It’s been awhile since I’ve taught a Fascinator class at Stitch Lab. I really thought it would be a course with a more seasonal appeal - fascinators for holiday & New Year’s parties, spring prom, etc. - but it was generating quite the request/waiting list, even in the blistering summer heat of Austin. So I re-vamped the class a bit, brought a lot more materials for students to play with (including some very cute millinery fruit from the 1930’s) and spent a very fun Friday evening teaching four ladies how to make fascinators.
Because sinamay fascinator bases are basically impossible to get in the US, I custom block bases for my students, specifically for this class. (Yes, they are available for purchase if you ask nicely). I decided to make them a little bigger for this class (18 inch circumference) so students would have more room to drape and design a variety of trims, including veiling, crinoline, oodles of feathers, flowers, berries, and more.
Straw Fascinator Base
I whipped up a sample with some dyed peacock, pheasant and ostrich feathers (biots, too), a metal insect, and veiling:
Sample Fascinator
Victoria used an Art Deco celluloid buckle in her design, a few of those 1930’s fruits, and some ostrich feathers. The colors worked really well with her red hair:
Golden Fascinator
The other students created wonderful pieces too, and all though they enrolled together with the mission of learning more about bridal fascinators for the upcoming wedding of the young lady pictured below center, each had a very unique design by the end of the evening - bold red & black feathers and veiling on a black sinamay base, black iridescent coque and peacock feathers on a smaller tear-drop shaped base, and a white feather flower mounted on a simple comb.
Three more Fascinators
This is definitely one of the most fun classes in my opinion, probably because there are so few rules about how to construct your hat/headpiece. Each piece is so individual. And frivolous rather than functional.
More classes will be added to the Stitch Lab schedule soon, and a Fascinator party is in the works for November, somewhere around Catherinette’s Day (patron Saint of Millinery). More details on that later.