A little black number.

I have been playing around for a little while now with a little midi sized bowler hat in lovely black felt. I wanted to use the cockades I have been making to decorate it and made some lovely ones from velvet ribbon. I love decorating my hats but it takes a while to get it just how I want it! After lots of fiddling around though I have finally got a hat I'm happy with.

I love this hat! I love the soft hackle feathers peeping out behind the ribbon cockades. The button is the perfect size to sit in the middle of the cockade and finishes it off perfectly.

Cute little bowler. I love the feathers!



Pretty Ribbon Cockade! The velvet ribbon creates a great pattern with the contrast of the flat reverse side of the ribbon and the fuzzy top side.



I love this little button. It works so well on this little hat!

This hat is available on my Etsy shop www.sallyannecostumes.etsy.com.

As always,
Love and Hattiness

Sally x

Ribbon Cockades

A ribbon cockade is a knot of ribbon in a circle or oval shape often used to adorn hats or lapels. They were very popular in the 18th century and were made in distinctive colours used to show the allegiance of the wearer to a particular political group, their rank or as part of a servant's livery.

I love decorating my hats with historically inspired things so I really wanted to learn how to make ribbon cockades. I found some really good instructions in old millinery books and also online tutorials such as this brilliant one by Claudine de Montigny on her blog http://claudinedemontigny.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/yet-another-cockade-tutorial-part-1.html. It took a bit of practise as they are quite fiddly, but eventually I made my first cockade! Yey! I like using petersham or velvet ribbon. Both of these are good for making cockades as being quite firm they hold the shape well while folding. There are so many lovely ribbons to use though and they all give different effects. Stripy ribbons in particular, make really interesting patterns. Also layering up cockades of different sizes create lovely decorations perfect for hats.



A couple of the ribbon cockades I have made so far.



Now I have made a few different cockades I'm hooked! They are so much fun to make. It's something I can do in the evenings in front of a good film, with the obligatory gin and tonic on hand of course! Once you get into the swing of it you can make them up pretty quickly. They look great and are giving me some great ideas for some new hats which I can't wait to try out. I am making one in black velvet at the moment which would look great on a little black felt bowler hat I'm working on. I will post some pictures when it's finished!

Love and Hattiness

Sally x

And the bride wore pink!

Phew! I've had a mad few weeks making bridesmaid dresses for my uncles wedding. I was frantically sewing at 10pm the night before but it all got done in the end! The day was lovely and I really enjoyed being a bridesmaid and being part of their special day. I made the brides dress too although being a more mature bride she didn't want a big white dress. Instead we chose a lovely patterned fabric in her favourite colour, pink! The bridesmaids dresses were a lovely lavender colour and I was really happy with the finished dresses. I will post some pics soon but here is one my flowers. The colours are beautiful and they really matched the colour scheme perfectly.

I loved my flowers. Such beautiful colours!

Even though it snowed and i lost all feeling in my feet, a wonderful day was had by all and the new bride and groom looked really happy!

Congratulations to you both! X

As always, love and hattiness!

Sally x