What Hat Are You Working On Today?

[RickP]

Finally got the tears and holes closed up and stabilized. New liner will hide all the ugly parts. Used some grosgrain thats a close color match to glue in place. Amazes me that its made it as far as it did without the whole top of the hat falling off ( there was a total of about 3" of unbroken felt scattered around the top of the crown holding it together). Lesson of the week is never let anyone iron sharp edges into a bash..lol

Got everything rolled down pretty flat. at least its stable now. Plans are to shave off some felt fuzz from inside and pack it into the three spots of missing felt where the grosgrain shows through. Ill get cracking on the brim binding the next couple days...from a few feet away its looking way better already

 

[Judgmentalist]

Finally got the tears and holes closed up and stabilized. New liner will hide all the ugly parts. Used some grosgrain thats a close color match to glue in place. Amazes me that its made it as far as it did without the whole top of the hat falling off ( there was a total of about 3" of unbroken felt scattered around the top of the crown holding it together). Lesson of the week is never let anyone iron sharp edges into a bash..lol

Got everything rolled down pretty flat. at least its stable now. Plans are to shave off some felt fuzz from inside and pack it into the three spots of missing felt where the grosgrain shows through. Ill get cracking on the brim binding the next couple days...from a few feet away its looking way better already

View attachment 790359 View attachment 790361 View attachment 790360 View attachment 790362 View attachment 790363

Can’t wait for the next update on this one

 

[RickP]

Two steps forward/ one step back. Should have the new sweatband and liner sewn in today. I did shave off some fuzz from the inside and got some secured in the holes where the backing was showing. ( cant see the ribbon behind the holes anymore)

And THEN... i was looking at a wobbly spot on the brim, and a chunk of felt on the edge fell off in several small pieces ( Arrrgh!). Poor little hat is in pretty fragile condition. Plans were to replace the missing brim binding anyway, so now I need to find some felt close to the color and thickness, glue in a little patch, and the do the brim binding... should be fine. Ive got some 5/8" ribbon on hand. Some 3/4 or 1" would pretty much close over the hole but i fear a wide binding might look funny

 

[Judgmentalist]

Two steps forward/ one step back. Should have the new sweatband and liner sewn in today. I did shave off some fuzz from the inside and got some secured in the holes where the backing was showing. ( cant see the ribbon behind the holes anymore)

View attachment 790777
View attachment 790771

And THEN... i was looking at a wobbly spot on the brim, and a chunk of felt on the edge fell off in several small pieces ( Arrrgh!). Poor little hat is in pretty fragile condition. Plans were to replace the missing brim binding anyway, so now I need to find some felt close to the color and thickness, glue in a little patch, and the do the brim binding... should be fine. Ive got some 5/8" ribbon on hand. Some 3/4 or 1" would pretty much close over the hole but i fear a wide binding might look funny

View attachment 790770

Beautiful work thus far. This is incredibly interesting; thank you for sharing.

 

[RickP]

Got the new sweatband assembeled and sewn in. Got the new liner fit and in place but im waiting till I finish the rest of the hat done before I secure it ( in case a have some of the reinforcing inside come loose during shaping and have to go back in). The bronze color really looks good with it. Just need to find my box of little bows and sew one in. thinking Im going to hit it with a puff of steam and park it on the form a bit so the liner lays down ( without the liner underneath, the leather lays perfectly flat)

Now I need to fit a piece of felt into the divot in the brim edge and get cracking on the edge binding.

Its going to have a few ugly spots, but at least its not Jed Clampetts hat anymore!

 

[RickP]

Got a patch sewn into the brim edge so the brim is intact again. wish I had a better match on the color, but this was the closest felt I had. Decided that Transparent thread is a pill to sew with lol I kept looping the needle through and creating knots that I had to untie because I had trouble seeing it. Looks decent though. The 5/8 ribbon Ive got will cover about 1/2 the patch up and wouldnt look terrible, but Im really thinking maybe go find some 1" ribbon and totally mask the repair up out o sight.

I hit it with some steam to see what the reinforcing pieces would let me do. It kinda begrudgingly let me start a cattlemans crease like it had, but the ugly spots were out in the open where they could be seen. resteamed and shaped it into more of a fedora style and I think it looks a little better... Thats prob how its going to stay

 

[HatsBySam]

Got a patch sewn into the brim edge so the brim is intact again. wish I had a better match on the color, but this was the closest felt I had. Decided that Transparent thread is a pill to sew with lol I kept looping the needle through and creating knots that I had to untie because I had trouble seeing it. Looks decent though. The 5/8 ribbon Ive got will cover about 1/2 the patch up and wouldnt look terrible, but Im really thinking maybe go find some 1" ribbon and totally mask the repair up out o sight.

