Here you will see the winners of our first hat competition. The year 2009 marked our 15th anniversary and we thought a hatmaking event would be the perfect way to observe this milestone. The competition promoted hat wearing and honored the hard-working milliners and hatters of today. National NonWovens* company was our co-sponsor. WoolFelt™ can be blocked or used in cut n' sew pattern work. It has a nice body and weight and comes in a lot of colors. (*National Nonwovens has been an innovative textile solution since 1905. Made in the USA, WoolFelt is a trademark product of National Nonwovens.)
We see an upturn in the interest of hats and are excited as we look towards the future. The number of millinery courses being offered around the world is well above opportunities that were available 15 years ago. Both rural and urban populations are wakening to the allure of the hat. As we reflect on our place in the hat world we consider ourselves most lucky to work with inspiring customers and vendors and offered the contest as one way to express our thanks and gratitude. We will continue to passionately promote all things “hatty”.
The competition consisted of two categories, Blocked WoolFelt™ and Flat Patterned WoolFelt™. We awarded one First Prize and one Runner-Up in each category, four winners in all. First Prize placement both categories were given a $250.00 gift certificate to judithm.com and $500.00 worth of WoolFelt™. Runners-Up entries for both categories received $150.00 gift certificates to judithm.com and $350.00 worth of WoolFelt™. Contestants were required to make their hat using a 36x36 inch square of WoolFelt™. The only limit to entries was the hat had to be wearable. It could be brimmed or brimless, utilitarian or whimsical. The theme was the choice of the milliner. Contestants could use any color offered by judithm.com. The WoolFelt™ yardage comes in 100% wool and a 70% wool/30% rayon blend. Judging took place in early March and was based on skill, style and how well the finished hat style showed off the versatility of the felt.
The Hats
Blocked Hat Winner WoolFelt Competition
Mary Ann Koch - Couture Creations Pipersville MD USA - www.couturecreations.net
My ideas drifted towards using the material in such a way that would produce a hat that was durable in nature for everyday wear as well as a design that I could offer my clients in the future.
The challenge I created for myself was to make one hat including trim using only the one sq. yard of felt.
The concern was that in the blocking method, having to pull the fiber tight over the block that the fiber would tear apart. I experimented with boiling the wool and opted to not use that technique. With this concern in mind the following techniques were used.
1. The crown is made of 2 layers of felt, machine quilted in an arch pattern that would add interest and movement to the crown. Once the crown was complete I choose to keep the brim simple and not distract from the detail of the crown.
2. The brim, also made of 2 layers of felt, were fused together and blocked separately from the crown. The brim edge was then wired and bound with a double layer narrow edging in felt.
Both the crown and brim were treated with hat lacquer before removing from the blocks.
3. The trim: I used my own flower design and constructed each part using 2 layers of felt. The petals are topstitched not only for durability but also as an added detail to the work. The leaves are 2 layers, graduated in size again to add detail to the design.
Blocked Hat Runner-up WoolFelt Hat Competition
Lisa Farrell - Ooh-la-la Highland Park, IL USA - www.parishats.com
My goal with the hat I created was to design something fresh, modern and completely wearable. I think millinery and hat wearing is viewed as antiquated and archaic with no relevance in the current fashion vocabulary of today. As a professional milliner, I believe my challenge is to find a way to take the traditional art of millinery and bring it into the 21st century by using established techniques and vintage materials and imparting them in a fresh and fashion-forward manner.
The modern beret I created uses several vintage elements and techniques but states them in a clean and contemporary way. The hat was blocked on a vintage beret puzzle block and then black veiling was placed over the felt to add texture and interest. Using vintage stamps, I created flowers from the remaining wool felt, which I layered with black tulle and accented with vintage black glass mourning buttons. Black arrowhead feathers give the beret shape added height and vertical sweep.
Bio: Lisa Farrell has a diverse professional background from costume design to retail sales of women's apparel and accessories for the home. As a milliner, she designs inspired fashion pieces, intended to be worn and admired.
Lisa's hand-blocked felts, straws and fabric hats are often embellished with handmade flowers of her own creation. Silk embroidery, feathers and other well-crafted trims beautifully detail her classic and one-of-a-kind creations. When asked to describe her work, Lisa sums up her hats as "Simply divine little confections for the head!"
Lisa's achievements have been many. Her proudest moment came in December 2002 when she was honored, along with her fellow colleagues of the Millinery Arts Alliance, as Victoria Magazine's "Entrepreneurs of the Year."
In 2000, Lisa opened Ooh-La-La, her millinery shop and studio in downtown Highland Park. "Founding Ooh-La-La was the realization of a life-long dream," she states.
