In this tutorial, award-winning Australian milliner Catherine Ellen from The Essential Hat teaches you how to make a stunning saucer hat by pleating jinsin.

Jinsin is a mix of buntal straw and polyester thread. Buntal is a natural fibre which comes from the Philippines and is created from the stalks of the Buri palm. This fibre and the synthetic thread are woven together to create a new millinery material – jinsin. The buntal fibre forms the weft, or the width, of the jinsin and the polyester thread forms its warp, or length.

This jinsin saucer hat project is perfect for beginners, especially since you don’t even need to use a hat block. Catherine calls this down-turned hat shape ‘The Diorabella’ and says that it looks great in any colour, especially black. She decided to use a nice bright jinsin because it photographs so well.

Category: Hats

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