Create Your Own Hat Workshop

Residents and the public will make their own hats from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, April 30, at the Oak Park Arms, 408 S. Oak Park Ave.

Artist Janet Pauley is a millinery expert, and she will teach participants the basics of hat making.

People have been wearing some version of headwear since the first cave dwellers. Because there are no records from early times, we can only speculate that the reason for the invention of the hat would have been to keep warm.

In later years it is recorded as an indication of status. Hats were, and still are, worn as an adornment or to make one more attractive. The hat reflects not only the mood of its wearer, but the spirit of the time. Hats were the crowning glory of an outfit.

Stories of the history of millinery from Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Greek and ancient Roman through to the present time are told depicting the fashion of its time, and in most cases some type of head dress was included.

The term "millinery" was not known until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when fine felt, fabric and straw hats were made in the Duchy of Milan in Italy and were known as 'Millayne bonnets'. This is where the modern English word 'Milliner' comes from, as the London maker of these feminine caps and bonnets was called a 'millianer'.

The hat of today is really not much different to that of the 1700's in that it consists of a brim and/or crown. Some of the materials used today are different, and today’s milliners take the craft much further.

The Oak Park Arms is a rental retirement community which provides independent and assisted living apartments and a full schedule of activities and services. Furnished apartments are also available for a short-term stay - a weekend, a week, a month or longer.

The program is free and open to the public. Call Jill Wagner at 708-386-4040.