I am so excited to finally write about this. I recently received a package in the mail from my aunt Marie, who runs an online vintage clothing business. To thank me for letting her use some photos for a brochure, she sent me what I can only describe as the ultimate score for someone like me.

These photos don’t even show all of it. Mostly vintage notions, trims, and millinery supplies, with a few lovely accessories thrown in, I was squealing with delight over this treasure. I now need about 35983490238490 little sweaters to embellish.

She sent both this lovely head (I assume it originally for wigs, given the long long neck) and little velvet beret with poodle pin. I’m thinking of painting the head a glossy black.

I love this type of handbag. It has clear lucite handles, which you can’t really see here, and a little crocheted pull on the zipper. The velvet belt/cummerbund is teeny and I am not, but I love it so much that I may have to draft a similar pattern and make one for myself. It would be amazing over a plaid or wool dress.

I adore this trim.

There’s so much veiling here, I could make at least 20 cocktail hats.

This is a book of fabric samples from the early 50s.

Indeed.

I can’t wait to dig into this stuff! I know not everyone would be happy to receive a gift like this, but this is the sort of thrift score I’ve always dreamed of.

At our wedding, we’re asking our guests to wear hats. I adore hats, and it just seemed fun and silly and utterly appropriate for our wedding.

So I decided to make a small headband-style hat, in the same fabric as my wedding dress, and with plenty of feathers.

I started by making this feather flower. I took some feathers, trimmed the thick ends off, and curled them with scissors. I then glued them to a small disk of heavy cardstock in two layers. I took the stamens, which I purchased at Tinsel Trading Company in New York, wrapped them in the middle with wire, and stuck the wire through the center of the flower. I trimmed the wire and curled it around to lay flat against the underside of the flower, and covered the back with a small disk of felt. The felt covers any messiness, adds more stiffness, and gives a base for gluing or sewing the flower onto something. At this point, I thought it needed a little more sparkle, so I sewed three gold freshwater pearls in the middle.

Now it was time to make the body of the hat. I started with a wired piece of buckram. You can make these yourself, but I purchased mine at Lacis. I cut out a piece of the dress fabric and laid it over the buckram along the bias of the fabric. This is important, because it lets you manipulate the fabric more easily along curves, and the fabric can stretch as the hat bends around the head. I turned the edges over and sewed this in place.

Originally, I was going to use the lining fabric from my dress to line the hat, but I soon realized that (1) this would make the hat way too slippery (2) the lining was too sheer to look right and (3) it didn’t have the body I wanted. So instead, I cut and glued felt to the inside, which sticks to my hair very well.

Last, I glued the flower on, with several longer feathers behind it. I angled the flower towards the front a little bit.

Voila! I’m a little concerned that the flower is so gigantic, but Kenn tells me it looks more glamorous that way.

See more posts about about handcrafting my wedding!

Last weekend, I stopped by Lacis in Berkeley to pick up a few things. Lacis is something of a dream store for me. Part of it is dedicated to their lace and textile museum, while the rest of the site offers all manner of tools and supplies for textile arts, as well as vintage textile pieces and lace. You can find anything from millinery supplies to steel corset boning to vintage grosgrain ribbon. Their book selection is also incredible, and includes some rather hard to find titles.

The only issue I have with Lacis is that it always seems, for some reason, extraordinarily quiet. Couple that with the signs all over the place telling you not to touch or pick things up, and I sort of have to understand why Kenn calls it a “fussy grandma store” and practically refuses to go in.