Mad Hatter: My first Hat

Materials

After I finished sewing my crown and brim together I finally had a hat!
The next step was to think about trimmings. I knew I wanted to a black and red piece because as of now I plan on using black and red for my senior collection next spring. Since I'm using a sort of traditional form I wanted to go nontraditional with my trimmings choices.

I trekked around London checking out a few different stores before finalizing my plans. I bought a red feather base, 3 sets of red coque feathers (the tiny red ones), and two types of ribbon. I ended up using the pleated looking one over the plain black ribbon. I decided to just keep the plain black elastic, I can always make a few simple skirts using it as the waistband material.

I started off hand stitching the ribbon around my hat. I used plain black thread and made sure it was tight enough but not too tight that it would alter the shape of my crown. I finished by overlapping the two cut sides so it appeared as if it was one connected piece.



Next I stitched my red feather base onto the left side of my hat. I then took a leftover piece of my ribbon and made a sort of flower out of it, stitching this over the bottom of the feather base and the seam of the ribbon. 

Finally I separated my red coque feathers and glued them to my feather base. I used my scissors to gently curl some of them so they weren't all the same height and going the same direction. 

Overall I am very  proud of my first ever hat. Everything but hand stitching was completely new to me and I think that I did a great job at challenging myself for my first hat.

Goofing off in class, wearing my hat!

Exploring London: A Few Pictures

Goofing off in M&M World

Sample Sale: New Scarf, lamb's wool & angora

Eye Hospital: Look at that clock!

Hanging out in the sun

Loving the architecture 

National Portrait Gallery for class

First Ever Hat: Short Version of Steps

Chosen my blocks

Blocking the brim.

Blocking the crown.

Getting a fit before sewing on the ribbon.

Getting the crown off the block with a corset bone.

Sewing the crown and brim together.

Corsetry Progress Part 1

Laying out my pieces.

It's been a few weeks but I am making a lot of progress on my first ever corset. We tried on corsets to get a standard size to work with. Then we traced that size on pattern pieces and proceeded to make alterations to achieve a perfect fit for ourselves.

Dying my laces.

Next we cut out the patterns, laid them out on our fabric, and cut the pieces.

Outside of class I dyed my corset laces with Breakfast Tea. They turned out pretty well. Our corsets are kind of a nude color so the laces needed to match, not be stark white.

Museums for Days

The V&A

I have always been a fan of going to museums; I especially love art museums or any exhibit that has an interactive aspect to it (think games or things you’re actually allowed to touch!). One of my classes here at LCF meets at a different gallery or museum each week for two hours. It’s not really enough time to see everything but it’s a good glimpse into each place.

Guy Bourdin 

Outside of class I have gone out on my own to different museums to see various exhibits. So far I've gone to the Royal Academy of Arts to see a Moroni exhibit, an Allen Jones one, the Gothic by Charles Stewart, Still Life by Hiroshi Sugimoto, and the Reubens Legacy exhibit. At the British Library I saw the Terror & Wonder: The Gothic Imagination; so far this has been my favorite. It featured everything from Walpole to Dracula to a McQueen dress. I went to the Fashion & Textile Museum to see the Knitwear: Chanel to Westwood exhibit featuring knitwear from essentially the last 100 years. Then for class I had to go to the Museum of London as preparation for another class lecture. I've gone through the Don’t Stop Now: Fashion Photography Next Part 1 at one of my school’s buildings and I've stayed after my class at the V&A to see the Wedding Dresses from 1775-2014 exhibit. The dress exhibit was so beautiful and really had a wide variety represented. I bought a book so that I could have a little more information about it all.

Degas piece at the Courtauld Gallery

This past Thursday I went to the Somerset House and saw the Guy Bourdin: Image Maker exhibit, very colorful and different. While I was there I also got to see the Chris Stein/Negative: Me, Blondie, and the Advent of Punk exhibit which was all huge photographs by Stein. Then, using my Art Pass, I got in for free at the Courtauld Gallery and explored their different floors and spaces. They had a little bit of everything, including a few works by Degas which I absolutely loved. I didn't see everything because I had to go somewhere else but since I can get in for free I plan on going back more, especially to sit and sketch different pieces. Lastly, today I went to the National Gallery to explore and wander. I saw the little exhibit on Peder Blake and then went off into various rooms. They had some blocked off, but I intend on returning to see more and to just spend more time in each room. It was very crowded so I might go back at a random time during the week.

London Life

So it's been a while since I've written anything on here. I've been in London for about 2 & a half weeks now. My frist week was orientation with a few classes. Then last week was my first full week of classes and this is week 2 of classes. I have class Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday, but not on Thursday and Friday. I've already spent amany hours in the library checking out books, using the fast wifi (the wifi at the flat is super slow when everyone is on it), and doing research for my classes.

Me in front of the Natural History Museum

Classes here are a little bit different than at Purdue. First off, I have each class just once a week, whereas at home I have classes multiple times a week depending on their credit hour amount. Besides that I also have to do research all the time on different topics and stay up to date with a journal. The journal is a little sketch book where we put our notes, pre class research, pictures, sketches, ideas, etc, from our three mandatory classes. I like this idea, but it's hard to try and balance everything, I think I do a little too many notes but we'll see how it all works out.

I guess to wrap this post up, everything is a littl ebit different but I'm really enjoying it so far and I'll post more when I get a chance, there's just so much to do here!