The secrets behind millinery techniques...

At the Millinery House Events, our aim is to introduce you to the magical world of millinery, its history, its techniques, its secrets...Would it be at one of our day class or at a corporate team-building event with us, you will be experiencing all the different stages of the millinery art.

Private tuition with Katherine Elizabeth is the more complete way to learn all the millinery techniques there is to know. On a one-on-one session with Katherine Elizabeth, you will be able to cover everything from basic techniques to more advanced knowledge, allowing you to be as skilled as you are creative. And who knows, start your own business!

What are those different techniques we are talking about?

The first one is blocking, which is the art of creating your hat shape. We call this blocking because the wooden cast is called a block. We can teach you how to do this with a crown block for the head or a brim block for the brim of a hat.

This photo here shows a brim block!

We usually buy all our blocks, but lately, we have encountered a lovely lady that rents blocks and delivers them throughout London on her bikes. It will allow us to create even more headpieces with crazy shapes!

Her name is Martina Bohn. If you want to check out her website: www.hatblock.co.uk

The second one is wiring: which means wiring the edge of the blocked headpiece so that it keeps its shape.

Then you will learn everything there is to know about edging. Edging means cover the wire and make your headpiece look beautiful with a professional look.

Then you will cover all the different techniques for manipulating sinamay. Sinamay is one of the most popular hat-making foundations in the world. It is woven from the processed stalks of the abaca tree, a banana palm native to the Philippines. Abaca is three times stronger than cotton or silk, and a fabric made from 100% abaca can last for over 100 years. As a result, sinamay holds a very firm shape. Because it is a natural fiber, it holds colour beautifully. (source definition: torbandreiner.com)

Sinamay is great for trimmings and is used to make the hat look larger and more fantastic as well as create curls, bows, and leaves!

And finally, you will be able to learn useful techniques of feathers and trimmings, that will allow you to customize your hats, clothes, and bags. We will show you how to cut, curl and manipulate the feathers into fantastic shapes!

If you still don't really know what you can learn with the Millinery House, have a sneak peek at this short video of Katherine Elizabeth creating a cocktail headpiece inspired by the warm colours of autumn:

Are you convinced? If you want to be the next Mad Hatter in town, have a look at our different classes and how to book them!

See you soon x