Season 2: Episode 9: My Handmade Hat Collection & A Haldon Leather Collaboration

"Ship's Log, Stardate 94204.13:

I want to share one of my collections with you - my handmade hats!

I have made a lot of things like sashes, rosettes, or the occasional (nickel/cobalt free) ring, but my favorite handmade items go directly on the head.  

I have sold, gifted, and discarded a few that are no longer my style or have worn out along the way, so I'm going to start with the top 8 that I consider "in current rotation".

Let's begin!

You've seen the pearl crown, already.  The gold crown is something I made from glitter stock paper and ribbon, and is about the same size.  I love that it's so weightless and sparkly, like a glittery ghost crown.

And you've seen the bicorn and the tricorn as well.  The tricorn is probably my second favorite out of these, I wear it a lot.

Here is that round F21 hat I trimmed, and a beret from Fanplusfriend that I decorated with a satin ribbon bow and pearl cabochons in a design reminiscent of the Leo constellation (a little artistic liberty taken). 

Here's the chocolate cake hat again that I posted about recently, and one you may not have seen - my box-of-chocolates fascinator.  Most of the materials are from the craft store, but the chocolates were from Etsy.  There is a matching ring, too!

There are of course, several items that have not made the cut.  

Here's just a few:

Wire damage - taken apart to be recreated with velvet ribbon.

My cake hat's pink twin now belongs to Emily of brolitagaming!

Love this hat, currently in storage since I've been wearing black.

Military circus hat and flower crown, literally worn to pieces.

The crown here was a prototype to the current and has been destroyed.

The sash (finally, not a hat!) is currently in storage.

And now that we're moving away from items for the head...

Remember these?

I ended up hating the straps (long black knotted ribbon, and long gold chain).

So instead, for the thicker book, on which I used bronze nails, I attached the bronze chain and black pleather handled hand-strap from my Chantilly Queen Cat purse (since I only ever use that with the shoulder strap anyway), but that left me with nothing really great for Moby Dick.

Enter Tim, of Haldon Leather.  

Tim's a coworker and friend, not to mention a very talented crafter!  He's been learning leather working and has already made some really sweet stuff for us.  I talk his ear off about my crafting stuff all the time, and eventually we got to talking about doing a small collaboration...

Personally, I think a lot more skill and coolness went into his portion of the book purse project than mine - all I did was nail in some pleather pieces to an existing book box and use jewelry pliers to loop the points back in on themselves.  The strap itself is seriously worth more than the whole book, haha! If I make another, I will be salvaging this strap for it.

Neatly wrapped in a wool roll, stitched shut with indigo dyed thread.

The leather tag is for Haldon x IllustriousLordBear collab (my insta)!

Look at that neat hand stitching!!  

Gold hardware and chocolate thread by request, to match book's tone.

Tim dyed the leather black himself and waxed it with carnauba.  

Working with a friend outside of the fashion on an item like this was a lot of fun.  I feel like it really opened my eyes to the parts of lolita that can be shared with others who aren't necessarily into fashion hobbies.   

For example, I have been able to provide still modeling of elaborate outfits for friends whose hobby is photography,  purchased makeup and gotten tips from our office's resident glam guru, participated in art trades with traditional medium artists (my 3D for their 2D), you name it.  

It feels really cool to know someone out there has the perfect jabot for you, or you're able to make something for someone's kid or girlfriend, even though you are into completely different things.

What about you?  Made anything lately?  Bonus points if you made it with a friend, and extra bonus points if that friend is outside of the fashion world!

Until next time folks, Bear signing off!"

This frequency will remain open for response.