Saturday was spent in Bridport with the Region 2 IFA (International Feltmakers Association) ladies at the annual hat festival. We had a shared table in the town hall and had a lot of fun encouraging passers-by to model our hats. It was a long day and the weather wasn’t on our side, autumn arrived with gusto at lunchtime at the crowds rapidly thinned out but it was worth the trip just to see all the happy, laughing people trying on our hats. The snail hat definitely drew the most attention and giggles as people tried it on, however it was far too big for almost everyone, I really need to make some smaller versions of the snail! 🙂
This was our table – a very small space for 5 felt-makers to share but we made great use of every last inch!
These two ladies were great sports, between them they must have tried on every hat on the table, and had a whale of a time doing so! 🙂
A few of the team sporting our own creations, you can’t turn up to hat festival without a hat, that would be like walking down the high street naked!
Clare, me and Liz
Vivienne trying on the snail hat and Clare
Sunday was a felt-making day, and what else could I make after spending all day surrounded by so many gorgeous hats, but another hat! This one is a departure from my usual style and incorporates a wide brim. It is still damp, so the silk isn’t shiny yet but I really like the shape, somehow it makes me think of Guy Fawkes.
What a great event! The hats are just fantastic!
It was a lot of fun Galina, I hope I can go again next year but it usually clashes with Weyfest, we shall have to see what next year brings…
What a great day (lovely photos btw) and some great hats!
The new hat is a bit Fawkesey and it’s superb.
Thank you 🙂 I had some great models!
What great fun! While you’re new hat isn’t it your usual, I love it.
Thanks Marilyn, I really enjoyed shaping the Fawkes hat, I think there might be a few more wide brimmed hats in the pipeline!
The Guy Fawkes hat is terrific. What was the template for the wide brim? And the snail hat really is a hoot. What a fun day it appears to have been.
Thank you Alison 🙂 I shared the template for the Fawkes hat on the Concertina Hat Class pages – it is under share your homework / wide brimmed hat with some suggestions on how it can be improved / adapted.
Looks like everyone had a fun time. I bet the snail hat would fit me, I have a really big head 🙂 The wide brimmed hat is really nice and I love the color combination.
Thanks Ruth, I confess I tend to make hats to fit my big bonce too, we did find one chap whom the snail fitted but we could not persuade him that it was the current fashion
I like the wide brim hat too and its colors but I would not make that hight, it would be a fedora hat I suppose?
It was great fun the exhibition ..you can see that..
Thank you Viltmaaraan,I have very fond memories of my day out in Bridport. Your are correct, this hat was inspired by the fedora style, but as you can probably tell from my other hats I don’t really “do” conventional! 🙂