The Hat Magazine
Making Felt Hats is described as 'a beginner's guide to creating six stunning styles for all occaisions'. With easy-to-follow instructions, millinery expert and tutor Bobbi Heath (of the Chic Chapeau label in the UK) shows you how to make a felt hat in six different styles: floppy, cloche, bucket, pillbox, cap, and button hat.
The author starts with the basics of the craft and covers toools,materials and essential techniques, including stitching and edging. She then talks you through the art of stiffening your felt, moulding your fabric and blocking. As well as being an informative and practical guide, the book aims to make millinery fun and inspire milliners to experiment with trimmings to make unique pieces of headwear.
Published by Search Press, a leading supplier of art and craft books, and with a foreword by international hat designer, Dillon Wallwork, the book will appeal to all hat enthusiasts and anyone looking for a practical introduction to the craft of millinery.
Booklist
No invitation to the Royal Ascot horse race meeting? Head coverings not in vogue for an upcoming social event? Even if millinery isnt de rigueur these days, UK maker (and selfproclaimed "Mad Hatter") Heath will change the fashion rules. This seductive how-to tome could make even a non-DIYer interested in hatmaking. Heath's six designs represent twenty-first century patterns, even though their origins might be reminiscent of the Downton Abbey or Jackie Kennedy eras. Techniques are fairly easy to master, like sewing straight stitches or wielding a steam iron, and the actual how-tos are well visualized, with step-by-step color photographs and lengthy captions as good guidelines. Running commentary that educates and delights is an added bonus, like on the use of mercury in the curing of felt for hats until 1941, causing the "madness" associated with makers.The practice stopped with the governments requisition of mercury as a heavy metal for war instruments. Hats off!
Machine Knitting Monthly
In this practical and informative guide, we learn how to make felt hats to perfectly complement any outfit. The six different styles include a fabulous floppy hat, cloche, bucket, pill box, cap and button.
Sew Magazine
The must-have title for head-candy devotees, Making Felt Hats is a masterclass in the art of millinery. Learn how to make and embellish six felt hats, from the pretty pill box to the beautiful bucket. Expert milliner Bobbie Heath shares stylish secrets to elevate any outfit, starting with how to measure your head, stiffen the felt, mould the fabric with steam and block. This fabulous introduction to hat-making also features invaluable advice on trimming and edging techniques, too.
