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Sahar Millinery

In this workshop the participants learn how hats are made and formed. We will focus on using Sinamay - which is the most used material that summer hats are made from.

Participants will make their own fascinator base, shaping the sinamay around a head base, then wiring and trimming their base. Then we will make roses out of sinamay, learn to manipulate feathers, and attaching birdcage veils. 

Sahar will provide all materials such as sinamay, feathers, net veiling, gems and all sorts of adornments. If you have something special eg a brooch or piece of fabric, please bring it along and see if we can incorporate into your hat! If you have an outfit in mind to match your hat with, feel free to bring it along. 

This is a great first crash course in hat making for people who are curious in the art of millinery and those who would like to learn a new craft, as well as those who just want a new hat! 

Limited Spaces. No experience necessary.

Fascinator Making Workshop with birdcage veil and feathers

Learn how to use Sinamay and netting, make a hat base, shape feathers, and many other millinery techniques and walk away with your own fascinator.

A ‘Percher Hat’ is a delightful hat which is small enough to simply ‘perch’ on the edge of the head. This is the typical style of hat which you’ll find in the Sahar Millinery collections. Often, percher hats look quite vintage - akin to the pillbox hats of the 50s or structured beret hats of the 40s. However, depending on how you trim / style your hat - it could also look completely contemporary. 

There is a variety of blocks (ie shapes) available (pillbox, button, beret etc). If you like the idea of doing the felt class, but would rather block a ‘full’ hat, there is also the option of making a cloche (ie 1920s shape) or trilby hat. 

As you book, Sahar will ask you what shape you’d like to make as the blocks are available on a first come first served basis (typically one hat shape per person). She will also provide you with a colour chart so you can order the felt colour you’d like to use. 

At the end of the class, each participant will have one new hat to take away with them, and gained an insight into the world of millinery - it’s materials, techniques, and how trimmings can drastically alter the look and feel of a hat. 

This class is suitable for all levels. Basic sewing knowledge is helpful but not essential.

Vintage Felt Hat Making Workshop

tate dunn

I felt very fortunate to be able to schedule a private lesson with Sahar.  She was wonderful to try to accommodate a specific desire I had to learn more about shaping and finishing felted wool hats.  It was nice to work with someone willing to not just teach a skill, but teach me specifically what I needed to know.

Zoe Bryant

We really enjoyed our day with Sahar and now have some fabulous hats! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise.

Everyone will make their own percher, cloche, or trilby hat from wool felt, in the traditional way of ‘blocking’ the felt around wooden hat block!

Sahar sees herself as a ‘bringer of beauty and creativity'. She enjoys helping people connect to their own beauty and their own creativity, and thus have them in turn contribute to the beauty and creativity in the world. This could be through hats, through teaching a workshop, or through uncovering people’s talents and uniqueness.

Primarily a milliner, Sahar has two millinery brands; 'UglyLovely' and 'Sahar Millinery'. 'UglyLovely' aims to create some of the most unique hats in London. Sahar hand-crafts each hat to create original and unique pieces designed to flatter the wearer.

Both brands use traditional millinery techniques. While Sahar Millinery brings about timeless ‘vintage style’ elegance, UglyLovely focuses more on the macabre. Described as ‘sinister but beautiful’; UglyLovely is about the wonder and awe in the beauty of the strangest things, and a celebration of death. Here we see more sculptured pieces adorned with real butterflies, rusted keys and bird claws.

Sahar discovered her love for beauty in the unconventional following her degree in Costume Design at Edinburgh College of Art. There, inspiration would come from varied sources; from great fashion designers such as Elsa Schiaparelli, to microscopic images of insects. After graduating, she then specialised in millinery and set up her millinery labels in London. Her style reflects her varied Persian and English background, her love for British hats, as well as her exposure to the underground art world which surrounds her in London.

Sahar Millinery

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