A vintage hat question.....

[Fedora]

I was somewhat surprised to find a vintage Stetson(made in Philly) with the Borsalino styled sweatband. What I mean by this is, every vintage Stetson that I have seen has the sweatband with the exta flap on the inside, which is sewn through to attach the band to the hat. Well, I have a Stetson from fedoralover that has the Borsalino type band, no flap. This makes it impossible to re-use the band unless you want visible stitches showing on the band. Is this just an anomaly? I never liked those Borsalino type bands, due to not being able to use it again after the reblock. Has anyone else ran into this with the Stetson line? I found it to be really weird. Fedora

 

[Andykev]

Guess

It is the type of sweatband that can only be sewn in by the type of machine that Art just got. I'd ask him.

 

[fedoralover]

That black fedora I got had that sort of sweatband. It's not a stetson, but Art told me that the higher quality hats had them done that way. I never noticed it when I had it. I'm gonna have to start checking my other ones.

fedoralover

 

[Art Fawcett]

a sign of quality

Fedora, this is a "whip" stitch that to my knowledge can only be done with one machine, the Singer 100-4. I actually have one but am having fits setting it up correctly AND finding needles for it. The purpose was to eliminate the "bead" and give it a smooth roll to the brim and many of the better hats of the day used it as it take much longer to do. I really don't know if it was a fad or not, but there are still companies that have and use it today. As far as replacement, I am working on finding unbeaded leathers but the bigger problem at the moment is needles. Can we re-sew the old leather? I think so but haven't been able to get it down yet.

 

[Bogie1943]

This is an interesting piece of hat history we have never really discussed before here or anywhere else to my knowledge. It's good to have more indepth people here at the Lounge, unlike some other boards. Art, do they even still produce the machine you have or is it vintage?:cool2:

 

[havershaw]

Fedora -
I do have an old Stetson, actually marked JOHN B. STETSON, sold out of their main Philly store, which has this kind of sweatband on it. It's a bummer because it needs a reblock, and half of the band has already come unstitched. The felt on that hat is super nice...but I never wear it because the block is not that hot. My hat shop here looked at it and said they could redo the stitching, that they had an old machine they never use anymore that could do it. I guess it must be the same machine Art has...but they charge an arm and a leg, so I've just been waiting until Art get his running to do anything about it.

 

[Art Fawcett]

Bogie, the machine I have dates to about 1920 and I don't believe they are being produced any more. It's the old supply & demand thing. I actually now have two of them but am still stuck for the needles AND the knowledge.