The post “Duluth, the City of Electric Lights,” led me to wonder what the deal was with the Gidding’s building. A quick search of the internet produced the photo at left, which depicts the Knox Five and Dime fire of June 10, 1910, and shows the Gidding’s building at left.
I’m working on an art and history project that tells the story of women milliners from our state’s past. Millinery was one of the only professions open to middle-class women for a very long time. I’m looking for your relative who made hats. Or rather, I’m looking for stories about your relative who made hats. Anytime from the 1890s until the 1950s. Please contact me if you’ve got a relative who was a milliner!
I’m about to start a new beginning millinery class. We’ll start on Monday, September 24 and go for 6 weeks. Class will be from 6-7:30. We’ll begin with felt, millinery felt, which is quite different from felted wool. Think fedora or cowboy hat. That material, but not (necessarily) that shape. Only softer.
Hey there lords and ladies of the craft! There’s a new series of hat workshops about to blossom. I’ll be starting a second series of beginning hat classes on Tuesday, June 19, from 6-7:30. There will be 6 weeks to the course.
I’ll be teaching a beginning millinery class on Mondays, from 6 to 8:30 p.m., May 7 to June 11 (no class on Memorial day).
We’ll begin with the easiest material to work with: millinery-grade felt. This is not the same process as “felting” a hat. Picture the material used to make a fedora. That’s the stuff. You will learn to make a hat from the very beginning: blocking the felt, to the end: lining the hat. In the middle there are a whole bunch of steps that generally involve a needle and thread and some ribbon. Some proficiency with said needle and thread is helpful but not necessary.
Classes will take place at Otlak Felt Studio in the DeWitt-Seitz building and will cost $150 plus $56 in supplies. You can email me at emily @ moesewco.com for questions and to register. Space is limited, so jump right in there.
I’m gauging interest in the notion (ha!*) of teaching some small classes in millinery — that is, traditional hat-making. Not so traditional that you knit and then felt, but rather the kind that leads to possibly a fedora, but with many other shapes and options.
If I find that there is interest, I will go forth and find an appropriately sized space. You can see my work at moesewco.com, which I just mentioned in another post on a mostly unrelated subject, so please bear with me.
* A notion is a sewing item that is not fabric or thread — like buttons or scissors.
