Hats!: Make Classic Hats and Headpieces in Fabric, Felt, and Straw

Innovative milliner Sarah Cant takes you step-by-step through the process of creating many types of hats. Starting with felted hats and two simple classic shapes, a cloche and a trilby, Sarah shows how to use them as the basis for creating a range of different designs just by altering the shape or width of the brim or the crown, or by using different trimmings. Next you learn how to make lightweight hats from popular types of straw like sinamay (from the banana plant) or parasisal (from the sisal plant), perfect for classic panama hats or garden party confections. The final section shows how to make fabric-based hats, using materials like velvet, tweed, or silk to create classic shapes such as a tafetta pillbox, a tweed trilby, or a stunning velvet coolie. With a final section on finishing techinques, making elegant headpieces and re-creating Sarah's trademark trimmings (incuding dyeing, shaping, arranging and attaching feathers, making fabric flowers, beaded and stitched embellishments and other trims) you will be able to finish your hat in style!

SARAH CANT creates millinery and mixed media textiles from her studio in Oxford. She trained in millinery at the Kensington & Chelsea College, where she now teaches. She has shown her work at Origin, the Chelsea Craft Fair and London Fashion Week.