A request came in for a St. Valentine’s Day Massacre hat to match a Midrealm-inspired dress. I chose to build the hat from a Jędrzejko Christmas Red (583) base and paired it with remnants of green fabric featuring white roses and pearl trim. I have a few pictures of the hat in progress, as well as some finished project glamour shots.
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| In progress. |
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| Her Majesty's Hat. |
One of the coordinators for the Queen’s Prize Tournament reached out with a special request: a hat to be offered as a prize in the upcoming tournament set to take place at the Festival of Maidens in the Midlands. After some setbacks with the original design, I pivoted and created an oaken-inspired piece from a Jędrzejko Blue Sea (584) wool hat body.
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| The oak-and-acorn inspired hat. |
To recap my Facebook post in The Fellowship of the Traveling Hat group:
Mounted War Games holds a special place in the history of the Traveling Hat Club as it was our inaugural meeting of the Fellowship! (Or at least where the moniker was dubbed.)
Although we had originally planned a meeting, it wasn't in the cards due to (exceptionally embarassing) reasons, but Her Grace AnneMarie de Garmeaulx was kind enough to teach a class on needle felting, a technique we often use to embellish the hats.
While the rest of class was learning new techniques, I was distracted by my shenanigans and speed needle felting some ermine spots (or strange nazar-like ermine spots, just work with me here) onto an existing hat created on a lark before Pennsic Great Court for the Midrealm. (The shenanigan being I snuck our matching hats into the car for the trip, then snuck 'em in to the event to work on his, then wore his hat before court to "show him what I did (for me!) in class!", then accidentally pulled it off my head when Their Majesties asked if there was any regalia for the new Pelican in his elevation ceremony. Tee hee.)
Anyway, here we go!
A cap of maintenance for Sir Crispin de la Rochefoucauld.
I received a commission for a bycocket to be presented at the Midrealm coronation held locally in North Oaken. The person is a pivotal member of the Greenwood Company, which afforded the opportunity to play with several suggestions I had for Greenwood-themed hats! Pulling from the Traveling Hat Club archives, I selected the inspiration and proceeded with the plan.
The shape and brim came easily, but the adornments took a bit of creative adjustment to achieve the look I was going for with the beads I found. The pearls are floral cut beads attached below the needle felted wavy line of wool representing the red pale, while above are six seed beads sewn above, also representing the pearls of the court barony. The feathers are white ostrich and red-dyed pheasant as another nod to the pale of the Middle Kingdom.
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| Inspiration. |
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| Tacked down. |
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| Basted. |
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| Finished! |
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| A sneak peek. |
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| Sur la tete! |
The Fellowship of the Traveling Hat recently held session at Better War Through Archery hosted by the Barony of Sternfeld in the Constellation region in Indiana.
The class was a traditional in the sense that I presented the materials, then dove directly into hat making. Over the course of the time allotted, as well as the buffer between classes, about 25 new hats were released into the wild, and several on first-time event attendees! As usual, special thanks to everyone who showcased their hats throughout the day.
If you've attended a single teacher session, you know that it can get crazy when the creation of hats begins as you are vaulted to not only subject matter expert, but coach, style consultant, and cashier. Of those moments, which are often very blurred, was a woman who was quietly working on a pink hat. We consulted for the fit of the hat at some point and when I next looked over, she was cutting scallops into the hat -- a bold move right from the start! It was later at the B&B that her story was shared with me -- she was so excited and proud of the hat she created earlier in the day and how she had recreated the scallops off of the teacher's hat.It's moments like that which make driving in a car that look like this worth it.
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| The promotion shot taken on my way to BWTA. |
On Thursday night, I was preparing for Crown Tournament and decided to throw together a more interesting black hat without the usual pink accents. I stretched the hat once on my head using the steam method to elongate it, then proceeded to shape the rest to the desired fit. I marked a 2.5 inch brim line from ear to ear, then tapered down to the front point, however I added a partial scallop to it after cutting an index card to a desired size and shape, then carried the pattern around the brim.
While at the hotel, I tacked down the center peacock feather, but wasn't pleased with the slight turn of the feather, so I pulled two off of my charcoal grey hat and tucked them under the brass finding Sir Amadon Raudbjorn of Northshield gifted to me at Pennsic.
Overall, for a few hours of work it turned out nicely!
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| Shaping a hat. |
Duchess AnneMarie and I, with the assistance of Lady Claricia and Baroness Antonia, were able to lead a class of (at least) thirty people in making (at least) thirty-five hats. The class session held several repeat attendees, much to our delight, plus many new people eager to try their hand at new accessories. It was great success with many learning opportunities on both sides.
