Confessions of a procrastinating blogger...

I hate it when I visit a blog only to find out it hasn't been updated in months (or years!). Kind of like ... oh.

Yes, it has been several months since I've blogged. And it hasn't been for lack of things to say. I enjoy writing, and I have some posts in the back of my head waiting to get out onto the computer screen. I just ... haven't written. And then, of course, I get into a vicious circle where I feel like I can't write a new blog post at 3 a.m. or without addressing my absence first. So this, I guess, is that thoroughly unexciting post.

I've been working away on hats (and theatre), not blogging.

More posts will be coming. Until then, you can check out Silverhill Creative Millinery hats on Pinterest or the Silverhill Creative Millinery etsy shop.

Types of Felt

This subject has come up lately, both among milliners I know and in trying to explain it to customers. So here's the basic info on the material used to make felt hats. 

Note: This is just about felt for blocked hats, not fabric or straws for other types of hats. And I know nothing about hand-felting or wet-felting. This is about the unshaped felts currently available from millinery suppliers (so it doesn't cover vintage felts, either). Fur felt — in any of its various finishes — is what you'll see used most often in high-end felt hats.

Wool — The least expensive option. Has a somewhat nubbly, uneven texture. Not as warm or as sturdy as fur felt. More animal-friendly. Decent color options.

Plain fur felt — More (2-4x) expensive than wool, but a much nicer quality. Holds its shape well and is quite warm. Made of rabbit fur (or occasionally rabbit and hare). Plain fur felt is dense and smooth. Lots of color options. Sometimes available in thicker/heavy weight or thin/tissue weight or with printed or embossed patterns.

Salome fur felt — A more rustic style fur felt with a kind of heathered color and occasional longer, spiky hairs. Dense and warm. Limited color options. 

Velour fur felt — Also known as peachbloom. A small amount more expensive than plain fur felt. Dense, but with a spongey, velvety texture on top. (This finish can be on both sides or on one side only.) Quite warm. Lots of color options. 

Long-hair fur felt — Also known as "beaver"-finish, "beaver"-style, long-nap or melousine. Not actually made from beaver fur. It is made of rabbit fur. Has long hairs on top of a dense felt. (The long hairs can be on both sides or on one side only.) The long hairs add a luxurious sheen if brushed/polished smooth. Alternately can be mussed up for a more casual style. More expensive than plain or velour fur felt. Quite warm. Good color options. Also available printed with animal patterns (leopard, cheetah, etc.) for additional cost. 

Suede fur felt — A sueded finish (not actually made of leather or suede). More expensive than plain/velour felt. Dense with a luxurious finish that looks like velvet or fine suede. Quite warm. Limited color options (generally dark/neutral). 

Cashmere — Made from hairs from a cashmere goat. A soft, spongey texture throughout. Very warm. Animal-friendly. Much more expensive than fur felt. Limited color options. 

Beaver felt — The top of the line. This is what the most expensive, luxurious hats are made out of. Especially popular for men's fedoras. Actually made from beaver fur (though there is a middle ground of felts that are a blend of beaver and rabbit or hare). The felt is thinner than fur felts and yet warmer and more supple. Holds its shape better than fur felt and is more naturally water-resistant. Dense and smooth. Limited color options. Expect a beaver felt hat to set you back at least $300 (and often more). 

L-R: wool felt, plain fur felt, salome fur felt, velour fur felt, long-hair fur felt, cashmere felt

One Year on Etsy

I have had an Etsy shop exactly one year today!

In that time, I have made 12 sales, to average exactly one a month. It doesn't sound like a lot (considering that some Etsy sellers have hundreds of sales or more). Considering that hats are a much tougher sell than something like greeting cards, I regard it as quite an accomplishment.

Baby steps to be sure. Etsy is not a place to get found. There's just too much stuff on there to even have a good shot at showing up in searches. Most "hat" results on Etsy are crocheted beanies or scrub caps. Ugh! But it is a good place to set up and facilitate e-commerce without having to set up a standalone web site, shopping cart, etc.

For today only (Oct. 31) until around noon tomorrow (Nov. 1), I am having a huge sale to celebrate my anniversary! 25%-45% off everything in my shop, with most things 40% off. No coupon code needed; just shop at the link below:

Silverhill Creative Millinery on Etsy

Creating Hats for Theatre, Part II

I wrote before about the logic (or, maybe, just the biased enthusiastic desire) behind making hats for "Pirates of Penzance." And shared my findings on hat styles/silhouettes circa 1877.

So this post is a little about the artistic decisions and mechanical challenges of the hats.

Pirates and maidens. (Photo by Adam Silverman.)

First off, the costumes. The costumer finished the dresses well before I began any work on the hats. So the hats were specifically designed to coordinate with the dresses (as well as each actor). Picky historians will note that the dresses are not strictly historically accurate in terms of cut, colors and fabrics. They are costume-y ... and delightfully sweet and silly in the pastel color scheme. They are fabulous costumes! And for community theatre (and a community theatre budget), they are truly amazing. The style was the thing: a slightly cartoonish aesthetic that was part of the director's wonderful vision for the show.

