Now that the Hat Parade is over, I can move to other pastures, and my next project (really, I promise) will be to finish the trilby that I had already started, messed up, and have to start again. This is from the book that I reviewed some time ago.

This is a project that I was going to do together with Jane but because of personal circumstances I’ve had to postpone. I’m lucky that I can now profit from Jane’s experience and techniques in making this trilby (that she has already finished). You can see all the pictures she took if you follow this link. One of the debates about the patterns on this book was whether seam allowances were included or not. I did some research and concluded that Japanese pattern books never include allowances. Well tough luck, this one seems to be the exception, and Jane found out the hard way what has later been confirmed by two nice Japanese bloggers that left me the following two messages when I posted an SOS on their blogs:

First Miho told me:

Hi, Cristina,
“スタイリッシュクロッシュ” patterns are including seam allowance.
1.0cm : Head circumference (topper side of brim, and lower side of crown)
0.6cm : All except head circumference
In this book, it is written that seam allowance of the lining must be changed to 0.7 from 0.6 using same pattern.
Because the lining is smaller than face, it is beautifully finished.
I hope that my advice is helpful for you.
Happy sewing!
miho

 Then A-na confirmed the same:

Hello,Cristina!
Welcome to my blog.

In this bookスタイリッシュクロッシュ,the pattern includes seam allowance.
A seam allowance of head circumference is 1.0cm,and the others 0.6cm.
When you make the lining,seam allowance must be changed 0.7cm.
Although using same pattern, the lining must be smaller then the face.

Do you understand me?
I’m sorry I’m a poor explanation.
I wish you make lovely hats!

 I want to thank them for their effort in explaining to me this whole seam allowance business in English.

 By the way, I will be a few days in London soon… any suggestions on millinery related visits?

I’ve corrected the link to the book review!

Well… I didn’t do anything special this Sunday, but I wish I had been with Jill and all hat lovers on a real Easter Parade. No such luck, but here’s a picture of me with a ribbon embroidered veiled hat for the Virtual Easter Parade. 

 For those curious, I used veil from my vintage stash, and I embroidered the flowers with Mokuba ribbon on top of the veil, to help it stay in place.

Remember the day I helped Nina with a hat she was making for a theater play? It was for Oscar Wilde’s play “Lady Windermere’s Fan”, that opened on April 19th 2007 at the Catalan National Theater. I wrote about it here.

I did promise to show you a picture of the finished hat (designed and finished by Nina), and here it is.

By the way, Nina Pawlowsky won two awards for her work on this play. One is the “Adria Gual” award for costume design, given by the ADE (Scene Directors Association) during a ceremony in Madrid. The other one is the Butaca award for best wardrobe.

I say she’s the best and she really deserved those awards, and more!

Here are other shots of this hat:

Apparently something that has existed for years, I discovered today some fun looking hat templates made by the Japanese brand Clover.

I came across these while I was (as tends to happen) looking for something else. My current project is a sewn fabric trilby hat from a Japanese book (Stylish Cloches – スタイリッシュクロッシュ) that I’m doing at the same time as Jane, from Glorious Hats. She bought the book because she saw it here, in my blog, and then we decided to try one project together (although we’re in opposite sides of the planet). One doubt we had was whether the patterns came with seam allowance, but I was pretty convinced (after doing some research) that all Japanese patterns come without the allowance, that has to be added later on.

Well, now I have my doubts about that, as I’ve already made the lining for the hat and it seems huge! I wish I could read Japanese!!

Anyway, I started a search on Internet trying to find a Japanese milliner that might be willing to help us with this dilemma. I’ve posted comments on a couple of blogs and I hope something comes out of it. While doing all that I have found these fun looking templates. The beauty of them is that they are made of hard plastic, and come with a little wheel to mark the seam allowance. So you trace the stitching line first, and them roll the wheel around the template to mark the allowance… pretty clever!

Take a look at the promotional video. Alright, it’s in Japanese, but it’s really fun to watch!

If only we could buy this stuff… anyone for a trip to Japan?

By the way, this is the hat we’re going to make:

Years ago I bought on eBay a vintage veil lot. It was really exciting when I received a huge box filled to the rim with veils of all kinds and sorts.

Some are in very poor condition, but some are great. I have little bits of some, and a big bolt of others. With such an amount of veils it was difficult to have a clear idea of what I had in order to use it on my projects.

I had thought of cutting pieces and glueing them onto cardboard, but the veil is so fragile that I decided against it.

Then, the other day, I saw this Martha Stewart tip for using a business card organizer to keep the spare buttons, beads, thread, etc., that come with store bought clothes (and that tend to be missing when one needs them)…

Back to my veils, the minute I saw that on the Martha Stewart website I realized it would be great for making a sampler of all the veils that I have. I have temporarily labeled them with a white piece of paper that I’ve inserted along with the veil on the business card slot. There I have written a description of the veil, whether it’s wide or narrow, and how much I have.

Because I’ve taken the sample out of the end of the bolt (which is the part that is wrinkled and has been exposed to light), the sample often looks faded and wrinkly, but I prefer it that way, I refuse to cut out a square piece from the center, good part, of my veil stock.

Isn’t that great?!! I’m really happy with this solution, and it can be applied to so many other things!

Here are some more pictures (click to enlarge):