Hat making?? Learning Millinery..

[Darrell2688]

Anyone try Olala Hat Blocks on Etsy? They’re from France and the pricing looks interesting but the block shapes aren’t quite to my liking, but maybe the offer other profiles?

Etsy: olalahatblocks

mute this:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CPjAkF6oukU/?utm_medium=copy_link

flange and stand in one:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CXimDKjIQ6K/?utm_medium=copy_link

What hat block shapes are you looking for?

 

[deadlyhandsome]

What hat block shapes are you looking for?

#52 or equivalent.

 

[Darrell2688]

It works...to a point. Just doing it in a pot you don't get the dye penetration all the way through and the dye absorption can be uneven. It is ok if you are after a 'distressed' look but hit and miss if you want a pristine finished product.

If you dye the felt blank and then trim the brim you reveal the inner original colour of the felt. If you trim it first it usually does not end well as it is very very hard to reblock and get it exactly positioned as before. You end up with an uneven brim and it requires further trimming to even it out AND thus revealing the undyed inner core.

Well, in that case a pressure cooker might just be the way to go. Won't hurt to try, you could always give it a try on an old beater hat.

 

[belfastboy]

Well, in that case a pressure cooker might just be the way to go. Won't hurt to try, you could always give it a try on an old beater hat.

If I can find a pressure cooker for a few bucks at Goodwill I will bite and give it a go.

 

[Rmccamey]

I can't seem to get to the pictures but for anyone interested: Look up Biggar Hat store, Decatur, TX, on Facebook. They are selling a couple of old hat presses and related gear.

 

[Darrell2688]

Ok, well I am finally finished with the new hat band. It took me a little while to get all the pieces that I was looking for. I was actually looking for a buckle set that would fit on a 1/2" wide piece of leather, my hat band is about 5/8" wide and I had to cut the ends down to 3/8" wide to work on the with this buckle set and I had to skive the ends down to get the buckle, belt keeper and the end piece to fit. I embossed the belt with the barbed wire design, I tried a basket weave design the first time, but the width of the band just wouldn't work. Any way here are a few photos.

 

[belfastboy]

Ok, well I am finally finished with the new hat band. It took me a little while to get all the pieces that I was looking for. I was actually looking for a buckle set that would fit on a 1/2" wide piece of leather, my hat band is about 5/8" wide and I had to cut the ends down to 3/8" wide to work on the with this buckle set and I had to skive the ends down to get the buckle, belt keeper and the end piece to fit. I embossed the belt with the barbed wire design, I tried a basket weave design the first time, but the width of the band just wouldn't work. Any way here are a few photos. View attachment 394504 View attachment 394505 View attachment 394506 View attachment 394507

It looks very classy.

 

[Darrell2688]

It looks very classy.

Thank you, BB, I was trying for a nice-looking hat, and I guess that I managed to do that. Thank you for all of help, working with a sweatband is so much easier and I think that my next hat won't have any wrinkles for me to deal with.

What I was going for was the Raylan Givens hat from the tv series Justified.

 

[Darrell2688]

Just finished the rounding jack and I'm trying to work up the nerve to actually cut the brim. For the most part I ripped off someone's design for a simple one. It was probably off of this site but I can't remember now. Fairly crude but it should do what it's supposed to.
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I like the work you did on this hat and I really like your rounding jack. It looks like it does a good job trimming the brim down to size. Great job!!

 

[TWKundrat]

I like the work you did on this hat and I really like your rounding jack. It looks like it does a good job trimming the brim down to size. Great job!!

Thanks. I appreciate the kind words. The rounding jack seems to do the job just fine and it's about as simple as it could get. I figure I can just add holes for different brim sizes and if they're staggered a bit I could still have fairly close increments.
I like the hat you just finished too. The cattleman crease with the thin leather hat band is a good look.

 

[Darrell2688]

Thanks. I appreciate the kind words. The rounding jack seems to do the job just fine and it's about as simple as it could get. I figure I can just add holes for different brim sizes and if they're staggered a bit I could still have fairly close increments.
I like the hat you just finished too. The cattleman crease with the thin leather hat band is a good look.

Thank you, I like making hats, it can be a bit of a challenge, like you I make my own tools that I need to do the work. I am thinking about making some improvements on my rounding jack, or I will make a new one, the Rotary cutter didn't work as good as I thought it would.

 

[Darrell2688]

I made another hat, I finished it last night and I decided to post my process and photos of my work, it was a long process.

