Hatastrophe, a lesson to be learned

[Fourman110]

Went for a week long camping trip in our newer teardrop camper. There's not a lot of room in the camper and space is a premium. I'd successfully used a large over the door hanger to keep a fedora out of harms way, but woke up to heart palpitations when I didn't see it on the hook the other day.

Yep. Ended up sleeping on top of a 1950s Marathon. The first picture shows it after my initial panicked attempt to gently rebash without steam. Had to wait three days to get it in front of the Jiffy.

That's where the permanent damage came in. While gently pulling the headband out it cracked and a piece fell off ($@!!&€♤~!!!).

It steamed out OK (pictures wet just after steam) and I was able to improve the diamond crease (sleeping on it apparently discouraged the teardrop from reappearing, but bloody hell.. even though it had some rust stains and a pretty sizeable moth nibble really like the hat. What a frustrating turn of events.

Lesson to be learned....don't create more problems when fixing another...

 

[MondoFW]

I think I learned something from this--Vintage hats respond surprisingly well to being slept on.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

Went for a week long camping trip in our newer teardrop camper. There's not a lot of room in the camper and space is a premium. I'd successfully used a large over the door hanger to keep a fedora out of harms way, but woke up to heart palpitations when I didn't see it on the hook the other day.

Yep. Ended up sleeping on top of a 1950s Marathon. The first picture shows it after my initial panicked attempt to gently rebash without steam. Had to wait three days to get it in front of the Jiffy.

View attachment 130846

That's where the permanent damage came in. While gently pulling the headband out it cracked and a piece fell off ($@!!&€♤~!!!).

It steamed out OK (pictures wet just after steam) and I was able to improve the diamond crease (sleeping on it apparently discouraged the teardrop from reappearing, but bloody hell.. even though it had some rust stains and a pretty sizeable moth nibble really like the hat. What a frustrating turn of events.

Lesson to be learned....don't create more problems when fixing another...

View attachment 130849 View attachment 130847 View attachment 130848

Total heartbreaker there Fourman!!
I hope that’s the only lesson you have to learn about vintage leather in sweatbands. You can NEVER tell, no matter how good the leather looks! I dread even trying to look behind them anymore using mirrors. Too many oh no’s!
And then there’s the perfect looking thread stitching.
My condolences.
Bowen

 

[MondoFW]

Total heartbreaker there Fourman!!
I hope that’s the only lesson you have to learn about vintage leather in sweatbands. You can NEVER tell, no matter how good the leather looks! I dread even trying to look behind them anymore using mirrors. Too many oh no’s!
And then there’s the perfect looking thread stitching.
My condolences.
Bowen

Peeling back vintage sweatbands to unveil any manufacturer tags is like defusing a bomb. Still building up the courage to figure out how much my Stetson boater costed back in the day!

 

[M Hatman]

Peeling back vintage sweatbands to unveil any manufacturer tags is like defusing a bomb.

So VERY, VERY TRUE!!!! And as AbbaDatDeHat says, "no matter how good the leather looks"!!!!!!!!!
M

 

[deadlyhandsome]

So VERY, VERY TRUE!!!! And as AbbaDatDeHat says, "no matter how good the leather looks"!!!!!!!!!
M

I’ve had to replace sweats on two NIB hats that still had all the manufacturer’s tags attached and in the original packaging. There’s just no telling. Dry rot is a heartbreaker.


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