Category Archives: IFA

Hats with Zsofia Marx

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Last weekend was spent with the beautiful ladies of IFA region 2 in the New Forest and the delightful and generous Zsofia, Zsofia makes the most gorgeous and stylish hats, do check out her facebook page if you aren’t familiar with her work.

 

She shared some interesting techniques, some of which I confess I found alarming but everyone came away with a stunning hat, so clearly I need to be more open to the alternative ways of making felt. 🙂

If you get the opportunity, I highly recommend taking a workshop with her, she has a natural talent for shaping hats to suit different face shapes that is a true joy to watch.

Felt Shibori and Some Hats

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As promised here are some photos of the jacket I made on Tatiana Sherverda’s workshop at the end of April. The workshop was intended to be focussed on tailoring and pattern making but as you can see we went off on a bit of a shibori tangent! 🙂

Of course that did mean very few of us managed to finish our jackets during the workshop (I was still working on mine 3 weeks later…). I’m afraid I don’t have any “during” photos but Terriea posted one on her blog, it’s near the bottom of the page.

While making this I wasn’t 100% sure I would feel comfortable wearing it (it is very OTT compared to what I would normally wear) but now I love it and can’t imagine parting with it. I’m not sure why but something about it reminds me of Game of Thrones, there is something theatrical about the silhouette I think…?

Another long-promised offering (sorry I have been really rubbish at finishing projects this year), the brain hat that you all very kindly provided ideas on how to finish it. The brim won out in the end (although I really didn’t expect it to) and I am rather pleased with how it turned out:
 

This is rather naughty, I know I should be making more of an effort to empty my UFO box but you know how it is when you get an idea for a new project….

This is my wooly prize from the IFA conference a few weeks ago, all along it has been crying out to be turned into an ocean / something watery.

When I started, I had ideas of waves of felt with white foam “crashing” over the surface of a hat, here it is at the layout stage.

The wool is English 56’s, not a breed (I suspect it is a blend of wools) I am familiar with, but it feels quite course to the touch so I used a couple of layers of merino batts on the inside for comfort.

I have to confess the waves are looking more and more like whirlpools as this hat has developed but I think it still works, it’s still drying, hence all the pins….

Just a few stitches and hopefully this one will never get to see the inside of my UFO box 🙂