Beginning Millinery and Haberdashery: The Blocked Felt Hat

Fedora. Top hat. Cowboy hat. Porkpie. Homburg. Cloche. These are the classic hat styles ingrained in the culture of our past. Living now without the rules for style and fashion, free to wear white shoes before Memorial Day, hats are once again gaining traction in our attire (and rightly so!).

In this class you will create one hat, from start to finish! You can select from one of many designs available from the instructor. Creating a hat includes the blocking, stitching, trimming and lining. Felt is the most pleasurable millinery material to work with as it is forgiving, malleable, and fun to touch. This a great place to start.

We will be doing a lot of hand-sewing. Because of this, some hand-sewing experience might be helpful, but it’s certainly not necessary. What is necessary is patience.

Feel free to bring personal sewing notions such as thimbles, pin cushions and pins etc. If you don’t have any, no worries, the instructor can provide. Also, you are welcome to bring any little bits or baubles you might want to add to your hat. The instructor will help you decide on suitability to the project and media.