"white lady"

Bianca Horne

Poland

• Placemat Hat Project by Jane Fryers
• Making Bias Binding Project by Ann Morse-Brown
• Freeform Fascinator Project by Ann Morse-Brown

I was always obsessed with the style from 'Sex And The City' and now more recently with 'Emily in Paris.' I always loved making things especially fascinators. I think I loved creating them because, well, there are just no limits in terms of style, design, medium, texture - literally anything goes:)...and let's be honest who doesn't love a nice hat:) Making them became a form of therapy. For health reasons, and having a young family I had to prioritise things to deal with, and sadly hat making was just on the back burner. I came across this HATalk platform with magazines, project overviews, listings of suppliers, amazing milliners who I can only dream of aspiring to, and thought I would get back in the game. I had loads of old placemats that I wanted to throw out and I thought, what a waste, I could make a headpiece with them:) I probably focused mainly on HATalk Issue 81 and the project "upcycled placement hat" but to be honest I used bits and pieces from other issues, making the bias binding, the freeform fascinator, etc. Just reading and printing the articles gave me so much inspiration and the motivation I needed to start again. I know the hat is not the most technical, but I think it's fun and more importantly wearable - light and comfortable, without being too formal. I could see "Carrie Bradshaw" wearing it;)

• Blood, sweat and tears 😀
• Straw place mat
• Invisible thread
• Straw stiffener
• Sinamay
• Coloured straw pieces for pom poms
• Dolly head
• Alice band
• 18 gauge wire
• Tape
• Scissors
• Paint brush

• Cut out the desired wire size to go around the mat
• Attached the wire to the outer edge of the mat
• As directed I sewed a spare braid from a different placement hat on top of the wire
• Covered with navy sinamay bias strip
• Manipulated it into the shape I liked.
• Put in some placement stitches using invisible thread
• Varnished lightly with straw stiffener to ensure it kept the shape
• Made the pom poms using YouTUBE
• Covered Alice band with braid from spare mat
• Attached hairband