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From Hank to Hat: Stitching Straw Braid Masterclass with Lucy Barlow
August 5th 2022 @ 2:30 pm - 5:30 pm
£95
Stitching straw braid to make hats is one of the oldest forms of millinery. The beautiful hats this heritage skill can produce have enduring appeal from high street to high end. In this masterclass with QEST Scholar Lucy Barlow, you will learn all there is to know about the technique.
In this session, you will get an overview of different types of straw braid and how they handle. Lucy will show you the different ways to start stitching the crown centre and how this influences the resulting hat style and aesthetic. You will learn how to use everyday objects such as wooden bowls as an alternative to hat blocks and other techniques for shaping your hats. You will be shown different options for crowns and also how to finish off your edges with the aim to create a small perching style hat in strip straw.
This course is ideal for anyone with an interest in sustainable fashion production methods. Suitable for beginners to advanced makers, you should be comfortable using a needle and thread to hand sew.
Lucy apprenticed with Phillip Somerville of Bond Street in the late 1970s and then went on to Paris to assist master milliner Jean Barthet on the collections of Yves St Laurent, Chanel, Balenciaga, Karl Lagerfeld and Claude Montana. In 1990 she opened a shop in Portobello and her collections of stitched braid were quickly snapped up by stores including Barneys New York and Harvey Nichols.
Having extensive experience in all aspects of the millinery trade, particularly bespoke for dreadlocks, Lucy’s great love has always remained ‘strip straw.’ Now with a collection of 17 guinea machines, she works with a variety of braids including wheat, hemp and raffia that are all hand-dyed in her workshop. A member of the British Hat Guild, Lucy was one of the esteemed panellists for the BHGxLHW In Conversation Series on the Magic of Working with Straw Braid.
Depending on your ability and speed, trimming options will be made available for you to finish off your hat. If you are unable to complete stitching your hat during the session you will leave the class knowing how to finish it and take your bowl/mold home with you to complete the hat at your own pace.
All tools and materials will be supplied including samples of a variety of braids.