There are a lot of talented milliners posting photos of the exteriors of their wonderful creations, which are very inspiring. But, I'd also like to see the insides of the hats and undersides of the fascinators.
I'm curious as to how many modern milliners are putting full linings in their hats and what kinds of linings. And I'd love to see what your labels - which are basically your artist signatures, and will be how people will know the hats were made by you - look like.
So in short....I'd love to see your labels and linings. Please post photos!
Tags: Essential Discussions
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Hi Beth,
It really depends on the hat you're working on but in general handstitch on the wire, then your curved petersham and then your lining under the petersham.
I handstitch everything and only use glue very occasionally for spot gluing.
OMG! This hat is fab! I had some wonderful disc blocked in the UK but did not know how hard it would be to attach them to an alice band or make a tripod. If anyone knows of a lesson, please let me know.
I line and finish my hats with petersham sweat bands. I think it is important to make the hat look finished and to protect the actual hat fabric from hair oil and hair products. If a lining becomes too soiled from products, oil or sweat, it can be changed out for a fresh look and feel. If the hat fabric gets soiled, you have fewer options. Straws I do not line, because I want them to be cool, but I do use sweatbands. I use a variety of lining material depending on what I have on hand,(trying to work through my stash) how cool or warm I want the hat to be, and what I think will look best. I like duponi silk, have used cotton and suit lining, and recently been using non-static lining, because quite frankly, I got a great buy on it and wondered if it would help with winter hair static problems. Recently, I have been using a stamp and stamping the lining. I think the stamp looks interesting. At first I was using my embroidery sewing machine and making an embroidered tag for each one. Cool look, but time consuming and not quite as precise as I wanted. Still finding my way.
I sometimes see hats that are blocked felt AND lined, which is interesting. Do any of you line your felt hats?
I've yet line my handmade felt, free draped hats, although I do use a petersham grosgrain inside headband on my hats that are not berets. (Probably should do the berets too but want to have the flexibility of adjusting for size AND alas, no store sells millinery petersham in my town).
My labels are a bit of a pain : iron on transfer of my logo on satin ribbon, which I fold over and hand sew on. I keep looking at the online embroidered labels on etsy (some allows any free online font) but have yet to take the plunge.
I even line my felts. I do have one listed at this time, a yellow cloche, that I did not line. But I do prefer lining the felts. My husband has a couple of old hats that belonged to his grandfather. The lining is soiled, which is why I prefer the lining. I know most people wear some type of hair products and all of our hair has oils, while I don't want to alter these fine old hats, I would like to be able to change out linings on the hats that I make if necessary. Take my advice with a grain of salt, I am a new milliner.
Try to approach www.minilabels.co.uk - they are quite good and their prices are reasonable. a good quality label is important if you are selling your goods to the public. send them a handmade design and they will let you know if its do-able or alternatively contact cash's as they make label for all the big stores and designer and this might well involve you having your own stamp created which will UP the initial costs, but will be reduced once you have your stamp.
By the way I do line some berets, and do put petersham/grosgrain in them....its important as that is the distinct difference between handmade and factory mass produced!
all the best
Bridget,
What do you use to stamp onto the lining, some sort of dye? Will you post a pic. so we can see it sounds very interesting.
I agree I always finish head-size hats with a curved petersham ribbon, and I always use silk dupion to line as it is a natural breathable material but still looks luxurious.
Greer had mentioned cotton lawn, which I've never tried - until now. This group gives me so many ideas!
Lawn is somehow a forgotten fabric but is soft and breathable and perfect inside less formal hats. I'm a little in love with Liberty lawn myself!.
I use a self-inking stamp. When I ordered my stamp, I was very limited in what I could get and was dealing with a worker that was doing her best, but didn't really have the experience I wish she had. I didn't want to put a huge amount of money into a stamp until I knew whether I would like it. Mine does not have graphics, which I would have preferred, or scroll writing. I actually ordered it from a office supply store, so it doesn't have fabric ink. It seems to work pretty well on the duponi linings, but can bleed on the poly silks. On those I get a cross hatch design around my name, but I thought it kind of gave it a design element that it doesn't have otherwise. So, I have been using it. Since it is not fabric ink, I stamp quickly and turn the hat upside down under a ceiling fan to dry as quickly as possible. I can also stamp a ribbon,iIf I don't want to stamp the lining. I will post a couple of pics ASAP. I am using my husband's computer right now, because mine has issues and I need to run a scrubber.
Yes Bridget, I changed from embroidered labels which I commissioned an embroiderer to make, to a self inking stamp using an ink especially made for fabric. Not as couture as embroidered label but with GFC I had to compromise some where.
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