All About Me

1. How did you get into doll millinery, and how long have you been doing it?

I made my first hat when I was about 10. I got a Barbie Doll for Christmas and no clothes or hats, just the doll. Most of her clothes were hankies or scarves but then I found an egg carton, covered it with my parakeet's molted feathers and was hooked. She had more hats then scarves.

When I put away my dolls for other interesting items, like boys, I forgot about the hats. I got married, had a son, made mistakes and work moves. I like to think that all the different positions I held led me back into the hats. In 1976 we went to our first miniature show and sold my husbands replicas of guns I saw a lady who made miniature hats. Of course like everyone else I thought I could do that too. For the next 18 years we went to shows and sold our work with lots of my miniature hats on one side of the table. I acquired a following which surprise me because there were a lot of miniature hat makers out there. It seemed that at the time I was about the only one who was not making them Victorian.

We stopped going to shows about 10 years ago and I went back to work. There is a Gallery and Gift shop in my town where the owner also sold and made hats. I convinced her to hire me as I told her I was a wiz at making hats. There is a BIG difference in real size hats and doll hats. I found out quite soon that I liked the doll hats better. Dolls do not complain about the fit.

Then I broke my hip.

Not being able to go back to work standing on my feet all day and dealing with climbing ladders to put hats back up on display I turned to eBay to sell off my various collections to pay the bills.

I sold a Gene Doll Ball Gown I had made and it came with a hat, of course.

Funny thing her feedback said more about the hat than the ball gown so I thought maybe I could put a few more of my hats up.

I now have sold over 5,000 hats from my eBay store.

2. What materials do you usually use in your work?

Vintage fabrics are my favorite. They have so much texture and life to them. I like to buy old prom dresses just to get the bodice or the overlay fabric. My husband has bags of rags for his garage from the pieces of the dresses I don't use.

I also like what would be called strange colors, such as moss, or electric ell or say radioactive mud.

Black, pink and white sell nice but to me they are boring. I'll make the Mud's.

3. What sizes of dolls do you make hats for?

I started out making the miniature hats that is 1/12 scale and still make them, I do not seem to keep many in my store as they sell out fast. They are harder to make than the larger size. But I get bored with just one size so I make the Barbie Doll or Fashion Royalty size doll hat. Then I make the Gene size that fits Tyler, Rose, Princess Diana, Mostly Franklin Mint doll heads, CED Sybarites. Effenbee's Brenda Star has a slightly larger head but the Gene hats fit them to just not over the forehead but perched on top. Then there is Ellowyne and Prudence who's hats also fit the 22" American Model doll.

4.What size doll seems to be most popular now?

Ellowyne has a growing number of customers for my hats. There is the steady buyers for my Gene hats so that is a tough question. They all seem to sell as well as the next. The least bought one's are for the Barbie Dolls. I think Barbie just doesn't relate to collectors playing with them the way we play with our bigger fashion dolls. Barbie collectors seem to just buy the doll for future investments and forget about playing with them.

5. What kind of hats are your best sellers? What are your favorite to make?

My best sellers are Black......yes Black.

Black Top hats with lots of Tulle. When I need money I make them in batches and put them in my store. Usually I am sold out in a week.

But my Bright hats take courage to buy and those make me smile when they sell. When someone buys a strange or bright color hat that means they fell in love with it and are not just playing it safe buying a black hat.

My Favorite hat to make right now is for Prudence She looks good in any hat I make.

Pictures are coming or you can right click on any hat in my auctions as I have removed the safety feature. I figure if someone wants a picture of my hats then that is a compliment and they are welcome to them.

Peggy