TECHNIQUES


by Denise Innes-Spencer


crinolineveil


Floating straw fabric hat with


Denise Innes-Spencer is the creative director of the British School of Millinery. She is a qualified teacher of millinery and fashion and has taught at universities all over the world. In 2017, she published ‘Tiara Headdresses’, a book about wire techniques for bridal headpieces.


At the beginning of every season, it is exciting to take in the new vibrant colours of millinery materials. In this article, I am going to use a textured vintage fabric to cover a sinamay or straw base and show you how to not lose the shine/lustre of the fabric. You will also learn how to float a hat shape.


Using a button-style block, I will show you how to float the shape just off the headband and how to support this shape properly. A wobbly hat is not an option in this style of headdress. Finally, you are going to learn how to make a convex straw lining using machine- and hand-woven sinamay together, and how to sew this lining to the button shape to make a clean finish to the back of the hat. No seeing the inside of your hat here!


There are two different types


of plain weave sinamay on the market: machine- woven


and hand- woven. We will be using both


types in different ways.


Machine-woven has an even weave to its structure and has a tight 1 cm


selvedge edge that is flat and even.


62 | the hat magazine | 101


Hand-woven is loosely woven with an open wider weave, and has a loose wider moveable selvedge edge wider than 1 cm.


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