inside, and will need a gentle cleaning.  The glue has yellowed all over (and therefore yellowed the feathers), and ALL feathers on the hat body were loose.  Due to the high-temp storage, touching the feathers caused them to begin to disintegrate.  I do believe that I will eventually end up having to remove them all and replace them at some point, which absolutely breaks my heart.  The only positive is that, for whatever reason, the birds and feathers covering the birds are all in excellent condition (now explain that to me?!).  All that being said, I feel that I have the ability to restore this hat to its former glory.  I have logged hours and hours of experience repairing/restoring vintage faux bird hats, so I feel pretty confident at this point that I can do a good job.  This hat demands nothing less than perfection in restoration!

Long story short: in spite of its many flaws & ridiculously high price, this hat is absolutely amazing!  It is stunning in an over-the-top manner I had yet to see achieved by a "Frank Palma Original" label.  I love it, and I do not regret for a moment purchasing it!  It was meant to be mine.  I was given a 2nd chance...

Coffee Date & A Photoshoot

Ryan and I frolicked around downtown Jacksonville this weekend, trying to get some pictures for the annual Mad Hatter Hat-making Contest.  I had just finished my first attempt at a vintage-style fedora (using the two-piece antique wooden hat block that Ryan had bought for me for Yule!), so we wanted to get some pictures of that, as well as my crazy whimsical felt tilt topper with vintage faux hummingbirds.  I had recently received the most amazing vintage 1940s rainbow plaid two-piece suit set from the awesome folks over at FabGabs.  Not only was this suit perfectly in my taste, but it matched my birdie hat!  So of course I had to wear it for the hat contest photos...

Unfortunately, lack of time and a plentiful amount of stress have resulted in a mental block on awesome photoshoot ideas.  Not to mention, it's going to be difficult to top last year's photoshoot of me playing chess against the statue in downtown Medford.  So, we settled for a rather bland set of pictures around downtown.  I have until April 1st, 2013 to come up with something better for pictures, so maybe inspiration will hit...

In the meantime, I think some of these turned out pretty well!

In the middle of the photo session, Ryan and I stepped into my favorite local coffee shop - the Goodbean - for some early afternoon lattes and panini's. 

It was so nice to hang out with my handsome husband (who also happens to be my best friend), play in the lovely sunshine, and spend the day being young and in love.  I'm a lucky, lucky girl...

And might I just say that my lovely gentleman has the BEST WORKSHOP EVER!!!!!!!  (He's handsome and handy!)