Hats, coifs, caps: Robin Hood

[janestarz]

Robin Hood hat, available from Dolle-Griet.com for only € 17,50.

These are so much fun to make and they're remarkably comfortable. There's only a minimal amount of hand-sewing^*) involved. I can make them in any colour (pink! pink!) and have a couple of them lying ready for sale. If only I could find some pheasant feathers to go with this, it'll be even better.
Ebay.com only has lots of 20+ pheasant feathers, and German ebay...well, let's not go into that.

^*) Basting, stitching, tacking, and stuffing of turkey.

Comments

[muizenstaartje.livejournal.com]

I have a lot of feathers. Not those pretty pheasant feathers that are long and curvy, but I have peacock (wing, not shiny tail) and swan feathers. If I see you on a fair, I could give you some.

On the other hand try searching ebay with "fly tying" and you'll find a lot of feathers. Many come in bulk (20+), but say you have 10 hats and are left with 10 feathers, you could sell those seperately. I'm sure larpers wouldn't mind buying a pheasant feather for a euro to pretty up their costume and it usually costs less than 10 euro to get those feathers in your mailbox.

The hat looks great, btw. ^_^

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Thanks, those are really good ideas!

I have some duck feathers, but they haven't been sanitized, and the problem with long feathers is that they can't be easily shipped in the mail. I can't see me squishing a hat with a long pheasant feather into an envelop and have it come out looking good. So maybe the feathers will just be an addition to the hats I sell on faires.
That ought to buy me some time to get some long feathers too.

Could you recommend me some sellers? You've got experience in buying feathers off ebay.

[muizenstaartje.livejournal.com]

I buy from:
http://myworld.ebay.com/acharry
http://myworld.ebay.com/brady4893
http://myworld.ebay.com/ddeubuza
http://myworld.ebay.com/lmf182006
http://myworld.ebay.nl/dovemaiden/
though mostly from the first two. What they have for sale changes, but both acharry and brady4893 usually have some duck mallard and pheasant feathers for sale at any given time and dovemaiden has smaller feathers from exotic pet birds (which sometimes may give trouble when importing).

The keyword for searching ebay is "fly tying". Many feathers are used for fly tying and it works better than words like "crafts" and "feathers".

Shipping loose feathers is not that hard, but I can see the problem of shipping a hat with feathers. Maybe you can make DIY kits of a hat and a feather. ;)

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

The kit is an idea, but it wouldn't really be a kit. I could add a note that if people want a feather with it, this is possible but they have to assmble it themselves. This might result in grumpy customers who lost their feathers because of bad assembley though.

I'll have a look at those e-bayers. Thanks!

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Oooh, wing feathers! Currently bidding. :-)

[muizenstaartje.livejournal.com]

Yes, I see some nice feathers too.
I just found out I must have mislabled sellers in my favourites list. I don't think the third one I gave you sells feathers. XD

[anemoona.livejournal.com]

Je zou ook een hobbywinkel kunnen proberen. In Nijmegen zit een heel uitgebreide hobbywinkel (Burghouts) en die heeft veren in alle soorten en maten. Ook van die lange fazantenveren.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Helaas hebben de mensen uit Rotterdam geen hobbies. Onze eigen hobbywinkel heeft alleen korte veren van 15 cm in te felle kleuren. De Xenos en Blokker hebben geen veren, en een Marskramer zit hier niet in de buurt. Een passimenterie a la Baars & Van Der Kerkhof (Utrecht) of een Burghouts ken ik hier niet in de buurt.

Als ik dan moet kiezen voor een treinkaartje naar Utrecht besteden of het via ebay bestellen, ga ik toch lekker makkelijk voor het laatste.

[nathreee.livejournal.com]

Als je wilt, zal ik eens langsgaan bij de hobbywinkel in Nijmegen. We moeten sowieso nog eens keer afspreken, en dan neem ik ze gewoon voor je mee.

[steelweaver.livejournal.com]

Woo, hats! One can never have too many hats!