Brimmed Hat Workshop

In April, I was fortunate to take the Best Brimmed Hat Workshop with Zsofia Marx. Brimmed hats are a popular hat style because they are both practical and very easy to wear. Unfortunately, until this class, brims were a style that I often found hard to make. Gravity leads to saggy brims.

This is actually the third set of classes that I've taken with talented maker and generous tutor, Zsofia Marx. You can read about the first class over on an earlier blogpost.

Alas, I never got around to writing about the second class that I took with Zsofia. This undulating, sold hat is from THAT set of classes. Interestingly, it is one of the most viewed hats on my website).

The most recent class, the Brimmed Hat Workshop was held over a three-week period, via Zoom Meetings. In between each of the classes, there was time between for students to re-watch the recorded videos.

First we started with classic styles, and then we branched out to the more fanciful ones. 

 

The Fedora

 

 

As you can see from the felted hat above, we initially concentrated on making classic Fedora styles. The green/gray is the same hat, seen from different sides. The colors transition from bright green to a greenish gray - very ombre!

In each of our three sessions, Zsofia demonstrated multiple versions or styles that we could make from our hand felted hoods.

A few days after each class, she would email the students a private YouTube link from the recorded sessions. Then, my playing would begin, as I would try to recreate each of the styles.

 

Telescopic Brim Style

This red one is the telespopic tip, which I made at an asymmetric angle as the traditional, flat-top style doesn't 'do' me any favors.

 

So Many Variations

While I did make each brimmed hat variation, unfortunately in my excitement to create, I didn't manage to photograph them. Honestly, the pics wouldn't exactly be flattering - they would have a damp-and-messy-haired woman in her crowded art-shed!). Ideally, I would have a hood for every single variation. Then, I could then keep them and learn from them. But, making handcrafting the felt hoods, like all feltmaking, takes time! There were four to six variations in each lesson.

 

This is a project where we were trying to make two double brims. Mine ended up not beng exactly parallel. Sometimes, you have to follow the flow of a hat! I like how the green to peach color transitions are nice and smooth.

 

The Fanciful One

 

Future Hats with Brims? 

In the next few weeks, I hope to create a bunch of brimmed hats. I really want to share with you the many variations that I learned via Zsofia Marx's Brimmed Hats Class. This is an area of my webshop that is lacking in hats!