Millinery for Halloween: Vampires and ghosts in their finest...

Nothing says 'black widow' like a trickle of blood, veiling, and the hint of a smile.

Let's journey centuries earlier to Tudor-era vampires in french hoods.

It can be hard to keep pearls white with all that blood around.

Glimpses of ghosts from the 1890s...

...and the early 19th century.

Happy Halloween.

Straw and Sinamay

I'm going to talk more soon about what I learned about making hats using blocked straw hoods and sinamay, but for now here are the results.

I must have tried out a dozen trims on this grey straw before I was even moderately satisfied. How good are pheasant feathers? I'm so tempted to get a pheasant.

Also, I need some more blocks! Seeing another milliner's collection gave me some serious block envy.

This block too! I love these two colours together, and had such fun learning to roll the edges for the leaf and flower trims. Anything that can be rolled rather than sewn is a dream come true.

It's amazing how the wearer transforms the hat, and vice versa. I really wasn't excited about this hat until I saw it on Sarah. Now look at it! What an awesome hat.

Exploring jinsin again

At the 2009 Internation Millinery Forum, I did a course with Melbourne milliner and all-round inspiration Waltraud Reiner, and I learned about jinsin.

At the time it was a relatively new material in the millinery market, and it was fun to play with and interesting to learn about. But somehow it didn't quite speak to me, and I never got around to using the remaining material I had left after the class.

Until these holidays! With the spring racing carnival season upon us and facing a summery season without felt to fall back on (man I love felt), I wanted to re-engage with some warm-weather millinery materials. So I got out my jinsin and had a play.

I love the striking pink and black combination of this jinsin and the way it curves across her forehead and  draws your attention to her eyes.

Is that a shed in the background? How Aussie.

This purple one is made of three twirls of jinsin individually hemmed and shaped then all looped together. I wonder how high a stack I could make?