I’ve been feeling a bit down these last days, but at least I have managed to sew the grosgrain to my straw hat. I’ve used something between a slip stitch and a back stitch, but I’ve had to stab my way through, but it has turned out ok.

It was difficult to align the ribbon because the straw is swirled, so I couldn’t follow it’s line, but I looks good enough for me. I should have curled the ribbon which I didn’t because in the beginning I thought it was not necessary. To remedy the buckled look of the ribbon I sprayed it with water and I put the hat back in the block, that way the ribbon dried up flat and looked a little bit better.

You will have noticed that I have not posted for a few days. It has been a few busy and fun days because Kate has been in Barcelona and I’ve been showing her around. She’s been the one with the camera so I suggest you try her blog because soon she will be posting about her time here, and I think she’s had a good time (and so have we!).

For those curious on how it went with the straw hat, you can see the picture on the left. I still have to sew the grosgrain headband but I have been wearing it nevertheless. I think that sewing the band will be difficult because of the coarseness of the straw, but I will let you know how it goes.

Instead of buying expensive ribbon for the trimming at Mokuba (I didn’t find anything nice), I found this sating scarf at the Promod sales. Promod is a clothes store, but they also sell accessories. It cost only 3 euros, and I gives a happy look to the hat. When I’m wearing it with my big sunglasses I feel just like screen star on a summer holiday at Capri (I am not deluding my self, I said I “feel like”, I’m miles away from looking like one, although the hat looks the part!).

Back to Kate’s visit, we met my friend Nina and visited her workshop. Kate took a lot of pictures there, so be sure to check it out!

Ah, another thing. Today my CD “Hats at Royal Ascot 2007 as seen by The HAT magazine” has arrived. I haven’t had a chance to look at it but it looks promising. For those not already subscribed to The HAT magazine I must tell you to subscribe NOW. It’s just great in every possible way, a must have, if you love hats it’s the magazine for you (it comes out 4 times a year). I have every single issue that exists and I treasure them. Back issues sell out quickly so be quick to get those too. I will do a proper review on the magazine soon!

Finally, the hat ebooks at how2hats have a 50% sale on all their ebooks during the month of August. I for one will be taking advantage of that and will let you know about the ones I buy!

There you have it, the Mokuba Barcelona shop window. What you might be surprised to find out is that, not only I was not allowed to take pictures inside (apparently it didn’t matter if I spoke to the Pope himself, nobody was going to approve my taking pictures), but when I said that I would take pictures of the window from the outside, I was told NO, I could not take pictures from the street, and was told that I could be sued by the company because that is private property. The lady did not care that I wanted to say good things about Mokuba in my blog, probably didn’t know what a blog is, who knows!

So I ask… WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH PEOPLE?! I just wanted to write a nice article about Mokuba, tell you guys what a nice place it is and what beautiful ribbons they have, but instead here I am, letting you know how upset I am about their silly (and honestly counterproductive) attitude.

I was unfazed by all that silliness and decided to take a couple of pictures from the outside. Unfortunately nobody inside saw me, but I will make sure to send them a link to the blog. So if you don’t hear from me for a while it’s because the police have come for me.

Oh, and I did buy some grosgrain for the sweatband of my straw hat (that was before I asked if I could take pictures otherwise I would have bought nothing). It’s a nice golden color. As you can see they pack it really nice with a heart shaped lollypop. The logo of the shop is a rocking horse, not surprising since Mokuba means rocking horse in Japanese.

The price, 5.49 euros for 65 centimeters of grosgrain… very steep! But of course, if you buy a full spool then it becomes much more reasonable.

P.S. I just found a Spanish blogger that went to Mokuba early this month and was allowed by friendly employees to take pictures (inside and out) for her blog! See the posting here.

The picture on the left shows the original shape of the body. I ‘ve had it for a while and the truth is that in it’s original form it reminds me of a van Gogh painting, be it the self portrait or the one where the field workers are taking an afternoon nap.  It’s not a look that I want for me, but when I flipped the brim down something miraculous happened because it got the most beautiful cloche shape.

 Don’t you agree? The downturned brim looks really great, but I don’t like the way the crown narrows on the top, so I’ve run the crown under the tap, shaken the excess water, and put it in a block. I’ve been able to use for the first time my new blocking spring (that I won at the competition of the Hatalk magazine). It’s not really a spring, more like a plastic tube, and you need to have all the different sizes because it doesn’t stretch that much.

Tomorrow I will see how I finish it off. The idea was to use a green vintage veil I have, but I’m not sure if that will work!