Hats

One of my favorite scenes in the Julie & Julia movie occurs when Julia Child, portrayed by Meryl Streep, asks her husband what she should do while they are living in Paris.  She tells him she's learned she could take hat-making lessons.  In a later scene, with a roll of her eyes she tosses away a hat in frustration.  Clearly, hat-making was not Julia Child's calling.

This week, I had the pleasure of meeting someone for whom hat-making is both a calling and a joy.  I had Googled "Women's Dress Hats" just for fun to see if I could find a hat to wear to my daughter's wedding.  Some people are just hat-people, and I'm one of them.

When I found the web site for Maggie Mae Designs and learned that the business was located on the Cape, I knew I had to make a pilgrimage.  (It's Thanksgiving week, and I was just on the Cape and near Plimoth Plantation so I've got Pilgrims on the brain.  Sorry).

I any case, I had the privilege of meeting Sally Faith Steinmann who lives and works in Harwich, Massachusetts in a studio/apartment she shares with artist-husband Tom Steinmann.

 

Sally creates beautiful, one-of-a-kind hats for weddings, holidays, church services, and other social occasions.  Combining her love of horses with her craft, Sally designs and sells hats for events like the Kentucky Derby and the World Equestrian Games.

Each is a work of art.

I asked Sally how she got started making hats.  She told me that she was trying to decide what to do after graduating from Wellesley College with degrees in women's studies and psychology.  Her mother had given her a pattern for a wool hat that was to be shrunk in the dryer.  After making that hat, she was hooked.

Meeting Sally, trying on hats, and listening to her talk about doing something she loves, was a gift.  Clearly, she is doing what she was put on this earth to do.

And, yes.  I ordered my mother-of-the bride hat, because I believe you're never too old to stop playing dress up.

And besides, I will need something to wear on William and Kate's big day.