Artilce by Emma Hearnes Photography Supplied

Shona Telfer has come a long way from playing with her mother’s fabric scraps, but those were the seeds that sewed her creativity. Now indulging in her hatmaking passion full-time, Shona fills us in on this evolution and how she is passing on the crafting tradition.

“Regional people have quite an attachment to our hats. We’re outside in the sun and rain and our hats become not just our protection, but a companion. You can identify people by their hats and the particular way they fold their brims or the tokens they tuck into their sweatbands. They become part of our story.”

As children, we all had obsessions. That year we refused to leave the house in anything but our sleeping beauty costume, complete with bejewelled plastic click-clacks. The summer we got into catching grasshoppers and learnt the names of all the bugs. As we grew, perhaps the Thomas the Tank Engine-induced train period gave way to the Beanie Kids era and then transitioned to Spice Girls posters on every wall.

For Shona Telfer, its been one thing for as long as she can remember: Hats.

The daughter of a dressmaker, Shona’s creativity, sense of style and love of fabric were shaped through years of wide-eyed observation.

“I spent many hours under the pattern tables at Lincraft while Mum and Aunty Jullee flicked through pattern books or standing as still as I could for a fitting ... And Mum always had a space in the house where there was fabric and thread.”

There were some steadfast rules in the sewing room of their home in Greenwell Point, which anyone with a parent who sews will be familiar with, “if anyone cut up paper with Mum’s sewing scissors you knew that was instant death,” Shona laughs. “But we were always there, tinkering around.”

“Mum made amazing wedding dresses. People would bring a photo or an idea and she would draft the pattern and do really intricate stitching... hundreds of hours went into each dress.”

“She never sat us down for lessons, but you pick a lot up with that exposure. It goes somewhere.”

While Shona’s siblings all engaged with this creativity, Shona was serious about style and put her mum to work crafting outfits to her specifications. “I was always the one insisting on mum making me something. We’d go to weddings and I’d need a fascinator or a hat to go with my dress. Sometimes it was literally three days out... what a brat!”

But Shona’s mum, ever generous and excited by her daughter’s interest, always obliged. In fact, she eventually took a millinery course at the local TAFE to keep up with Shona’s hat obsession – and suddenly there were ostrich feathers atop wide-brimmed black sinamay.

As is often the case, Shona’s passion dulled slightly as she took on the teenage desire to blend in. And after school, she spent her days in corporate workwear as a successful interior designer in Sydney. This 12-year career incorporated the love for colour and texture she developed in her childhood and she made a name for herself, even showing work in House & Garden.

During this time Shona met her husband, Heath, got married and had two little ones, Atticus and Arlo. It wasn’t until 2018 when the family moved out of the city, to Kameruka in the Bega Valley, that Shona’s love of hats was reignited.

Living in a caravan while renovating their new home, Shona was riding horses and embracing time outdoors. It was a welcome change and, in some ways, a reconnection to her regional roots. Naturally, hats made their way back too.

“Regional people have quite an attachment to our hats. We’re outside in the sun and rain and our hats become not just our protection, but a companion. You can identify people by their hats and the particular way they fold their brims or the tokens they tuck into their sweatbands. They become part of our story.”

In a beautifully circular way, the first hats Shona made were for her two boys – and her mum was by her side. “We blocked them using the same block she used for me all those years ago.”

Between her mum’s millinery skills and plenty of YouTube videos, two wobbly-brimmed hats with slightly uneven crowns emerged and Shona was hooked. “I was completely taken by the process.”

Soon, friends and family started making requests and Shona began honing her skills.

Chris Morris of Mr Legbas, who started out as Shona’s rabbit fur supplier, soon became a mentor. “He has been instrumental in getting my skills up.” Chris would send through helpful tips and sometimes videos as Shona worked through each step – steaming the capline until the felt fibres softened, stretching it over the block, flattening and trimming the brim, and hand stitching on the sweatband. They experimented with the extra details that can be added and interesting techniques like burning.

Impressed by her work, Shona’s friends and family pushed her to offer her services to the public. “A friend with lots of Instagram followers decided it was time to post one of my hats. I then had to scramble to make an account. I didn’t even have a business name!”

Honey Fox Hats – a play on Shona’s maiden name, Fox – was Chris’s bright idea.

“[A couple of months later] We were out working on the house when I got my first custom order. ‘I don’t know this person... and I’m going to make them a hat??’ I was panicking at Heath. Immediate imposter syndrome.”

But she did it – one powder blue, felt, cowgirl-style hat with a rustic tobacco leather band and multicoloured ribbon was shipped off to make someone’s day.

From there, Shona started doing markets and events – her mum usually by her side chatting to customers or knitting. “Doing the Deni Ute Muster [in September 2023], although a financial flop, was great experience for me. I had to pump out 40 or 50 hats to take, so I was working for months beforehand. You don’t get that kind of experience elsewhere and having that as a new hatmaker was amazing.”

As her business grew, Shona moved from the kitchen island to the dining table and then, “when noone wanted to eat felt with their dinner anymore”, to the spare room.

“My mum is still so happily shocked when she walks into my house and I’ve got a tape measure around my neck. ‘Never did I think one of my kids, would have their own sewing room.’”

“The day it dawned on me that I was a real hat maker was when I was in the workshop.”

That workshop is the beautiful Mechanics Warehouse in Pambula, where owners Yeedah Campagnaro-Thomas and Simon Thomas lovingly showcase the work of local creatives. Shona has been part of this collective since it opened in late September 2023.

“I was making hats and my son, Arlo, was teaching himself a bit of leather stitching. I looked around and was like, ‘Oh my goodness. I’m actually doing this’.”

Shona says business has been more of a slow burn than a wildfire. But for her, it is all about the love of making. “It’s quite expensive to set yourself up as a hat maker. You’re buying handmade tools and those craftsmen deserve to be paid well. So the business side of things is sort of out of necessity – if I want more tools I need to sell more hats!”

To date, Shona has made over 150 unique hats, and the feedback from her customers speaks volumes. “They send me photos of their Honey Fox hats out in the wild,” Shona says, modestly adding that she feels “super lucky” to have such wonderful relationships with her clients.

But it’s her level of care that earns her this praise. “I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so I probably go above and beyond. My husband often reminds me that “they haven’t really paid for that” when I’m adding extra touches, but my response is always “Yes, but it’ll look amazing.”

“I want the hats to be the best they can be and people to have them for a really long time. You can definitely buy cheaper felt hats, but part of my business is educating people about handcrafted goods and slow fashion, where you aren’t buying something new each season but rather buying something of quality that takes you through the next 10–15 years.”

“I could make things cheaper and be a lot busier, but then it’s not aligning with the values I’ve held from the beginning. I’m not interested in making throwaway hats.”

When crafting custom hats, Shona will ask her customers a range of questions, from whether they’ll wear it out to breakfast to what colours they have in their wardrobe. If you are keen to get involved, Shona will generously share updated photos and options as she goes, but many prefer to give Shona’s creativity free reign and wait for the magic to take place.

This is the kind of magic you see if you are lucky enough to visit Shona at the Mechanics Warehouse. “It is special that people can come to see the process. I think they see the value then – the time and effort it takes.”

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