Feathers are fun and synamay isn’t so much, but it works well in hats and fascinators.

I made my first hat at college, towards the end of term when the coursework was done and there was time for learning something fun and different and non-compulsory. It was magenta pink with black trim and I still have it safely stored in a hat box on the wardrobe.

Since then I’ve taken two additional courses in millinery and learnt to make fascinators on combs and hairbands and decorated hairbands.

My mother asked me to make her a full on proper hat for my wedding. How could I refuse?

She chose her colours and I bought and blocked the synamay and got blisters on my fingers from the pulling and steaming of the synamay. I was at the stage where you sew the petersham around the inside of the main head piece to reinforce it, before attaching it to the brim, when she told me she had changed her mind and actually only wanted a fascinator instead. Right then.

The hat – half finished – was put away in yet another hat box, consigned to the top of the wardrobe and really hasn’t been looked at since. In the end, for various reasons, the husband and I kind of eloped and my Mother had to buy a fascinator as there was no time for me to make one for her. An opportunity missed; much stress saved, a half-made hat languishing on the wardrobe.

With that in mind, the fun and fashion of decorated hairbands and fascinators is where I focus my attentions now, with a little help from my chick modelling friend Penelope.