Sinamay (returned to)

And another hat done - this technically fulfils the brief as far as made up hats go (the brief being for three headpieces, at least one of which has to be a full hat).

That said, there are two others I'm working on that I'd like to get finished (whether I will or not is open to question.  And another on top of that, that will fit with this collection, so I'll add here, but that won't be finished for hand in day! (But I only thought of the design for the last one a couple of days ago.)

Anyway, the sinamay monster - I think I've worked out that I quite like sinamay, if I can use it on my terms, and in my own way, instead of getting trapped (and hung up on) the uber-traditional styles that it's most often used for.  I'm now also planning yet another hat, using some lace I've had knocking about for a few years, backed in sinamay.

Anyway, the sinamay hat - it's inspired by both 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari', and another 20s German film, 'Algol.  
The two films had the same production designer, Walter Reimann, who used lots of bold geometric shapes.

From Algol.

From Caligari.

The hat is made in natural sinamay, with black details.  It isn't blocked - it's a flat pattern hat entirely, and partly hand sewn and partly machine sewn (unlike the others, which are entirely hand sewn).

Originally I'd intended to make a blocked hat using one of the big brims at college, but a sinamay delivery failure put paid to that - but as it was, I was dithering anyway about which brim to use, and I think that might have been because one of them really fitted with the idea I had for the hat - this cut and sew cone is much closer to the idea I originally had.

The little black cone on the top is intentionally slightly off kilter - just as the cut black triangles all are.

The disc under the hat, which helps make it fit to the head, is blocked, on a basic button fascinator base, and is edged in more of the natural sinamay that it's made in.

I think that, of all the hats I've made, this is probably the one that's most 'me'.  It's certainly the one I'd feel most comfortable wearing.

So, hat number three, complete (apart from the elastic I'll need to add to keep it held to the head - I'll have to add tat first thing at college, because I have none!)