Pattern Hat Winner WoolFelt Hat Competition
Rose Monzyk - Hats By Josephine Washington, MO USA - pleasantinterlude.com
I wanted to show the versatility possible in a wool felt hat. I drafted my own pattern and used strips of wool to weave the crown. The hat can be worn with a turned up cuff and an assortment of embellishments. An optional brim is topstitched in concentric circles and attached inside with velcro. The cuff may also be turned down for a version that pulls down further on the head. The cuff may also be turned up partially. The embellishments have a pin on back for easy on and off. The hat is lined and finished with millinery grosgrain band inside.
This hat offers a wardrobe of options to suit every mood from casual with jeans and into rhinestone embellishments to wear with a dress coat or suit.
Bio: Rose has had a love for fashion since she made her first doll clothes at age 8. She made outfits complete with purses and hats. The first hat was a piece of felt stretched over a dessert dish. In the 70's Rose purchased millinery textbooks and tried her hand at a couple samples. At that time she was busy with a husband, 3 children and growing a business. So the millinery was put aside. Several years ago, with the children grown, she got out the textbooks to make a couple hats for herself. She was hooked. She took some classes from Dee Atkinson and at Judith M. Rose felt like doors had opened for her.Then, practice, practice, practice. I promote my hats where I can and use opportunities as available.
" Working on millinery isn't work at all. It transports me away from everything else going on. I catch myself just smiling as I create. And have you noticed how others smile as soon as they see your hats? It's pure joy. Like my husband and I often say, the world would be a kinder gentler place if ladies wore hats more often."
Pattern Hat Runner-up WoolFelt Hat Competition
Susan Freese - Mostly Millinery Franklin, IN USA - www.mostlymillinery.com
For this hat I wanted to emulate a hat shown on the envelope of a dress pattern one of my late aunts had owned. I topstitched each of the three pattern pieces by hand. I also hand sewed the three pieces together. The felt, although being thick, was not difficult to stitch through, even the three layers in the flap area. Machine staystitching was used along the lower edge of the sideband to keep it from stretching out of shape. I cut a lining from black dupion (dupioni) silk.
As I stated in the beginning, I chose this pattern for two reasons: it resembled a hat from a vintage pattern and I wanted a challenge. I would not have chosen to work with this type of felt had it not been for the contest. By working with the felt, I found that flat felt is able to lend itself to a wide variety of artistic possibilities. Its malleability could be quite versatile in creative possibilities. To me, it is more of an artistic tool than the usual felt hoods and so on. The wide variety of colors available is another artistic plus. I can envision sculpting and forming all sorts of flower petals and leaves and some free-form hats.
Bio: Susan has been making hats for almost 10 years and has taken classes from instructors at Judithm as well as as Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. She uses traditional materials and techniques, for example blocking hats using straw and wool materials on vintage wooden millinery blocks. The hats she creates are individually unique. No two hats are alike. In addition to her one of a kind designs, she creates special orders for clients.
Hat Competition Finalists
The nine semi-finalists are shown below in alphabetical order.
VERONICA CHIN - Burning Bush Millinery Lake Bluff IL USA - blocked entry
I chose the hardest crown block I have to see how this would stretch and mold. Also I wanted something that is asymmetrical which is hot in fashion at the moment and gosh darn it -- I like asymmetrical stuff. I chose a larger brim as I wanted to see how this felt would hold up. I doubled the felt on the brim to give it more body and sized it furiously. I wanted to feature the indentations in the crown with beading and of course, feathers add to any girl's hat.
ZENA HERBERT - The Sea of Dreams Morecombe UK - www.theseaofdreams.com - pattern entry
The malleability of the felt allows sculptural effects and I wanted to exploit this quality by using a flat pattern only and not by manipulating the felt with steam. The Beret is a traditional felt shape and I felt it could be extended so that it carries several nuances within a classic design. This hat began as a sea-nymph’s shell with wild ‘fins’ but it was too fixed for what I wanted. It extended into a flower cap and changed again into a pagoda. I wanted to incorporate all these shapes by suggestion and not by statement so that the wearer can find whatever she chooses rather than a fait accompli. A beret is commonly thought of as an everyday, push-in- the-pocket hat but I wanted a more exotic cachet to give an air of sophistication. Simultaneously, I wanted the hat to have a playful feel. My intent was to achieve this by a combination of line and trim.
