More Hats for the Etsy Store...

Now that my millinery studio remodel is finally finished, and I'm starting to get some of my personal health issues under control, I've been able to get back to work creating hats!  I forgot how much I enjoy it...

This custom order faux bird tilt topper just flew off to its new home yesterday...It was an absolute joy to make (probably my favorite hat design of all time).

I recently purchased a vintage hat block, and have been enjoying using it to create various styles of turbans.  The first version was made out of a dark green wool felt, with black vintage veiling and three brown vintage mink tails.  This one is available for sale as an in-stock item in the Etsy store.

The next version (and my personal favorite) was constructed out of pale pink felt, with pink vintage veiling, and a faux bird (whose tail fan I created using antique goura feathers and antique white ostrich feathers). This style of turban is available as a custom order in the Etsy store.  

I'm about to begin working on another colorful version of it - this time using black felt, dark veiling, and a bird made out of electric blue peacock body feathers, with a tail fan consisting of peacock corona feathers and golden-orange ostrich feathers.  It will be absolutely stunning!

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.  

The Importance of Choosing the Right Color

When you are taking pictures of items you plan to sell online, it is important to choose a proper background color.  You want a color that makes your product stand out and look good.  For example: I normally photograph items for my Etsy stores against a white background, but there are certain pieces that get way too washed out with white.  Take a look below at the same hat, first pictured against a white background, and then against black.  I haven't photoshopped anything, only the background colors were changed.  The white background washes out the white feather on the hat, practically making it disappear.  On the black background, the white feather stands out boldly, and the darker background also seems to make the red felt POP out.

Just something to keep in mind the next time you do your photoshoots!

Newest Millinery Creations

I finally found some free time to finish up some of my hat projects.  Most of these are already listed in the Etsy store, so go check it out for details!

Down the Rabbit Hole...

I recently completed several new hats for my Etsy store, some of which have already sold.  One of the most popular hats was this Mad Hatter Tea Cup hat.  The hat body is styled after a vintage 1940s-era tilt hat.  The wired crown is pinched and tucked to create that fabulous flared silhouette.  The steaming beverage is composed of an iridescent fabric for the liquid, and white curled peacock feathers for the steam.  I bent the wired brim a bit to give it more of that rakish air.

The in-stock hat used in the photographs has already sold, but you can still get your own version via custom order.  I will try and make a few more in-stock hats of this style for the shop soon.  I find it somewhat humorous that in-stock always sells better than a custom order listing of the same hat...I guess it has something to do with people's love of instant gratification?  Who knows!

Latest & Greatest

 

I made another hat!  Yes, of course, it has a faux bird on it...what can I say?  Frank Palma (vintage faux bird hat milliner extraordinaire) is my inspiration, and I happen to have an unquenchable lust for vintage faux bird hats anyway.

But there is something different about this birdie hat...

It has a nest on it!  Made out of vintage veiling!  With millinery berries for eggs!

I feel as though the great milliners of old would be proud...

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!)

2nd Whimsical Faux Bird Tilt Topper

Well, here's round #2 on the whimsical faux bird tilt topper hats!  The hat is constructed using a piece of delicious chocolate brown velour felt (~late 1940s), two vintage yellow faux birds, the most lovely ~1930s vintage plastic cherries & flowers, and vintage dark brown fancy patterned veiling.  I made the veiling nose-length this time, as some folks may not be ready for the full face/chin-length veiling.  Plus, nose-length veiling means you can wear the hat out to dinner and not have to mess around with tucking the veiling up and onto the hat when you want to actually eat something.

I'm doing everything in my power not to fall in love with the hat and pull the Etsy listing (like I did last time)!

Latest Custom Creation!

(Hopefully my client won't mind if I post a few sneak photos of the AMAZING hat I just finished creating!) 

It's my interpretation of a hat I saw in a 1945 McCall's Magazine - I believe the style was termed "extreme breton."  The original hat was made using Lady Amherst center tail feathers.  However, these are large and incredibly expensive feathers, so when I made my version I used the smaller, more economical Ringneck tail feathers.  I made the original version in navy blue, and that is what is pictured in my Etsy store listing for the hat.  

 

However, you can order it made in a range of colors, and this particular client (who, may I just say here, has some of the best taste in color pairings!) wanted the hat made in red.  

When I put on the finished product, I couldn't believe how absolutely incredible the hat looked!  It is even more head-turning than the original (navy) one, and looks just stellar with red lips and a subdued dress.  

WOW!

Whimsical

I had some vintage materials laying around, and two faux birds who desperately needed a home.  Therefore, I made another tilt hat!  

The hat body is constructed out of a piece of ~1940s black wool felt, with 1940s black fancy patterned veiling, vintage red velvet flowers, and my two lovely little vintage faux hummingbirds.  The birds did not come with tail feathers, but I felt that for the whimsical scene I was attempting to portray - two hummingbirds zooming around a bunch of flowers - that long, colorful tail feathers were required.  I had a vintage millinery decoration (a gift from the lovely Cindy who owns the Vintage Hat Shop on Etsy!) consisting of some very stiff rainbow-dyed rooster saddle feathers.  I gently removed these from the decoration and attached them to the faux birdies!

I had originally planned to list this in Etsy store.  In fact, I did!  But then I made the mistake of trying the hat on with one of my green dresses...*sigh*  I made it two days before I pulled the listing.  I can try and justify it: the veiling had some tears, everyone told me I had priced the hat about $100 too low, etc.  But let's be honest here: I have never yet been able to sell a birdie hat that I have made that was not a custom order requested by a client.  I just can't do it!!  Does this mean I'll never be successful as a milliner?  Maybe.  But if I have to trade success for keeping all of the awesome birdie hats, I'll do it!  At least I'll be poor and fashionable.

In the meantime, I have two other yellow faux birdies of similar size and style that I will be using to create a 2nd version of this hat design.  This time, I'll be using vintage brown velour felt, with the yellow birds, ivory-hued vintage flowers, and a vintage brown veiling.  This WILL be listed in the Etsy store (I swear!!), and may turn into another custom order option, as I have found a source for small vintage faux birds in a variety of colors.

I also tried my hand at creating my own vintage-style faux bird yesterday.  After owning and repairing countless bird hats, I know exactly how the birds are made.  The problem is that finding the materials to recreate them is near impossible!  I have yet to track down a similar material to use for the fiber filling...In any event, I cannibalized a modern craft store foam bird and used its head as part of the base, with buckram for the wing base.  I showed the finished bird to my husband, and he said he couldn't tell it apart from my other vintage birds!  Hurray!