If you’ve been exploring our Project Library, you may have already tried making a freeform felt headpiece or a hand-draped felt cloche. In this tutorial, however, London milliner Elena Shvab covers a different kind of hand shaping. This month, you will learn how to shape a blocked felt crown. This technique is perfect for lightweight millinery felt hats with dome shaped crowns, as these will be the easiest to shape without specialist tools. In fact, this project is a great extension of our recent blocked felt hat tutorial.

The way that you position your hands will determine the finished shape so it helps to make a sketch, or at least have an idea, of the design you want to create before you begin. It could be a classic fedora or a more abstract shape – it’s up to you! Once you start steaming and shaping, it will be hard to get the hat back to its original form so it’s good to have a general plan. You won’t be able to create the perfect shape in one go, though, so Elena will guide you through the entire process to get the result you want.

Category: Hats

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