contract millinery part one: Shilling Shockers!
Occasionally, I am contacted through this blog (or sometimes as a result of trade journal publications or presentations at professional conferences) about doing contract millinery for various independent clients. I have done these kinds of jobs for regional theaters and dance companies, performance artists, burlesque starlets, television and film, and private clients. It's not a regular sort of thing--I would guess I do may be three or four contracts a year in this vein, typically in summer when I have the free time.
The typical duration of such a contract from initial inquiry to completed product is about two or three months. It can be quicker for things on a short deadline (summer theater companies), or longer depending on a number of factors. I mention that because I think it can be useful to know how long such things take. I get a certain amount of queries, often from potential private clients whose benchmark for purchasing comes from online shopping, order it Friday and it arrives Monday, in which people are surprised that a custom product needs a huge amount of lead time, or requires a rush fee.
I don't take these jobs, because I don't have time or energy to work for clients who do not understand what they are asking of me, and who are unwilling to pay for what the work is worth. This is a concession I see frequently made by costumers just getting started in freelance work at this level--because of their willingness and desire to do the work, they take jobs in which they will ultimately wind up being underpaid, overworked and frustrated. Hence this digression, which actually has nothing to do with the project I'm writing about, since this client had no such unreasonable expectations and was actually a dream client!
The project I'm going to begin writing about today has been in the works for several months, and this client clearly understood from the get-go but nature of such a commission in terms of time, for which I am grateful. I have really enjoyed this entire project, from its unusual challenges in terms of millinery structure and the performance needs of the finished product, to the excellent communication with the clients. Because there were some very interesting and unusual needs with respect to this hat, it's a perfect one to write up in this blog.
Some months back, I was contacted by the folks at Shilling Shockers: could I exactly replicate the witch's hat worn by their horror hostess "Penny Dreadful"? Replicate in size and style and cover fabric (black velvet), but at the same time structurally improve it? I was definitely interested in the project.
ETA: She has a blog full of upcoming appearances and fun fan art at pennydreadful13!
The original hat was a mass-produced Halloween costume style hat, with an infrastructure of headliner foam. Headliner foam is the stuff covering the roof of your car inside the cab; it's a urethane foam about 1/8 of an inch thick bonded to a nylon knit fabric layer. The foam breaks down over time, which you can observe in old cars, how the roof lining begins to bag out and feel gritty and granular inside. This was happening to the inside of Ms. Dreadful's well-worn hat. In addition, the pointy crown was quite floppy and needed to be stuffed to stand up. Could I make the new hat with some sort of strong interior structure which would not disintegrate like the foam, and which would help the crown stand up better?
Certainly!
First order of the project, was for the folks at Shilling Shockers to ship me the hat to be copied. I measured the hat's dimensions and took an exact pattern from it. I studied its construction (fairly straightforward, mass-produced machine stitched production techniques), made notes about areas of potential structural improvement, and took a deposit towards the work. Then I shipped it back so they might continue to use it in filming and public appearances while I was making its replacement.
Our agreement was, I would source all materials and trimmings, and fold the cost thereof into the price of the hat. I mention that because sometimes a client wishes to provide her or his own fabric and/or trim, but because this hat is such an iconic design and fabric, it was easier for me to just locate some black velvet locally. The original hat was covered in a polyester black velvet, which is a great example of how, for certain applications, a synthetic fiber is the superior choice. This hat was still a dark black color, despite having been worn for years in harsh conditions such as exposure to bright light. Black dyes on natural fibers such as silk or cotton would not have remained so colorfast for so long under those circumstances. Because of the processing of color on synthetic fiber, dark shades such as black will be much more lightfast. For this reason, I sought out and purchased a brand-new piece of black polyester velvet.
Initially, I began thinking of this hat as a buckram structure reinforced with wire. The more I learned about the Shilling Shockers production, though, the less appropriate buckram seemed to be. For example, the actress who portrays Ms. Dreadful obviously performs in filmed segments for the show, but she also has a fairly extensive public appearance schedule, promoting the show or serving as a celebrity guest in a range of different venues--schlock horror fan conventions, parties and nightclub events tied to relevant themes such as Halloween, promo events with a spooky connection like haunted house attractions and so forth.
I realized that the likelihood is high that this hat will, perhaps several times in its life, need to appear under UV light. Regular buckram (and millinery wire, and ice wool, and French elastic) is white, and will most definitely fluoresce, even through a thick black velvet, under UV light. For a moment, I entertained the possibility of using black buckram (and black wire, black ice wool, and black French elastic), but nixed that idea upon further analysis. All buckram softens and reshapes with the application of heat and moisture, so this hat, which will be worn under the bright lights of the film studio, and potentially outdoors in hot sun or adverse weather at a public appearance, cannot be made of buckram, white or black. It would not retain its stability, and black buckram “bleeds" its black color when wet. No good!