Thus, instead of trimming the hats in a variety of colors (which might be more historically appropriate), I made monochromatic hats for each of the four maidens. I used scrap fabric leftover from the dresses. Except for the lavender hat, which was hand-shaped sewn straw base, the girls' hats were made of buckram and wire and covered in fabric. (This was a fun and challenging step outside of my comfort zone, which is primarily felt.) ... And, of course, I had to put several matching ostrich feathers on each hat!

Mabel. (Photo by Adam Silverman.)

Mabel's hat was a different matter. As a character, she is "other." She enters separately from the other girls, and her storyline is very different from theirs. So I didn't have to adhere to the same choices with her hat. She didn't have to be as monochromatic as the other girls, which is good because the green of her dress would have been too much if the hat were the same color! I used a straw base (hand-blocked/shaped) and used four different colors of green to trim it (1=the brim edge, 2=the crown ribbon, 3=a ribbon to tie behind her hair and 4=the kelly green on a ruffle/bandeau at the back and as some of the ostrich feathers on the hat). Ivory ostrich feathers were on top to keep the green ostrich feathers from looking too intense. I am please with how well the greens pull together without matching.

Mabel's hat was also able to be less secure than the other four hats.

The four maidens had to do the following in the hats: run/scamper around, jump up and down energetically, be captured by pirates and struggle to get free, a bit of choreography that knocked the hats about sometimes, faint (lavender) ... oh, and bend upside down to start to untie boots!

"A man!" (Photo by Adam Silverman.)

The photo above was taken immediately after we stood up after bending over to untie our boots. The hats are still on! The director marveled at how unheard-of it is to have hats on stage go through all that and still stay in place.

Bad blogger that I am, I neglected to take pictures of the undersides of the hats. They were not pretty! But they were functional, and that is what matters. At the front of each hat, I put a hair comb, so the hat would be secured at the front as it slid back onto the hair. Clips or horsehair loops at the sides gave a little extra insurance, but they weren't a primary securing method. At the back, stiff wire loops were able to slide down into the hair at the back of the skull. Pinning those wires to the hair was what enabled them to stay in place so well. Again, strange-looking to any layperson who might pick up one of the hats, but invisible on stage.

During the tech rehearsal, the director said to me "You're just beaming when you look at those hats!" And so I was. I am quite proud of my work. More than one person commented to me that the hats pulled the costumes together and were the icing on the cake. Combining my passions for millinery and for theatre was quite a treat.

Maidens spying on Mabel and Frederic. (Photo by Adam Silverman.)

Creating Hats for Theatre

Hats on stage can be a nightmare. They shadow the face. They're another costume piece to locate, match and purchase. They can fall off at inopportune times.

For the Stowe Theatre Guild production of "The Pirates of Penzance," I couldn't bear to see the ladies go hatless. From a historical accuracy standpoint, they should have hats. Ladies outside in 1877 absolutely would have worn hats.*

The wonderful thing is that the first hat problem was immediately solvable. Hats from the bustle era were small affairs that were worn tilted forward onto the forehead. Sometimes the angle was so extreme that the hat was almost vertical. (You can see some of my research on my ca. 1877 Pinterest board.)

Four maidens. (Photo by Adam Silverman.)

As for the second obstacle, that was pretty simple, too. Finding/matching hats was no problem with a milliner in the cast. The only question was expense. I knew that the theatre couldn't afford to pay me for my work. I volunteered to create hats for the five girls in the show just for reimbursement of supplies. (And I ended up donating the cost of supplies I used from my personal stash.)

See, I also played Kate in the production, and I wanted hats, darn it!

Aside from that, I thought it would be a fun project where I could do an entirely different style of hat, get more practice working with buckram and do (gasp) theatrical millinery. In traditional/couture millinery, everything is sewn and finished off. In theatrical millinery, it's okay to use fabric glue, glue guns, even staples and to not finish the inside beautifully. It felt so strange to use glue on hats, but in the interest of time and cost, I did. And I would cringe a little to see the wonky, unfinished undersides/insides of the hats. ... But when they were on, you couldn't tell. They looked beautiful onstage.

More about the process of creating hats for theatre in Part Two ...

19th-century style hats. (Photo by Adam Silverman.)

* They probably would have had parasols, too. But I'm not a parasol-maker! Haha!

"Pirates of Penzance" Photos

I created five hats for "The Pirates of Penzance." A blog post about the process, etc. will be coming soon. For now, you can check out several photos I uploaded to my Facebook page.

"Pirates of Penzance" photos

Here's one to whet your appetite:

Hats ca. 1877

The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan debuted in 1879, but "by a simple arithmetical process you'll easily discover" ... that the show is set in 1877.

Thus began my research into designing hats for the Stowe Theatre Guild production (in which I also play Kate).

This is the type of thing Pinterest is made for! Forget recipes with gorgeous food photography or home decor ideas; I'm interested in collecting historical research.

I will share photos in another posting. Until then, here is a look at my Pinterest board: ca. 1877

Here's one of the images that inspired the hats I eventually created: