My First Fascinator - Millinery 2010

Wow! at last I have made my first fascinator for the Millinery course I am on. It is made from black and cherise sinamay with feathers on a black "widows veil net" attached to a black sinamay fascinator base.

I handmade the three flowers a calla lily and 2 roses. It has all been hand stitched into place with only the feathers attached with glue.  On this course we have to keep visual evidence of our work and the process that we went through to completing our project. Well I am so glad I did as this final version is very different to how it originally started out. I will go back to my original concept and develop that one. But I never just stop I have already started my 2nd fascinator and some more flowers.

Millinery Course

I've always loved hats and always wanted to make one, not just the flat pattern ones but the ones that you have to block. Well last year I came across a NCFE course being run at South Birmingham College, very local to me, in Millinery. I instantly signed up for it. The 12 week course didn't actually start until March this year (I was so excited).
So far we have covered creating mood boards, colour theory, loads on hats and fashion, even a visit to Bridget Rilley exhibition at Birmingham Art Museum, all of which has been great. On a practical level we have created a variety of fabric flowers in all shapes, sizes, colours and different fabrics and with ribbons.

Yesterday we had a drawing lesson on how to draw a face, then how to draw hats then the combination of both. We also looked at creating images by ripping up newspapers and magazines, this was very interesting.