A Hat Workshop
A couple of weeks ago I did a hat class in a small town near me, Spencerville. It is a great little gallery with some workshop space. https://www.spencerstreetmuse.ca/
I had 4 students including the owner. These are the samples I brought to show some possibilities. Sorry for the bad picture, I had to cut it out of one of the other pictures. The 3 ladies all picked the same style of hat, the black and blue one in the middle.
And the gentleman wanted a wizard’s hat for part of a costume. Nothing too tall so we were good for space and time.
You know the drill first you lay out all the wool.
Then you wet it and rub it with Tupperware juice jug lids on top of the bubble wrap. Two of them are getting great patterns in their bubbles. You can see the shape of the wizard hat bottom right.
Then there is the rolling.
Next is the scariest part for most new people…..the cutting.
Then we moved on to more rolling and then some scrunching and a little tossing to get them down to the right size. I do have some basic hat blocks but I make people try them on to see if they fit like they want them to. Then we can fine-tune them before the final shaping. At this point, the gentleman had to leave to make it to work on time so I gave him some information and told him to contact me if he needed help. So no more pictures of his hat.
And the finished hats, they all turned out really well. And one of the ladies bout the black and blue sample hat so I will have to make another.
Sorry for the sort of quick post with not much info but our Guild Sale and Exhibition is this weekend and I am in charge( silly people letting that happen). We will be on our second and last day when you read this.




12 thoughts on “A Hat Workshop”
Short and Sweet Ann. The hats turned out really well and you got a sale out of it too. Can’t be bad.
I hope the Exhibition and Sale has gone well. I love the patterned scarf that is shown in the middle picture of the poster. Is it Nuno? If not how was the pattern done?
Those Tupperware liquid container lids are really great felting tools aren’t they? I wish I could find mine.
Here’s a tip for tying up your rolled up fibre and wrap – take a long piece of velcro – the soft furry side – and stitch a bit of the hooky side to the reverse of either end of it. Then you can wind it round your roll, furry side up and just dab on the hooky ends anywhere on the furry side. It’s unlikely to come undone till you’re ready and it’s a lot easier to undo than a knot of wet string!
Ann
Thanks, hat classes are always fun. The sale and exhibition went really well and I am sure in a couple of post Jan will have lots of pictures for you to enjoy. That a good tip about the Velcro. the scarf is a woven scarf with a painted warp I believe.
Great idea about the velcro in Ann’s comment above!
Shame the man couldn’t stay to finish but the ladies look really pleased with their lovely hats. Lovely photos of the workshop.
The sale of your hat was a bonus 🙂
Thanks Ladies, it was a shame he couldn’t stay but he should be good to finish it.
Love the hats!
Thanks Molly
Lovely results Ann and that Tupperware lid is my favourite tool too! Hope your guilds sale and exhibition went well.
Thanks, I love my Tupperware kids. The sale went really well with lots of customers.
Lovely hats, lovely post. I love making them this way, and it always seems so magical that you will get a perfectly fitting hat at the end. I would love to have seen the wizard’s purple hat.
thank you . the hats did turn out great for the ladies. Felting is magical
Looks like another great group of students. I hope the man sends photos of his wizard hat, it would be interesting to see how it came out. I hope the guild sale and exhibition went well. I bet you’re glad that is over!
Thanks Ruth, unfortunately no one sent me a picture of their dry hat. I hope they still liked them. The sale was great, lots of visitors.