In this five week course we will cover a wide range of millinery techniques which will be invaluable to you if you decide to take it further. Louise believes it is crucial, as a milliner, to learn to make every aspect of the hat. From blocking the shape, to trimming it with your own handmade flowers, worked feathers or manipulated materials.

Week One: The first day of the course will be spent working with feathers. Louise will teach you to cut, curl and manipulate them in to sections in order to attach to a covered headband or the button hat you will block the following week.

Week Two: You will learn to block a button base hat in your choice of material. It can be straw, sinamay, felt or fabric covered buckram. You will then learn to stitch on the wire, elastic and ribbon edge to a professional standard.

Week Three: This workshop will demonstrate Louise’s origami ribbon techniques, popular  in the 1920’s, this is a technique that she has used her own hats and teaches on qualification courses. You will learn the art of ribbon folding and cockade making.

Week Four: This lesson will welcome a new millinery material called silk abaca, it is used for draping and trimming hats but today we will make a silk abaca peony. This will also be a wonderful introduction to flower making, a very important aspect to millinery.

Week Five: This final lesson will allow us to decide and finish trimming our button hat bases using one or a combination of the techniques we have covered on the course.