First two hats of my summer collection complete (more or less).

My deadline is looming, (next Wednesday), so I'll be typing up my research notes in the next few days.

In the meantime, my first two hats for this collection are complete, bar some minor finishing.  So I thought I'd share some pictures.

First up is a cloche made from two recycled parasisal hats.  The crown is natural straw covered with black lace, and the brim is black straw, underlined with cream lace.
The flowers on the side of the velvet ribbon band are in grey, ivory, and black silk, with sparkly beads at their centres.

Hat number two, a pillbox, which is designed to sit on an angle, over one eye, is made from another recycled parasisal hat.

The natural straw is edged in cream silk.  The flowers are calla lilies, inspired partly by the hat I highlighted in an earlier post, and partly by the painting by Tamara de Lempicka.  I made the black lilies from stiffened linen, and the cream ones from craft foam.  The flowers have sparkly beads at their centres - the cream ones also have cut pieces of marabou feathers, and the black ones have shredded linen.  The largest black lily has peacock coloured freashwater pearls at the centre.

The 'veil' is made from a quarter circle of dress net, pleated out from the ends of the flowers.  I added a light scattering of Swarovski crystals to catch the light, and to mirror the sparkling beads on the other side of the lilies.