Nice one. Thanks for the link.
They have their own web site (just google Guy Morse-Brown) They also sell on Etsy.com
Yes, quality 2" ribbon is very very hard to find.
Great looking new toy there Robert. His hat blocks also look excellent and are really quite affordable. I'm happy to have my antique blocks and tools, but if I were just starting out I'd definitely go this route.
Yes, I prefer both my vintage wood blocks & flanges but have used him to fill in on some sizes and shapes. Ones that I don't get calls for that often and it is hard to justify the expense but at Allan's prices it makes it doable. He keeps honing his quality. His latest is an acetone bath to smooth out the ridges inherent to 3D printing.
If you are talking about the Singer 107-1 knock offs - yes, very expensive.
I do leatherwork on a Cobra Class 4 ( a Juki 441 clone). Ive done a couple sweatbands with it in lockstitch (personally Im thinking the lockstitch is the way to go... avoids things coming loose unexpectedly and looks way neater. This machine is kinda like swatting flies with a big hammer, but It does the job and avoids having to buy a dedicated machine. One big item is whether the throat is tall enough to wiggle the brim up under the foot and sew without dragging on the edge of the brim. On mine Ill could sew on a 4-1/2" brim with no problem. Since the needle runs at a 90 deg angle, I just had to install a left handed walking foot so I could get way down the crown to about 3/16" above the brim. I did have to fiddle with the thread tension in order to get the bigger needle to work. #19 needles are usually the smallest needle that recommended on my machine. Ive heard of folks having success with #17 needles, but I just ran with a new sharp needle. No problems...DO make sure to select the proper needle tip... most leather needles these machines use are a chisel point that would probably result in a bit too big a hole on felt.
All my blocks are in centimetres. I always block one size up. So for a size 58cm head I block on a 59cm block. Check out WalshDesigns3D on ETSY for the best price on a block. It is very hard to block a felt with the sweat band in place. The felt needs to be well steamed in order to soften it to get the proper stretch over the block. If the sweat is chrome tanned the steam will shrivel it like salt on a snail. Best to remove the sweat and resew after the block. If the block maker can't make it exactly to your size it is easy to upsize the block just a bit by adding a layer of duct tape to get you the extra 3mm.
When I began this hat making journey I would daydream of the day I could afford an ASM or such to sew the sweats. But now that I am established and can afford to buy one.....I am content to continue to hand sew them. It takes me about an hour, all in, and I enjoy the process. The time saved is not that important to me.
Yes, My wrinkle is my baste stitches are close together 1/4" to 3/8" or so....in the channel just under the reed..."stitch in the ditch". I used to make much longer baste stitches but not happy with the result so I went smaller. I now leave this baste stitch in and then double stitch it through the reed tape. The sweats are then double sewn. If I am careful in placing the baste stitch 'in the ditch' it is not visible so I started to leave it in. It also makes it easier to control how far outboard I get the reed to sit.....the most important aspect of sewing in the sweats. I have noticed that with some machine sewn sweats the sweat band sit too proud of the brim break.
The machine they use like that has the needle and foot at an angle. The sew right at the bottom of the sweat and with the angle the stitched come out an 1/8" or so up on the crown. Ive hand sewn one hat like that. worked ok but was a bit or work by hand pushing a needle through the sweat, the sweat backing and the felt ...made for sore fingers lol
I did one hat recently using a double needle and a running saddle stitch. Took a bit longer, but the two needles let me identify where the next needle went. Gives a nice clean stitch line with no gaps. When I got back around to where I started, I just double stitched the next three or four holes and it locked things in just fine. Im coming around to agreeing about basting first (probably preferable to the double side tape as theres no risk of gumming up the needles)... once It dawned on me that the basting doesnt need to be overly neat (it comes out afterwards anyway), it goes pretty quickly. If I were going to be doing multiple hats a week, Id probably be using a machine, but since this is just a semi expensive hobby, Im fine with taking longer doing it by hand (my trick to avoid blood on the hat is to wear a thimble on BOTH index fingers, and pull through with a small pair of needle-nose pliers)
The one edge binding I did on a machine, was done by manually advancing/ turning the machine with the wheel (wasnt even plugged in) Basically gave me a third hand to hold things in place, and gave me a really even stitching. Advancing by hand let me really control where the needle went in. Just had to put on some 3x reading glasses to see) Used mini binder clips to hold everything still... stitch 4 or 5 stitches, remove the next clip, and repeat. Took about 15 minutes to go around once I had everything in place and ready ( as opposed to about 35-40 minutes to do one in a double needle saddle stitch). I WILL say that doing by machine really did a good job of keeping the needles out of my finget-tips lol