Thanks to Sir Bran for the pictures!
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| During the lecture. |
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| Shaping and ironing. |
The Fellowship of the Traveling Hat recently held session at the Midrealm Harvest Days in South Oaken (OH).
My meager display of hats.
When Crispin and I decided we were attending Harvest Days, I reached out to the event steward to see if I could secure location indoors to hold session, despite the classes being themed after games and we were quickly scheduled! Shortly after arrival Mistress Aveline showed me the space, I set out a meager display of items in advance of the class. Little did I know that throughout the day people would stop me and ask when we were starting, which started to make me a little nervous.
Thankfully, Lady Miriana was in attendance and was gracious enough to be my assistant during class. Because we needed it! We had a much larger group of people in attendance than expected! We were able to make between 25-30 hats in the time allotted which was incredible, considering I only had one iron! (Insert a very long story about my new steam iron missing a part.)
I consider this a learning experience - one iron is definitely not enough! And in order to not limit the size of class, an assistant is definitely needed. I cannot thank Miriana enough for being such a rock star! And thanks to Raziya al-Zarqua' for photography!
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| Shaping hats. |
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| Blessing of the hat. |
The Fellowship of the Traveling Hat held the inaugural session at the Midrealm Mounted War Games in Constellation (IN).
The class session was held in the main populace building near the far back corner of the room and was our first official outing as the Fellowship. Duchess AnneMarie and I were trying to figure out the best method to present the class materials as well as get the hats created for the attendees. (And holing up in the building with air conditioning was certainly a perk...) Ultimately, we led a class of around ten people in making hats, including a gentleman at his first SCA event!
Thank you to all who attended and cheered us on and through this session.
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| A collection of hats. |
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| A collection of embellishments. |
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| Drafting a pattern for the brim. |
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| Attaching wool to brim of hat. |
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| Finished hat, right side. |
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| Finished hat, left side. |
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| A pelican in piety. |
A couple of friends asked for a needle felting demonstration at my local baronial meeting, so I gathered my supplies and headed off. Instead of a scrap of wool felt, I grabbed one of the felt hats I picked up at the thrift store intended for steam block restructuring. I spent the requisite 3 minutes explaining and demonstrating how to needle felt, then they were off! Another friend joined us and tried in vain to resist the lure of crafting. A few laughs later, the traveling (itself) hat was born!
This lovely hat will serve as a demonstration piece and will travel to events for everyone to add their two cents (of wool) to while they learn how to needle felt. I'm so excited to see how this will be decorated!
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| The Traveling Needle Felting Demo Hat is born! |
The second needle felted hat was created using a wool felt body/cone from Agnoulita Hats (Greece) in the purple colorway. The hat blank was a demonstration model during a private hat making session with a friend and has an exceptionally proud beak (point) to it and was sized to fit over a cap and veil.
I expanded the color selection of wool after a quick trip to Joann's where I picked up four different colorways offered in a commercial brand that were slightly heavier weight in some standard heraldic colors. (Gold, red, green, and a turquoise blue in lieu of a standard royal blue. See also: a project about half done for later!) The pattern is a simplified version of a sleeve found online, so I take no credit.
The interesting thing learned in this hat creation - the small fill areas are deceptive! It takes far less wool to create the accent turquoise centers to the petals than I expected, perhaps a half inch of material, tightly packed to integrate the loose ends of yarn.
I am overall satisfied with the hat and can't wait to see what's next!
For my latest hat-related project, I used a wool felt body/cone from Jedrzejko (Poland) in the Dark Turquoise colorway. Mistress Milesent Vibert inspired me to try needle felting after she used the technique on a hat blank-turned-bycocket created during the Gulf War Widows experiment earlier this year. She briefly explained the technique then recommended a beginner set from Grey Fox Felting (36T, 38T and 40T) with a Needle Felt Support Block.
I initially tried needle felting with a more fine skein of embroidery-weight wool which didn't work as well as I had hoped. I moved on to a yarn weight in ivory/white (which I think I picked up at Pennsic for nalbinding.) I wanted to add additional color, so I checked my available stock of yarn that has aged greater than 10 years and found the soft pink color to accent in a two ply merino wool.
Overall, I feel this is a beginner project. It's even easier if you have a background in scribal, since my inspiration/design came from an illumination. I spent a series of lunch breaks laying out the spiral pattern(s) with tailor's chalk, then came back with the 40T ultra-fine needle to tack down the yarn. I doubled back when I was satisfied with the placement to more firmly attach the yarn.