I started out with a chocolate-colored rabbit fur felt hat that I had used to make a Indy style Fedora, I stripped it down to the bare rabbit fur felt hat body, my plan was to use hair dye to change the color of the hat, I wanted to change the color to a grey color, so I used a couple boxes of blonde hair dye and after the first box the color was a sand color, the second color created a mottled color, sand and lite colors along with some dark colors. So I decided to re-dye the hat back to brown, the results was a red mottled color. I decided to just give up on the hat, however after talking to BB, I decided to see what I could do with the hat. I decided that I wanted a hat with a high crown and a 3” wide brim. The brim was the biggest battle because the brim was tapered on the sides, the front and back were cut to 3” and the sides were cut down to 2 ¾”, so I had to soak the hat and stretch the hat down over the crown block and use a block spring, then I put wet heavy cloth on the brim, used a steam iron and I ironed the brim, then stretched the brim out as far as I could pull it, then used push pins to anchor the brim edges in place. Then waited until the hat felt was dry and measured the brim width, I found out that the brim was not as wide as I wanted it so I had to wet the brim and use the iron again stretching the brim out to a little past the 3” mark. I repeated this process three times to get the width that I wanted and after the third time I put a blocking cord around the block and felt.

 

[Darrell2688]

While the hat felt was drying, I worked on another problem, I wanted to put a pencil curl in the brim of this hat, something that I had never done and didn’t have the tool that I would need to make the curl. I decided to use what I had on hand to either make a tool out of wood to use when I made the curl or find something else to use. I decided to bend a piece of brass rod that was ¼” in diameter, all I needed to do was to bend the rod into the shape that I needed, I used a small table vise and muscle to bend the brass into the shape that I wanted, when I finished, I needed to test my new hat tool, so I used a old stripped-down hat felt and a fabric steamer. I steamed the edges and using the brass I created a curl in the brim of the old hat by bending the edge of the brim over the edge of the brass rod, I had to work my way around the hat brim twice to get a decent hat curl, the brass rod seemed to work just fine.

 

[Darrell2688]

The next problem that I had to tackle was to make a leather sweatband for the hat, I had a piece of soft leather, however, I had to find some reeding tape and a new reed, I checked out a few places on the web and order some reeding tape 1-1/4” wide, new reed, silk liner. I had to hand sew the reeding tape to the leather, I didn’t have the proper sewing machine needle or the thread, plus I am not good at using a sewing machine, so I had to hand sew everything, I used my leather tools to make the holes in the leather and started sewing, everything worked out. After the felt was dry and the brim was a little over 3” wide, I used my rounding jack and cut the brim to 3” wide, then I stitched the sweatband into place and the hat liner.

 

[Darrell2688]

I wanted a woven leather hatband, I searched a number of places and ordered nine feet of woven leather from a seller on Etsy. I cut two pieces of leather and sewed them together side by side and then sewed the ends together and made a band that would fit around the joint, then I found a Celtic concho to put on the hatband where the ends of the hatband are connected, I stitched the hatband into place.

 

[Darrell2688]

I wanted a woven leather hatband, I searched a number of places and ordered nine feet of woven leather from a seller on Etsy. I cut two pieces of leather and sewed them together side by side and then sewed the ends together and made a band that would fit around the joint, then I found a Celtic concho to put on the hatband where the ends of the hatband are connected, I stitched the hatband into place.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

I wanted a woven leather hatband, I searched a number of places and ordered nine feet of woven leather from a seller on Etsy. I cut two pieces of leather and sewed them together side by side and then sewed the ends together and made a band that would fit around the joint, then I found a Celtic concho to put on the hatband where the ends of the hatband are connected, I stitched the hatband into place.
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Good work and great effort. I thank there are some Hollywood types that would pay a small fortune for your mottled finish

I tried using human hair dye one two felts a few years ago. My results were no better than yours.

 

[Darrell2688]

Good work and great effort. I thank there are some Hollywood types that would pay a small fortune for your mottled finish

I tried using human hair dye one two felts a few years ago. My results were no better than yours.

Thank you, Brent, I really appreciate your input and kind words on my work. Maybe someday I will be able to sell a few hats.

 

[belfastboy]

Well it is official: I have been turned down by FEPSA. I inquired about placing an order larger than their minimum in order to secure my felt supply but they replied that they are swamped and are stretched to fill orders from existing customers so are not accepting new clients at this time.

 

[Trulinor]

Well it is official: I have been turned down by FEPSA. I inquired about placing an order larger than their minimum in order to secure my felt supply but they replied that they are swamped and are stretched to fill orders from existing customers so are not accepting new clients at this time.

That's really disappointing. I'm sorry to hear it. I ordered once from a manufacturer in Poland years ago, but they were just wool felts.

I'm almost afraid to suggest a supplier you likely already know about, but for wholesale quantities I get nice quality men's fur felt blanks from Jay Gerish in New Jersey. ( https://jaygerish.com/ ) They don't manufacture the bodies themselves, but have wholesale prices and they have shipped to me in Canada (Ontario) before, and once they special ordered blanks from the manufacturer (Tonak- I think), just for me.

I'm sure you already know them, but I figured I'd throw it out there just in case.