Millinery - blocking

Today was opening day at Del Mar! Of course that means everyone wearing their hats at the racetrack! Now that I know how to make hats, I truly appreciate all the hats even more.  With the last hat I made, I wanted to photograph some of the stages of hat making:

I used a head block to make the crown.

For the brim, I patterned a 2-inch wide brim and cut it out in the buckram.
Wire goes around the outer edge of the brim and then covered with a bias stripe of crinoline.

If you have a 100% all natural fabric, you can block the fabric too for the crown.

This eliminates having to pleat, gather, or have those seams in your crown.

Lots of handsewing at this point!

The black crown is for another hat I am in the middle of making
(just waiting for the right trims).
I made the brim asymmetrical, so I am excited for the finished product!

Cut out two pieces of brim in fabric... one for the top and one for the underside.
More sewing and add your details.

Put it all together, and you'll get something like this!

There are lots of intermediate details, but I just wanted to show some of the steps in making a hat (plus, I forgot to take more photos as I went along :)