In this tutorial, London milliner Elena Shvab takes us back to the basics to learn how to block a sinamay crown and brim to create a traditional hat shape.

If you are quite new to millinery you are probably eager to get going with hat blocks. While there are plenty of hats and fascinators that you can make without any wooden blocks, adding blocking skills to your repertoire will definitely open up whole new worlds when it comes to hat making.

Some hat styles, like cloches and berets, can be blocked on a single block (this is known as ‘blocking in one’). Hats with more defined brims, however, will need to be blocked in two parts on two different blocks – a crown block and a brim block.

The amount of sinamay you will need for this hat project depends on the size and shape of your blocks and the number of layers you want to use. For strength and durability, you should normally block with at least two layers of sinamay. If you are working with very lightweight or loosely woven sinamay, you may even need three or four. The more layers you use, the stronger and less transparent your hat will be. Some people block multiple layers at once but, in this tutorial, you will be blocking each layer separately.

Category: Hats

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