fascinating headwear

Thursday, March 22, 2007 @ 10:31 pm
Filed under sewing, stuff n nonsense

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A fascinator hat is a small headpiece usually mounted on a base, comb or headband worn jauntily to the front or side.

On Tuesday, as usual, I went to the Brindabella Women’s Group (a community group here in Canberra set up for women at home with children to meet and do some creative adult pursuits while their kids play in supervised care nearby) and this week the session was making fascinators.

Each week we have a set topic, often craft-related, and this session was the introductory session with our Artist in Residence for the year, a milliner called Christine Waring who is teaching us some millinery in preparation for our Community Project for this year which is Blue Hat Day - a week set up to highlight depression.

So a group of us learnt all about fascinators and how to make them. We were all a little nervous, having not done this sort of thing before but once we got going it was a lot of fun. Everyone turned out some wonderful designs and our milliner told us that similar fascinators would sell for around $250 in Sydney or Melbourne.

The main material was sinamay, which is derived from plant fibres and gives a stiffness to the fascinator. The sinamay comes in a range of colours and is cut into long strips on the bias - then we stretched and rolled it and formed it into curls and swirls. We had a selection of feathers, silk flowers, and other bits and pieces to decorate our creations.

Once we were happy with the design, we handsewed the pieces together and used glue in some places and then sewed the completed fascinator to a hair comb. I have a wedding to go to in a few weeks so I may just get an opportunity to wear mine someone fancy, if I have the courage.

It was a very interesting and creative session and we look forward to our next session with Christine, where we will be working on a larger-scale hat project.

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4 Comments »

whipup.net Said,

Saturday, March 31, 2007 @ 6:51 am

sent in a few fun links. JoshJakus bags and little elves on etsy who makes note pads from out of date maps. Madeline wrote in introducing her new online store selling handspun and hand dyed yarns Jen wrote in with a link to fascinators that she recently made - those wacky headpieces worn to the races and such! It was surprisingly easy and a lot of fun Judi wrote: I posted a free pattern for a simple cloth doll at my website. I
shannon Said,

Sunday, April 1, 2007 @ 2:11 am

These are fabulous!
sandra asten Said,

Thursday, February 14, 2008 @ 7:50 pm

Hi just found your blog on fascinators. I would love to be able to attend a workshop, but they all seem to be in the south of the country and i am in the north of England or in a different country alltogether !!!!!
I am now in the process of really upsetting all shop keepers of fascinators because i keep picking them up to see how they are made and have no intention of buying them.
joyce spell Said,

Thursday, March 20, 2008 @ 5:10 am

Help! i have been on-line for over an hour looking for a free pattern to download for a child’s pillowcase dress. I guess I don’t know how to look - can you help - Gummy to six beautiful kids\\