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Trisha da Cunha

Canada

• HATalk Issue 123: Working with Petersham
• HATalk Issue 28: Inspirational Technique 15

I was inspired by the cockades that were in two previous issued of HATalk, and then was interested in recreating a style where cockades originated. I looked at bicorns from the late 18th/early 19th centuries and wanted to recreate one, but with a twist. I drafted the pattern for the bicorn hat myself, and experimented with a couple of different sizes before settling on the final design. Since I used wool cloth meant for clothing, I stiffened it pretty heavily with shellac. I wanted it to be more feminine, so once the hat was steamed into shape, I covered the bicorn hat in pale pink feathers. I then created the two cockades, one in a sheer ribbon and the other in a rosette style, and topped them with a vintage brooch from my collection. I kept the cockades oversized compared to the hat for an interesting effect.

• Cream wool fabric
• Pink goose feathers
• Various ribbons
• Vintage crystal brooch
• headband
• thread
• glue (to adhere the feathers)
• shellac (to stiffen the wool)

• pattern drafting
• stiffening wool with shellac
• steaming and shaping the hat
• cutting and shaping feathers
• gluing the feathers to the hat
• creating a standard cockade
• creating a rosette style cockade
• sewing the hat front to the back
• sewing a headband to the hat