Saturday Night Hat: Quick, Easy Hatmaking for the Downtown Girl

by Eugenia Kim

The new must-have accessory!

The right hat has the power to instantly transform a woman’s face, changing her entire look—and outlook. Celebrity millinery designer Eugenia Kim has created a sensation with her hat designs, which can be seen on everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna, and Jennifer Lopez to the most style-conscious fashionistas in the world’s most glamorous cities. In Saturday Night Hat , Kim teaches you to make thirty of her hottest designs, with patterns and instructions so easy you can start the project Saturday morning and wear it out on Saturday night!

Learn to make styles

• The Beret

•The cloche

•The cocktail hat

•The Pillbox

•The Fedora

•The Newsboy

•The Sun hat

Genres: Nonfiction, Fashion, Crafts

144 pages, Paperback

First published December 5, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Trena · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first thing you have to do about this book is not hate the author. If her introduction is to be believed, she was one year out of college and unemployed and stopped into a fancy boutique wearing one of her hats. By the end of the month, Barney's had placed an order for her line. She talks a fair amount in the book about how she could neeeeevvvver have a real job like a regular person. While I don't (necessarily) begrudge her success at the age of 22 or whatever, I find the whole "I'm so special and artistic! I can't live like the rest of you peons!" thing pretty irritating.

But the point of the book is not Eugenia Kim (luckily), the point of the book is hat projects. The focus of the book is mostly sewn hats, with some projects that are just embellishing a purchased hat; there is no information on blocking. There are patterns for a nice variety of projects--cocktail hat, baseball cap, engineer cap, sun hat, cloche, and newsboy plus instructions for drafting your own beret and pillbox. In addition, there are embellishment projects for pre-made cloches and fedoras.

A weakness in the instructions is her information on how to size for your head. Rather than, say, shrink or enlarge the pattern on a copy machine in proportion to the difference between the pattern (drafted for a women's medium 23" head) and your own size or use other pattern-scaling methods, she tells you to make the project as is and then use an iron to steam shrink or stretch the finished product. Huh? I find it much easier to do some simple math--my 21.5 inch head is 93% of a medium 23 inch head (21.5 divided by 23), so I copied the pattern on a copy machine at 93%.

Many of her decoration ideas are very clever and the instructions are well-detailed with accompanying illustrations. There is also some basic information on things like the type of feathers used in millinery and other supplies. In enjoyed reading the book and I'm sure the ideas will be percolating in my brain for a while.

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this book and tbh it didn’t even follow through with what it promised? Eugenia promised easy, beginner hat making instructions with things you probably already have. Her hat making instructions included MANY things you have to buy specifically from a millinery store, and half of them weren’t even instructions to make the hats! It was things to put on top of premade hats!!!! Plus, sometimes she would give instructions for something pretty technical and there was no explanation on how to do that thing. I didn’t actually make any hats (yet), but I don’t know if I could do some of these….

Plus, a lot of her comments and stories were just so out of touch and off color? Like sorry Eugenia I DON’T think it’s cool that you got fired from the two jobs you had because you couldn’t follow instructions… she’s ‘quirky’ in the not like other girls way and it’s just annoying! There are a lot of jokes about mental illness that are just unnecessary and very of the time but… yeah… kind of of the time. Just didn’t expect it in a hat making book!

Maybe I’d have enjoyed this more if I knew who Eugenia Kim was going in, or if I read this in 2006. But I didn’t enjoy it very much

[Courtney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quick and easy hatmaking that requires you to buy specialized head blocks and felt hat cones for your projects? NOT quick or easy. The beret section is about the only thing you can make without special equipment (aside from a sewing machine) but are you really quirky enough to wear a piece of felt bread and butter as a fashion accessory?

[Carolyn Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book on hat making! Sewn hats, that require very little equipment, as opposed to felting or straw hats. Learn to make pillboxes, fascinators, fedoras, berets, ball caps... The instructions are thorough and the illustrations are clear. Color photographs provide extra inspiration when needed. The only hang up would be possibly using the templates (one or two need to be enlarged). Even so, I can't see many difficulties if you have any experience sewing.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has good ideas for hat trimming, but was a bit disappointing because many of the hats require you to already have a fedora or other pre-made hat. Based on the description, I thought there would be more sewn hats. The best part of the book is the history of each style of hat and the descriptions of which hats best suit which face shape, hairstyle, and clothing.

[Ligaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like this book but I wished it had more useful, rather than decorative, hats and more hats that one makes from start to finish instead of using pre-made hoods or fedoras. There is little information on blocking hats nor really getting the size right. The author has you steam the rope line to either stretch or shrink the hat to fit. Lots of useful photos, graphics, and cheeky text. Well, I could do without that last bit in exchange for more hat construction instruction... but, oh well. Creative stuff and loads of inspiration.

[Sonya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! Great hats. Great stories. Great instruction. Go make hats!

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to make a hat this is for you. Eugenia Kim definitely has style and she had me laughing from her drawstring beret designed while nursing a hangover to her toast pillbox (?) and then to her sun hat meant to conceal the most recent “nipped-and-tucked you”. Even if you’re not going to make a hat it’s a fun read obviously. She even includes cocktail recipes to pair with hat trims of the same name I.e. the White Russian- “trim the edge of your white cocktail with fox or faux fur to look like a Russian princess.”

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has a pattern for a nice shady, floppy beach or yardwork hat that I'd like to make. The cloches are cute. But the rest are -eh. They're either really way too trendy for ordinary people to even consider or simply embellishing an already existing hat.

[Ing · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was super excited about this book since I love hats - but I have yet to make something from the book. I do like some of her ideas (sushi hat), while others I think are not really inspiring (cutting up a felt hood). I do like that there are patterns that you can photocopy from the book.

[Photo Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adorable projects. I think I have a new hobby.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

<3. I want to make hats! Glorious hats! These are cute and non-frumpy

[Tamara]

Quick and easy intro to millinery. Easy to read and easy to follow instructions.

[Izzy]

Love the hats author is a geninus.

[Tattered Cover Book Store]

Liz says: "Eugenia is a genius!"