How about some eye candy? Imagine walking into an historical house and seeing a dining room table FULL of glorious Miss Fisher hats? Not hats that look like Miss Fisher hats but the REAL things!

That is exactly what Trish from Quiet Vintage Sewing and I did : ) As part of my Australian tour (sounds so much more grand to say “tour” than “trip” doesn’t it?) I was able to not only meet, and stay with, the amazing Trish but we were able to ohhh and ahhh over the lovely Miss Fisher creations at the Government House in Parramatta! THANK YOU Trish, for an absolutely AMAZING time!!

We discovered that we could get INCHES away from all the exhibits. They had some mirrors down on the floor immediately around mannequins and asked that you not step on the mirrors, and they didn’t want any flash photography, but other than that we could step around, photograph, whisper and in general just take our time. We took many photos of EVERYTHING : ) I figured there would be a catalog at the end (there was) but turns out our photos, sans flash and all, were as good or better than the official ones AND our cell phones took better photos than the ‘big’ camera Trish brought (only because we’re both pretty newbie with using fancy stuff). Hey, those cell phone are pretty darn handy for many, many things that have nothing to do with making a phone call.

OK, to the hats… (The descriptions below each one are from the show catalog.)

Remarkably, this amazing number was one Aunt Prudence wore in Season 1 Episode 10 – Death by Miss Adventure.

Mid-grey felt cloche with felt and bugle bead detail.

Lilac Afternoon Tea hat Season 1 Episode 2 – Murder on the Ballarat Train

The straw was dyed to match Phryne’s lilac afternoon tea frock. The burgundy flowers tie into the color of the Hispano-Suiza, the feather are original period feathers and the trim was found in a New Zealand antique store.

Pink Afternoon Tea hat Season 1 Episode 1 – Cocaine Blues

Pink straw hat with vintage feathers and dusty pink organza petals. All components of this hat were hand dyed and then antique feathers were added. This hat is worn by Phryne when she goes to visit Lydia Andrews and meets Detective Inspector Jack Robinson for the first time.

Leopard Print hat Season 2 Episode 8 – The Blood of Juana the Mad

Cream leopard print hat with feather-corded detail. The base of this hat was sourced from America (going to have to figure out where THIS one came from!) and the feathers were from a millinery supplier in London.

Entering the Docks hat Season 1 Episode 4 – Death at Victoria Docks

White felt hat with icy grey silk velvet swirl detail.

White felt with Bronze Motif Season 1 Episode 1 – Cocaine Blues

Cream felt hat with bronze period flower motifs, and hand painted ‘pearlised’ beads.

Blue felt Day hat Season 1 Episode 1 – Cocaine Blues

Navy hat with navy and white felt diamonds. This blue felt day hat has overlapping diamonds, which creates amazing texture and was taken from Marion’s own collection.

Red Felt hat Season 1 Episode 5 – Raisins and Almonds

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Red felt with black and cream felt circles. This one was a favorite of both Trish and myself. I see a version of this in my near future : )

Spanish hat Season 2 Episode 1 – Murder Most Scandalous

A traditional Spanish hat with wide rim, this piece helped create Phryne’s undercover Spanish character ‘Lulu Loreta’.

Pink Day hat Season 2 Episode 8 – The Blood of Juana the Mad

Deep pink felt hat was sourced from the USA and utilizes a combination of antique and modern feathers.

A rack of “stuff”, mainly pieces of fabrics used as inspiration. What IS here, that made my heart go pitty-pat, is the outfit Phryne wore in Season 1 Episode 9 Queen of the Flowers. Made from a burgundy silk sari it is stunning. And just hanging here, on this rack, in this room where no one is really looking….so I pick it up and all the while Trish is nervously looking about… : ) It gives me all NEW inspiration for lovely things to make with saris.

Interspersed between posts on items I’ve made from the Ruth Wyeth Spears patterns I’ll post about my adventures in Australia. I’ve MANY MANY photos from the trip, all on my phone which takes a little bit of maneuvering to get onto the computer and into a post. I’ve shown you just a few of the hats on exhibit, there were 31 in total including a few of Dot’s, one other of Aunt Prudence’s and the hat Dr. Elizabeth MacMillan wears. Would you like to see more?

I will be posting pics of the dresses on display as I get to making my own creations. One thing I do want to mention – all the furs we saw, including trims and hats, are FAKE! I can’t speak for everything they use on the show, because there is a lot of vintage stuff out there, but I was VERY impressed that she uses as much fake fur as she does!

See all that fur? Fake!!

Just because I’m me and I was in Australia I have pics of animals, shocker I know : ) Trish once wrote about a mynah bird that got into her house and in his terror to get back out made a pretty good mess! I was entranced. Birds that we consider ‘exotics’ here in America literally come up to her kitchen windows for snacks. See?

These are Rainbow Lorikeets. They just showed up one afternoon while we were chatting over tea so Trish opens the window and puts out a small container of sugar water for them. They spent the next half hour chattering away drinking the water. It was fabulous : )

This is NOT a pic from Australia, this is my new sewing room assistant. His name is (I kid you not) Fifi and he is a recent rescue. We’re still waiting on his test results but so far he’s moved right in, likes hanging out on the table while I sew and is MUCH better behaved than most of my cats! We think his owner died and the people taking care of her estate wanted nothing to do with him and a dog brother. A small group of us responded to their craigslist post “Come get these two or they go to the shelter”. There was no love lost between people and cat, which is probably good for the cat. Once we know he is healthy and gets up to date shots he’ll go up for adoption. Anyone want a to adopt a sweet cat?