Black Cloche Straw - My New Everyday Downton Abbey Hat

Inspiration for my new black straw cloche
came from several of  the Downton Abbey hats I've pinned on my
Hats and Other Millinery board

This is one of three hats I made in a fantastic 3-day hat blocking workshop in Wayne Wichern's Burlingame studio. earlier in the month. I've got a tiny bit more sewing to finish off the trim on one other, and will be posting about that, and the other I made, soon in this blog (when I score some cute photos - which is always such a challenge!)

When I pin different hats on my " Hats and Other Millinery" board on Pinterest, I often notice people saying that they wished they had reasons to wear hats, or that hats looked right with the clothes they actually wear as modern folks. I like making hats that actually do fit in with my life style. This black straw cloche has already gone on a number of walks with me and I loved wearing it. Yup, I still put on my SPF 50 sunscreen too!

This cloche, and one of the other hats I made at Wayne's, are definitely inspired by ones I saw on Downton Abbey. I brought photos from my pinterest board into class with me and Wayne helped me pick out hat blocks from his collection of nearly 1,000 vintage hat forms, to find similarly styled blocks. For my third hat I chose a combination of two blocks to create a classic fedora. All three hats are absolutely practical for my modern day life, and will be heading out on many walks with me, just like the ones that Sybil, Mary and Edith wore daily at Downton Abbey.

This is the second class I've taken with Wayne. I blogged about the first one which I took at Cañada College last year, in my post, Matters Millinery. Am I planning more visits with Wayne? Oh yes! He has open labs for folks who've taken these three day labs, and I already have hopes of making a 30's inspired visor in a colorful wool.

Wayne Wichern''s studio is in Burlingame is in the San Francisco Bay Area - on the Penninsula near the San Francisco Airport. Classes like Wayne's aren't a typical activity in most areas. If I lived outside the area, I'd consider setting aside funds to take a mini vacation for one of these workshops. He usually teaches them once a month. You can email him to discuss integrating one of his classes into your schedule. And let me know if you're coming!

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Web Resources

Matters Millinery http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2013/09/matters-millinery-making-my-own-hats.html

My "Hats and Other Millinery" board on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/lrshimer/hats-and-other-millinary/

Wayne's Workshop Schedule - Burlingame CA (San Mateo County, San Francisco Bay Area) http://www.waynewichernmillinery.com

Downton Abbey Cloche Hat Works Today - Making My Own Part 1 (Hats, Millinery)

Do you remember when Lady Sybil wore this cloche? It was in the episode when Branson drove
her to a political meeting she wasn't supposed to attend. So it wasn't a super dressy occasion.
I want to create a head fitting pattern out of multiple pie-shaped wedges like this. 
I'd also like it to have a nice rolled brim
that displays some kind of lovely lining.
I'm thinking about trying for something like this in lightweight denim.
Sybil's hat appears to have some kind of ribbon around the crown as well.

I'm enchanted by the cloche hats on Downton Abbey. A lot of them would be very wearable for modern times, especially for folks like me who live in a mild-winter California climate and walk a lot. We need to protect our skin (in addition to our SPF 50!) and keep the sunlight out of our eyes. So far I've mostly created fabric caps for this purpose. I like those, but I'd also like something with a brim that goes around an entire hat, not just a bill in the front, like a cap has.

I use an inexpensive foam wig stand for
storing this straw hat I produced from the first millinery class I took (Wayne* blocked the straws for us, we trimmed them).
See the tissue sticking out underneath?
I need that because my head is 2 inches bigger than
the crown of the stand. My hat is 3 inches bigger than the
stand (for comfort)
It's important to store hats on something that holds the material of the hat in place,
because otherwise eventually, they will collapse.

The wig stand is only 21" around the crown
The crown of my head is 23" - and that's a very tight fit
When I make a hat, it's 24 or 24 1/2 inches, for a comfortable fit.

I want to create a pattern for a cloche hat.
This one measures about 24" around, after I strapped a number of layers of duct tape tightly over my head.
My cloche will have some kind of a brim to keep the sun out of my eyes,
but the first thing is to get a well-fitted shape around my skull
I made this one out of duct tape and a nylon stocking (the knee high kind)
The stocking (more or less!) kept the duct tape from sticking to my hair
I got my ideas for this form from this post on Crafster

After I peeled the duct tape form off my head (pulling out a few stray hairs along the way!) and trimmed the knee high stocking, the rest of the stocking started to peel away, so I applied leftover (tee shirt) cotton knit scraps on the inside. Then I reinforced the edge all the way around with more duct tape. It was actually helpful, making the head/hat block more stable.

The cloche form needs to be stuffed with something to fit well on the foam head block
I could use leftover cotton knit scraps
 (I left the scraps sticking out in this photo just to make the point)

Or I could stuff it with tissue scraps
 (again, I'd actually stuff the tissue all up inside)

At this point, I can start creating a pattern that fits my head, with or without a brim.

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Web Resources

My tapestry cap inspired an Enchanted by Sewing show. In August of 2014 I recorded an entire audio podcast about sewing fabric caps, including technique and pattern talk http://www.enchantedbysewing.blogspot.com/2014/08/ench-by-sew-023-capping-off-summer.html

*In this posting I talked about my experiences in Wayne Wichern's millinery class. We focused most of our time on a fabric-covered buckram hat. http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2013/09/matters-millinery-making-my-own-hats.html,  Early this year, I'll be taking a three full day hat making workshop from Wayne in his studio in Burlingame. I expect to block my own straw and felt hats there. 

My first fabric cap in 2013, was a lovely subtle denim print. I've just about worn this out! http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2012/06/caps-off-chewing-bun-with-tuppence.html

Alvan's Crafster post about making a duct tape cloche hat form helped me with my form. Thanks! http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=gjkdubsculiivgd9tu5t1g50k3&topic=361109.0

Floracraft makes an Inexpensive form for base of a head block - a foam wig stand http://www.michaels.com/floracraft-wig-head/10315631.html