View attachment 790947 View attachment 790946

I hit it with some steam to see what the reinforcing pieces would let me do. It kinda begrudgingly let me start a cattlemans crease like it had, but the ugly spots were out in the open where they could be seen. resteamed and shaped it into more of a fedora style and I think it looks a little better... Thats prob how its going to stay

View attachment 790948 View attachment 790949

Do any of your leather sewing machines have unified feed? Bet that would work great at brim binding.

 

[RickP]

My

Do any of your leather sewing machines have unified feed? Bet that would work great at brim binding.

My big Cobra class 4 does but the smallest needle it can use is a #19...I may do a test with some spare felt/ ribbon and some 138 thread.. that MIGHT give me a small enough stitch. My little Singer does a fair job but it's hard to steer on curves.

There's an older guy here in town that seems to have gotten out of the saddle business. I've sent word a few times that I'd be interested in buying a Cobra class 26 cylinder machine he has...that will allow down to a #10 needle and about #75 thread. If.. just haven't talked him into selling yet

 

[HatsBySam]

Just finished up a hat for a friend, they told me to make whatever I wanted, lol, so I went with an open road style brim with binding and a western fedora crown, black on black binding, felt, and hat band. Used some blood core leather from Rose Anvil to add some color.

 

[RickP]

Did find some 1" grosgrain locally this morning and it just almost covers up the felt patch! Its a bit lighter color kahki than I wanted, but it should do a good job of drawing the eye away and camo-ing the felt damage. The owner is thrilled with the picture of how it looks now. Dont know if Ill get too ambitious tonight ( I have a handful of leather belts that I really need to get finished first... been stitching fishtail designs all day lol). Spent about an hour sewing the binding loop up and getting it fit evenly. Debating doing a hand basting stitch all around so I dont have to fight the clips, but I dont like the risk of leaving little holes in the binding ribbon. Im confident by the end of the weekend Ill have the binding done and the brim stabilized

 

[RickP]

Decided that the clips were going to be a pain on the brim binding with the sewing machine, so I went ahead this morning and did a basting stitch to hold things in place.

Got the ribbon binding sewn in, but I had an issue with the foot pedal on my Singer Machine..... there is a razor thin line between slow and steady controllable work speed ... and full throttle, full tilt boogie wander in and out speed. Caused me to have the needle position move in and out. Ended up doing a second row of stitching that kinda camos the issue. thinking I need to make a spacer under the foot petal to limit how far my foot can press it. At least the brim now has some body and stays in place better. . Going to steam it up and tie it down to a brim flange here in a bit. Still trying to decide what going to look best on the brim shape and hatband. the old cord hatband has several rather ugly stains that aren't going away. I kinda like the thin leather and buckle band, but might go with a matching grosgrain band with a Campaign bow.

this poor hats still got a ways to go with cleanup and shaping, but its come along way

 

[RickP]

its almost a hat again. Managed to snap the little thin leather band ( stitching let loose, so the original ribbon went back on)... Im at a point that Im glad to dont do this sort of work too often lol

 

[blewnote]

its almost a hat again. Managed to snap the little thin leather band ( stitching let loose, so the original ribbon went back on)... Im at a point that Im glad to dont do this sort of work too often lol

Nice job on that Rick! That was in rough shape for sure.

 

[RickP]

Off the brim flange and after some steam, ironing and resting, it actually has some brim snap and shape again!

 

[jeffgarf]

Off the brim flange and after some steam, ironing and resting, it actually has some brim snap and shape again!

View attachment 791389 View attachment 791390 View attachment 791391

Well done!

 

[RickP]

too bad its not my size lol.... also the owner is a 7-5/8 and his Grandfather was evidently a 7-1/4... oh well it will look good on his office wall next to his grandfathers s h o t g u n and r i f l e ( owner is my insurance agent and coffee buddy)

 

[HatsBySam]

I like the color of this Adam’s Premier fedora. I assumed this would need a full refurb, but so far has held up to thorough cleaning. I really thought the sweatband wouldn’t survive the gas bath, but somehow it did, it looks rough, but remains soft and supple and comfortable on my head, so I’ll leave it for now. The felt was in surprisingly good shape.