Thanks John! That's really nice! You did a fantastic job with that bow! I can't wait to perch that on my head!Fixed the white thread on the Westlite bow Terry. Shipping today.
"Faint hat never won fair lady."
Well, this one has been an unfinished project for a while. With all the horrible weather in Chicago the last 5-6 days or so, I pretty much just stayed in my house and didn't leave. With all that time on my hands, I decided to finish this project once and for all.
This hat started its life as a hat that I made at Fedorafest a couple years back at Buckaroo Hatters. Bill, Robert, and I were allowed to make our own hats and it was a wonderful experience. The hat body I chose was 100% RABBIT and at Mikes shop, I sanded this body down to about 1/2 its weight initially. The body wasn't a western body, but it was a thicker weight dress body that I wanted to make much lighter.
Here's what I made at Fedorafest a couple years back......
It was a 3 inch brim with a 1/4 inch curl and a 6 inch open crown. The block was a bit rounder than I liked, but I wore it this way for a while.
About a year later, I converted the hat into a 30's Style fedora with a high rear brim flange. I kept the ribbon and the crown shape, but the crown had tapered and I found that I never really wore the hat. The brim was cut to 2 1/4 inches and the crown had rounded out to 5 3/4.
Fast forward 4 months after those pics were taken, I decided I wanted something else out of the hat. I took the hat apart completely. I sanded about 1/4 more weight off the hat body and made it into a lightweight felt. The finish is velvety and buttery and smooth as glass. I blocked the hat out to 5 7/8 with one block and then took a second block and just blocked the top down flatter which yielded a total crown height of 5 5/8 - 5 3/4 SQUARED/FLAT top. The brim had to be used for this extra crown material, so I was left with a total brim width of 2 inches.
I then took a 1950's Borsalino brown ribbon, washed it with soap, ironed it, and attached it to the hat. I also used the 50's Borso bow, but I frayed one of the edges to give the hat a 1930's feel. The sweatband was one of my favorite parts. I bought a really high quality leather sweatband from a distributor, rubbed the leather with mink oil to darken it, punched vent holes every 1/4 inch, taped the rear seam, put a vintage brown sweatband bow on, and used a vintage wind trolley for lacing up the rear sweatband seam. The sweatband was a TON of work, but it really give it that vintage feel.
Here it is...........
Cross posting photos of my nearly finished Stetson Nutria conversion. This was a really stained & beat up cowboy hat once.
And also the ROTLA hat I sent Terry today.
"Faint hat never won fair lady."
As promised here's pics of the Indy conversion that John Galt did for me. It started out as a Resistol 4X Stagecoach Western which I bought a while back from a fellow and new Lounge member, Kingrat....one thing I particularly like about this hat is the super soft leather sweat John G. put in it. The hat fits perfect! In following Kingrat's lead, I chose to reuse the original lining and sweat bow....Thanks again John G. You did a great job on this hat!
Fine looking Indy.
Gustin Vintage Heavyweight Sweatshirt - Natural Rainbow Nep - $119 Rugged 14oz cotton that gets better with every wear. 
Grant Stone Diesel Boot Dark Olive Chromexcel - #395 Goodyear welted, Horween Chromexcel, classic good looks. 
Himel Bros. - The Ross Mk. 1 Leather Jacket Classic D-pocket motorcycle/aviator style jacket.