So, what to do?
I believe my solution for this hat is the best for the client's needs...
Stitching layers of the hat brim.
Brim made from two layers of nylon upholstery netting.
In the photo above, you can see the pattern traced out with a white wax pencil onto layers of black nylon upholstery netting, before I cut away the excess. This heavy woven mesh is sold in upholstery fabric departments, and is 100% nylon, which takes dye incredibly well. Since the structure of the hat form is based entirely on simple geometric forms (a cone and a plane), I did not need a foundation material that could be structurally deformed (meaning blockable); this medium was perfect for this hat style. It will not glow in UV light, and it will withstand heat and moisture without losing stability. It will also be pliable enough when wired and assembled that it will maintain its shape, yet still allow the actress to manipulate the hat into the more organic forms seen in the press photos--bends and distortions in the brim and crown, “crushed” areas which were endemic to the original due to its structure but which also create character and rakishness.
If you look closely, you can see the stitching lines that stabilize the two layers together as one. Amusingly, given the horror show theme of the hat, the stitch lines form a pattern of a spider web! I didn't do that for thematic laughs, I stitched the layers that way for structural stability. Everywhere you have a stitch line on a double layered foundation (or triple layered, etc.), you create a potential fold line in that section of the hat. It's kind of like scoring cardboard; if the hat is going to fold somewhere due to applied pressure, it will choose to fold along the stitching. So, on a hat brim like this one, the radial lines and concentric circles of support stitching will allow the hat brim to have the most attractive stability, and at the same time minimize potential for unattractive instability. If instead, I had done something like stitch the two layers together as a grid of perpendicular lines, in the long long life of this hat, it would have been more likely to droop in potentially unappealing, goofy ways.
Measuring out the proper length of black millinery wire.
A jeweler's third hand supports the wire joiner while the adhesive stabilizer cures.
Black French elastic being readied for stitching.
Cover fabric pinned into place and headsize opening thread-marked.
I did not take a photo of the step in which I put the layer of black ice wool onto both sides of the hat brim. It looked pretty much just like this--it's hard to get good photographic differentiation with black fabrics.
These steps depicted in the photographs above are fairly standard millinery construction techniques: applying millinery wire to the edge of a hat brim, enclosing the wire with French elastic (essentially, no-fold bias tape), tracking pattern markings with thread-marking as you apply layers, and so forth. After the initial choice of medium, the hat began going together using the same methods I would have used with a buckram foundation.
This post is quite long at this point, so I am going to pause in the process here, and save the construction of the crown and the finishing of the hat for a second, subsequent update!
The typical duration of such a contract from initial inquiry to completed product is about two or three months. It can be quicker for things on a short deadline (summer theater companies), or longer depending on a number of factors. I mention that because I think it can be useful to know how long such things take. I get a certain amount of queries, often from potential private clients whose benchmark for purchasing comes from online shopping, order it Friday and it arrives Monday, in which people are surprised that a custom product needs a huge amount of lead time, or requires a rush fee.
I don't take these jobs, because I don't have time or energy to work for clients who do not understand what they are asking of me, and who are unwilling to pay for what the work is worth. This is a concession I see frequently made by costumers just getting started in freelance work at this level--because of their willingness and desire to do the work, they take jobs in which they will ultimately wind up being underpaid, overworked and frustrated. Hence this digression, which actually has nothing to do with the project I'm writing about, since this client had no such unreasonable expectations and was actually a dream client!
The project I'm going to begin writing about today has been in the works for several months, and this client clearly understood from the get-go but nature of such a commission in terms of time, for which I am grateful. I have really enjoyed this entire project, from its unusual challenges in terms of millinery structure and the performance needs of the finished product, to the excellent communication with the clients. Because there were some very interesting and unusual needs with respect to this hat, it's a perfect one to write up in this blog.
Some months back, I was contacted by the folks at Shilling Shockers: could I exactly replicate the witch's hat worn by their horror hostess "Penny Dreadful"? Replicate in size and style and cover fabric (black velvet), but at the same time structurally improve it? I was definitely interested in the project.
ETA: She has a blog full of upcoming appearances and fun fan art at pennydreadful13!
The original hat was a mass-produced Halloween costume style hat, with an infrastructure of headliner foam. Headliner foam is the stuff covering the roof of your car inside the cab; it's a urethane foam about 1/8 of an inch thick bonded to a nylon knit fabric layer. The foam breaks down over time, which you can observe in old cars, how the roof lining begins to bag out and feel gritty and granular inside. This was happening to the inside of Ms. Dreadful's well-worn hat. In addition, the pointy crown was quite floppy and needed to be stuffed to stand up. Could I make the new hat with some sort of strong interior structure which would not disintegrate like the foam, and which would help the crown stand up better?
