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Wendy Freaney

United States

• Jinsin Saucer Hat by Catherine Ellen

As a mostly self-taught milliner, I am always looking to push the envelope, learn new techniques and use different materials for my designs. I spotted the material used for this design, fell in love with the colors and knew I wanted to come up with something creative and outside of the box. So I searched the archives for a tutorial that would help me fulfill my goal and the Jinsin Saucer Hat video was a perfect fit. After reading the steps I was excited and inspired to experiment using the technique. To create a design using what was a new material for me, was daunting at first, but as I worked with the Jinsin the design concept came easily. The fabric was exciting to work with so I wanted to design a piece that made a statement as well as being versatile and easy to wear. The structure of Jinsin produced amazing curves, although the material did have some challenges to overcome during the construction of the piece, mainly the fraying of the material using fabric glue to set the edge and steaming to shape the components. It was so rewarding to see the hat evolve, with the stripes producing some incredible visual effects, especially after I combined with a sinamay bias and a sinamay button base to ultimately create my design.

• Jinsin
• Sinamay
• Fabric glue
• Satin fabric
• Turkey Arrow head feather
• Steel wire
• Rayon covered wire
• Sewing machine
• Hand sewing needles
• Thread
• Thimble
• Tape measure
• Metal ruler
• Pins
• Tailors chalk
• Steam Iron
• Dolly head
• Button base block
• Cling film
• Parchment paper
• Elastic bands

• Circumference and fabric measurements Jinsin width 37cm – Jinsin length 58.5cm – Hat Circumference 117cm
• Right angles to create a perfect rectangle
• Fabric glue to Jinsin raw edges
• Pleat Jinsin 1cm intervals
• Block button base with triple sinamay, sew in wire edge
• Fan out Jinsin crown on dolly
• Make sinamay bias
• Sew steel wire to crown
• Cover edges sinamay bias, hand sew
• Attach sinamay base to crown
• Create Jinsin fan for embellishment and steam
• Sew embellishment to crown
• Sew feathers to crown
• Create bias satin lining, gather and attach to button base
• Attach hat elastic