Learning: Lace Millinery meets Halo Crowns

My year of learning continues! This latest headpiece uses a combination of skills I learned this year, through the Hat Academy online classes I got for Christmas. The lace millinery I spoke about before has been combined with the Halo Crowns class taught by Rebecca Share.

Again I didn't buy the full course, but this time for a valid, non-cheapskate reason. The full course is focused on leather flower crowns, and I don't do leather for ethical reasons. But I love the look of the halo crown style, so I bought that class and tried to think of different way to use it.

I'm also experimenting with a vegan, ethical leather alternative at the moment, but I'll have to wait and see how that goes before I share more with you. I think a lot of the leather techniques can be applied to other materials anyway to some extent, and it's all more knowledge in my head that is bound to help me at some point!

This isn't the only course taught by Rebecca Share that I've been taking, and she's a great teacher. I want all of her courses now! She's talented and funny, and the classes are clear and well-structured.

I feel like it's not cool to admit this, but I'm really proud of this piece and of myself for the improvement in my skills this year. I realised that it had been a long time since I had made a piece that became my "new favourite", and now I have again!

I remember my mum's cross-stitch and learning the lesson that the back should be as neat as the front. I never achieved that in cross-stitch, but I'm doing alright here! Not as pretty, but just as neat.

My original inspiration was 1940s bridal crowns but it ended up a bit bigger and more dramatic than that. I still love it, and if I wasn't already married I'd be tempted by this for myself. It's probably a bit too much for a vow renewal though, right?