Did you already see my sketches? Well, these are the hats I was asked to make for the semifinal of the Hat Designer of the Year competition 2012 and that have been exhibited for the final at Première Classe in Paris:

Do you want to know how I made them?… Then keep on reading!

COUTURE HAT: 7 YEARS HAT LUCK

The theme for this competition was LUCK, and this hat is a positive twist on a bad luck omen, a broken mirror that traditionally means 7 years of bad luck has turned into 7 years of HAT luck, and that is very good luck indeed. Initially I wasn’t thinking of writing words with the glass shards but every time I looked at the glass shards (made of plexiglass) my brain saw letters, so in the end I decided to write HAT LUCK on the hat!

The plexiglas has a protective film that I kept until the very last minute, and that allowed me to write notes to know which piece was which!

(click on “more” to see the rest of the entry)

The pieces are curved to  adapt to the shape of the base. I’ve done that using an iron at a low setting, putting an ironing cloth in between, and through a lot of trial and error.

The next issue was how to attach the mirror pieces to the hat. For that I’ve used two systems, when there is an overlap, I’ve drilled holes on the underside, so I could sew it like a button. On the ends where I could not drill holes because they would be visible I have glued a button shaft on the underside that has allowed me to attach the mirror invisibly to the base:

READY TO WEAR HAT: SWALLOWS

This hat is a cousin of my Marlene mini top hat, from my bird collection, which can be seen an purchased from LA’s hat shop The Millinery Guild. The mini hat base is made from a cork block that I have designed and carved myself. More hats with the same base shape can be seen following this link. The swallows (bringers of good luck, according to the French) are a new design I’ve made for this competition:

PATTERN HAT: THE DICE CAP

This dice is a fun cap that has a cubical shape and dice dots all around. I’ve made the pattern using my 3D modelling method.

Here is the model I made with plasticine clay, and from it I made the pattern pieces. After that I did a few prototypes to tune the pattern.

Here are some pictures of the top of the cap and its top stitching.

The dots are leather, made using an olfa circle cutter (a special one for fabric that leaves no holes). They’re hand sewn onto the cap.

That’s it!! On the next installment you will see the pictures of the Première Classe competition and the hats of the other designers.