BOB JESSEE - Black Sheep Hat Works Bremerton WA USA - www.blacksheephatworks.com - blocked entry
From the home of the worlds greatest cephalopods comes the dazzling, the beautiful, the awe inspiring "CHAPEAU PIEUVRE" the Octopus hat. Inspired by the giant octopi that reside here in the Puget Sound, the Chapeau Pieuvre's eight arms of grace are poised delicately to frame your beautiful face the way only an invertebrate can.
The main body of this hat was blocked over a hand carved form. A wire frame supports the structure with some batting as fill to prevent collapse when handled. The legs have been "skewered" with flexible wire, leaving them poseable yet ruched. An elastic band is used for securement. The eyes are natural stone beads and the hat is lined with sea foam silk.
SARAH PADGHAM - Sarah Padgham Hats Martinez CA USA - www.sarahpadgham.com - pattern entry
My hat has a slanted crown made from 11 asymmetrical panels. I love the look of seams and precise top-stitching and I incorporated this into the hat I created for this competition. I decided to make the panels asymmetrical because I liked the off-set look of each panel. The brim is an asymmetrical brim that is wider on one side to complement the high side of the crown. I rolled the wide part of the brim and tucked it permanently into the petersham ribbon that I used around the outside of the crown. The Petersham trim ribbon is a beautiful dark brown.
SHARON PANOZZO - NOUVEAU NOUVEAU: Hats by Sharon Peotone IL USA - pattern entry
The cantaloupe color of the felt set the background and using my needle felting machine and wool yarn I swirled in the magnificent colors to all sections of the pattern. To give extra body to the hat I fused satin to different pattern sections so that this satin would also serve as a lining for the hat when finished. As I assembled I reinforced all seams giving a more tailored look to the design. The trim was chosen to not only accent and complement the felt color but as to reflect the rhythm and flow of Degas’s ballerinas.
JOANNE ROLFE - Vintage Designs Narrandera NSW AUS - www.vintagedesigns.com.au - blocked entry
To enhance the richness of colour and create a sumptuous, textural feel to the fabric by presenting Woolfelt as a versatile millinery textile which can be designed and cut as flat fabric and subsequently blocked to create shapes and relief motifs making the blocked special occasion headpiece “Isabella”.
GINGER STRAND - Millinerium Flower Mound TX USA - www.millinerium.com - pattern entry
My inspiration for the WoolFelt hat contest was the cuttlefish, a member of the invertebrate cephalopod family containing squid, octopi, cuttlefish, and the nautilus. I intended to use the octopus as my inspiration (I highly admire the octopus for its intelligence and beauty), but all of my ideas looked too much like an octopus attacking one’s head! So, after some stream of consciousness sketching, an idea emerged that looked more like the cuttlefish. As they are both relatives, I decided the cuttlefish would do just fine.
I chose to create a cloche because it is a classic style and evokes warm feelings in me. The Cuttlefish Cloche is reminiscent of the nautilus shell even without the removable nautilus feather pin that I made. The pin is removable rather than sewn on because I like having options with my hats. The Cloche also recalls the helmet shape of so many shells, and even reminds me of Buck Rogers costuming and the Art Deco streamlined look.
LAURA WHITLOCK - Laura Whitlock Millinery Skokie IL USA - pattern entry
Flat-patterned wool felt has such a specific period association for me, more so perhaps than any other millinery material. It is the material of the late 1930’s through the end of World War II, a period when tough economic times, coupled with difficulty in getting materials from Europe, lead to a flowering of creativity in American millinery. Simple wool felt was cut and shaped into a stunning array of silhouettes. Trims became secondary to the shape of the hat, which was often created not by a professional milliner, but by the home sewer who craved something new and exciting.
My hat seeks to evoke this period in millinery history, but with a contemporary twist. I have created a classic period style, the mini fedora, but given it a sweeping, teardrop-shaped brim. I sought to highlight the wonderful qualities of the WoolFelt by piercing and scalloping the edges and backing them with a contrasting black felt. The piece is trimmed with a sassy black silk poppy and flirty black and red stripped coque feathers.
JOANNA ZARA - Joanna Zara Millinery Hove UK - www.joannazaramillinery.co.uk - blocked entry
This hat was inspired by the beautiful deep red of the felt and the fact that Valentine’s Day was just around the corner when I was starting the project. I wanted a bold, dramatic shape with height and movement. Strips were made from two layers of felt, stitched together along the edge and lightly stiffened. They were then woven and the resulting “fabric” blocked over a shallow bowl, then cut into a heart shape. Millinery wire was been threaded through two of the strips to hold the shape, and then spring steel wire was been sewn around the edge and covered. The finished heart has been mounted on a small fascinator base, also made with the woolfelt. The hat is finished off with a bold bow at the back, which balances the piece and adds a soft contrast to the geometry of the weave.