This week’s block is a shallow dome crown hat. This round crown would sit very high, barely cupping the head, with its just over 1″ rise. It is 19.5″ in circumference. As with the previous tapered crown hat blocks, this brim is shaped, creating a curve tha dips in front and back. The brim is 3.25″ deep at the sides.
These are examples of dome crown fashion hats with various depths of crown.
This unboxing reveals a new personal skill challenge as well as a change in my collection’s direction. You will likely notice I am both excited about this new challenge as well as nervous. I want to get this right and do the contents justice.
This week’s block is similar to last weeks. It is a tapered crown with a shaped brim. This crown is taller than the previous. It rises just over 2.75″ in the front and 2″ on the sides. This crown is also 19″ around. The brim is also shallower, being only 2.5″ deep in the front.
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This begins the next segment of Millinery Monday. For the next several weeks, I will focus on original plaster millinery blocks in my collection.
To start off, this block is a tapered crown with a shaped brim. This block may have originated from the mid 1850s through the 1860s. Notice the crown is shallow. It rises 1.75″ in the front and 1.5″ on the sides. This crown is 19 inches around, meant to be worn high on the head as with most fashion hats of the era. The brim is only deep enough to cast some shadow on the eyes, but not shade the whole face.
Following are examples of a tapered crown style.
After a blur of a January, February finally felt productive again.
The end of January wrapped up my extended New Year’s e-publications sale. By the end of the sale, over 70 publications sold, many to returning readers. This allowed me to recover from my holiday illness without stressing too much over my budget. Thank you.
February began the official spring season for the year. I filled the shop with some favorite styles and some new ones….
February wraps up the two month long series of winter millinery in Millinery Monday’s post. Be sure to check those out if you missed them. March will begin a look at the plaster millinery blocks in my collection.
Whimsy Wednesday continues with weekly chats and occasional projects. This past two weeks we made a woven ribbon pin cushion.
Projects: I have several projects rolling around in my head, enough to actually make a list:
● Delayed: Wadded Hood Pattern
● Urgent: The annual numbers thing
● Historic: 1830s stays (Redthreaded pattern tweaked)
● Historic: Straw sewing appropriate clothes to go over the above stays.
● Historic: I keep thinking about that rose stripe sheer
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● Functional: Tall necked millinery head (Must find the wood disks)
● Functional:
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● Dolls: New Dolls need clothes
● Grape hat, pink roses hat, burgundy roses hat,
● Just for Fun: Pansy pen wiper
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Or Bonnet?
I am asked regularly about storing and displaying hats and bonnets at home between events.
I talked about some of the stands and boxes I use for millinery during the Community Cast Day 8. For some reason, I did not include the larger band boxes I use for my personal millinery.
I use fabric heads for most working millinery pieces as they get ready to go to their new homes.
I use far more stands when setting up my millinery display than I do at home. I would love to have a couple dozen original wood stands, but that would be very costly. Instead, I have taken to making my own stands.
This is a sampling of the band boxes I use:
Here is a miniature version of me sewing a bandbox: https://annaworden.wordpress.com/2016/04/08/a-week-of-sewing-cases-4/
Here is a previous post on storing bonnets: https://annaworden.wordpress.com/2015/04/15/how-do-i-store-my-bonnets/
A bit on bonnet baskets that I still haven’t tried: https://annaworden.wordpress.com/2015/04/08/bonnet-baskets/
If I Had My Own Blue Box: 