Well now the shooting season is over for a while my pheasents have been getting a little friendly towards each other! 

Once these beautiful birds have mated we are lucky to be left their wonderful plumage. We have yellow phesants which have a lovley soft tweet, even the males. Golden Phessies which have a vibrant red as well as great goldenbrown tail feathers and Lady Ambhurst with the longest black and white feathers we used so many of last summer.

All animals here are truly looked after and clients fortunate to visit the workrooms can come and feed them before buying a hat with their thrown off pieces. All feathers are steam cleaned before using on hats or headpieces.

We are always looking for different feathers to use for our clients and lucky to be sent white peacock feathers from a bird called Gandolph who lives on the Isle of Skye and wonderful to have as can be dyed up in to other colourways easier.

The Field Magazine has asked for some photographs of hats we have made with pheasants and the article will be out shortly. 

We have been working with Lovat Mills in Hawick to produce the most beautiful tweed I have ever felt ! The colours are perfect for our new ladies range of soft pull ons, caps and golf hats. We will have a mens tweed coming shortly for hats, caps and cut and sew trilbies.

It has been fascinating going round the mills in Hawick, Selkirk and Galashields. We are lucky to have our workrooms not just in a beautiful part of the country but also with so much textile history.

We are taking on interns from The Heroit Watt Univeristy and with the Old Barbour Factory which closed a few years back able to give jobs to those who are technically superb in cut and sew hats.

We are proud to be one of the only hat makers in UK making and sourcing here in our homeland. Buy Bristish buy the Best !

We had a lovely group of girls up for a hat making course and so invited a piper to come and play as it was Burns night that evening. 

It was a first for us  to have Haggis , tats and Neps ( potaoes and turnips) for lunch rather than a salad inbetween making hats. A surprise for some of the girls who had not tasted Haggis . Very funny that a few ladies thought a Haggis was an actual animal too! I am sure if it was we could have a made it into a hat.

We were very lucky to have the Piper along, not sure if it was his brilliant piping or that he was in a kilt but he was a hit with the ladies!

We will add the course photos to the downloadable area soon where you can see the wonderful pieces we made.

Whats your sign? Chinese New Year in 2012 will be the Year of the Dragon which falls on 23 January. Chinese New Year is a huge festival among Chinese communities in London and across the world. According to Chinese Astrology, your birth year tells you more than just your age. The Chinese Zodiac, known as Sheng Xiao in Chinese, is based on a twelve year cycle with each year related to an animal sign. Find out what your Chinese zodiac sign reveals about you by using your year of birth to discover your animal sign! www.thesorority.org/wisdom/your-chinese-zodiac

Trying to find some thing different for a christmas present? The Yvette Jelfs on-line boutique has just updated some classic, easy to wear and fabulous to receive hats! From prices starting at £80.00 for a workable hat which in todays weather will keep you warm and stand you out from the crowd it is a must have for christmas 2011. The rollables do just that , you can roll them up and squash in your bag. Take them out shake and it will automatically go back into shape. The thing about buying a 100 per cent natural fibre hat is that they will dry out on a aga or radiator. For those wondering why the extra expense it is because they have rabbit fur added to the felt and they really are the "cashmere" of hats, once you have have fur felt a 100 percent felt will not be good enough! The YJ logo felts have been a storming success which is good with the winds outside here today at over 80 miles per hour!

A contest that was open worldwide to would be milliners who sent in their designs for a hat to be worn at Royal Ascot. The 10 top designs were then chosen from over 500 entries and invited to Royal Ascot to model their designs. Louis Mariette ( Britain's next top model) and milliner and Yvette Jelfs judged the contestants which was pretty tricky as there were so many good hats and headpieces to choose from! Emma Yeo a freelance fashion accessory designer won the £1000 first prize with her creation made from japanese wood. All finalists enjoyed an all expenses paid day out at the famous racecourse. Hats are "the item" to stand out of the crowd at any ladies day and with wonderful prizes been awarded to the best dressed we are seeing more and more wonderful hats. Which is super for us!

York racecourse wins R.C.A award for marketing Fashion on the field. Hosted by Jeff Banks and Yvette Jelfs race goers were awarded for dressing up by winning fabulous prizes. Judged by Matthew Williamson, Ben di Lise, design duo Pearce and Fionda and other top designers, a daily winner was entered into the final on Saturday. The crowds at the course were well up on previous Ebor meets, more racecourses see the benefit of Fashion and Racing as a great mix. Royal Ascot after all has been doing this for over 300 years and known internationally for the biggest Ladies day event. Please look on the download area for pictures and prizes and be sure to enter next year, all info www.fashiononthefield.co.uk. It is also a great place for milliners show their own work . We will be awarding prizes for this area next year, so budding hatters please do book onto one of our courses. see contact area for course information.

After seeing how many of our hat wearers are jump racing fans as well we have taken on 2 jockeys to support for the coming season. You will see the crown logo on their colours when they ride though out the season. Russell Lynsday is 19 years old from Hawick, near our workrooms in the Scottish Borders. He has been an amateur for 2 years and is at present with trainer Keith Reveley. He has had one winner at Cattrick (his first under rules) and 2 point to point winners at frairshaugh the course below Floors Castle. Harriett Bryce is Yvette's eldest daughter who has been riding since she was 6 years old. Her father Tim Bryce trains point to point and his wife Alex Embricos trains under rules. Harriett had her first P to P ride last season and came 3rd and hopes to race under rules soon. We will keep you posted on how they go and add photos as and when we can.