Certainly!
First order of the project, was for the folks at Shilling Shockers to ship me the hat to be copied. I measured the hat's dimensions and took an exact pattern from it. I studied its construction (fairly straightforward, mass-produced machine stitched production techniques), made notes about areas of potential structural improvement, and took a deposit towards the work. Then I shipped it back so they might continue to use it in filming and public appearances while I was making its replacement.
Our agreement was, I would source all materials and trimmings, and fold the cost thereof into the price of the hat. I mention that because sometimes a client wishes to provide her or his own fabric and/or trim, but because this hat is such an iconic design and fabric, it was easier for me to just locate some black velvet locally. The original hat was covered in a polyester black velvet, which is a great example of how, for certain applications, a synthetic fiber is the superior choice. This hat was still a dark black color, despite having been worn for years in harsh conditions such as exposure to bright light. Black dyes on natural fibers such as silk or cotton would not have remained so colorfast for so long under those circumstances. Because of the processing of color on synthetic fiber, dark shades such as black will be much more lightfast. For this reason, I sought out and purchased a brand-new piece of black polyester velvet.
Initially, I began thinking of this hat as a buckram structure reinforced with wire. The more I learned about the Shilling Shockers production, though, the less appropriate buckram seemed to be. For example, the actress who portrays Ms. Dreadful obviously performs in filmed segments for the show, but she also has a fairly extensive public appearance schedule, promoting the show or serving as a celebrity guest in a range of different venues--schlock horror fan conventions, parties and nightclub events tied to relevant themes such as Halloween, promo events with a spooky connection like haunted house attractions and so forth.
I realized that the likelihood is high that this hat will, perhaps several times in its life, need to appear under UV light. Regular buckram (and millinery wire, and ice wool, and French elastic) is white, and will most definitely fluoresce, even through a thick black velvet, under UV light. For a moment, I entertained the possibility of using black buckram (and black wire, black ice wool, and black French elastic), but nixed that idea upon further analysis. All buckram softens and reshapes with the application of heat and moisture, so this hat, which will be worn under the bright lights of the film studio, and potentially outdoors in hot sun or adverse weather at a public appearance, cannot be made of buckram, white or black. It would not retain its stability, and black buckram “bleeds" its black color when wet. No good!
So, what to do?
I believe my solution for this hat is the best for the client's needs...
Stitching layers of the hat brim.
Brim made from two layers of nylon upholstery netting.
In the photo above, you can see the pattern traced out with a white wax pencil onto layers of black nylon upholstery netting, before I cut away the excess. This heavy woven mesh is sold in upholstery fabric departments, and is 100% nylon, which takes dye incredibly well. Since the structure of the hat form is based entirely on simple geometric forms (a cone and a plane), I did not need a foundation material that could be structurally deformed (meaning blockable); this medium was perfect for this hat style. It will not glow in UV light, and it will withstand heat and moisture without losing stability. It will also be pliable enough when wired and assembled that it will maintain its shape, yet still allow the actress to manipulate the hat into the more organic forms seen in the press photos--bends and distortions in the brim and crown, “crushed” areas which were endemic to the original due to its structure but which also create character and rakishness.
If you look closely, you can see the stitching lines that stabilize the two layers together as one. Amusingly, given the horror show theme of the hat, the stitch lines form a pattern of a spider web! I didn't do that for thematic laughs, I stitched the layers that way for structural stability. Everywhere you have a stitch line on a double layered foundation (or triple layered, etc.), you create a potential fold line in that section of the hat. It's kind of like scoring cardboard; if the hat is going to fold somewhere due to applied pressure, it will choose to fold along the stitching. So, on a hat brim like this one, the radial lines and concentric circles of support stitching will allow the hat brim to have the most attractive stability, and at the same time minimize potential for unattractive instability. If instead, I had done something like stitch the two layers together as a grid of perpendicular lines, in the long long life of this hat, it would have been more likely to droop in potentially unappealing, goofy ways.
Measuring out the proper length of black millinery wire.
A jeweler's third hand supports the wire joiner while the adhesive stabilizer cures.
Black French elastic being readied for stitching.
Cover fabric pinned into place and headsize opening thread-marked.
I did not take a photo of the step in which I put the layer of black ice wool onto both sides of the hat brim. It looked pretty much just like this--it's hard to get good photographic differentiation with black fabrics.
These steps depicted in the photographs above are fairly standard millinery construction techniques: applying millinery wire to the edge of a hat brim, enclosing the wire with French elastic (essentially, no-fold bias tape), tracking pattern markings with thread-marking as you apply layers, and so forth. After the initial choice of medium, the hat began going together using the same methods I would have used with a buckram foundation.
This post is quite long at this point, so I am going to pause in the process here, and save the construction of the crown and the finishing of the hat for a second, subsequent update!