THE MALLORY MILE

[Rabbit]

Mallory 2 1/2" brim dark bluish grey (slightly more blue than the Winchester Steel felt).
The felt on this one is like butter. It's practically as soft as my Borsalino Misto.

 

[randooch]

That's a gem, Rabbit. I love the variegated look of the felt.

 

[hatophile]

Wow, that's nice!

 

[Rabbit]

Thanks Randall. The variegated felt is really quite something. The finish has the usual short & dense surface, by the way, it's not a silk finish although the mottled texture may give that impression.
Anyone know how prevalent this variegated felt was? Haven't seen it very often so far.

 

[Joshbru3]

Mallory 2 1/2" brim dark bluish grey (slightly more blue than the Winchester Steel felt).
The felt on this one is like butter. It's practically as soft as my Borsalino Misto.

Rabbit, that is a GORGEOUS 1930's Heather Blue Mallory. I have a green long haired Mallory from that time period and its by far one of the finest hats that I own. I love how your brim is bound in a blue grosgrain to compliment the heather blue felt. The black ribbon really makes those colors pop. Just an incredible find. Be very careful of that sweatband. Those un-reeded 30's sweatbands are notorious for popping threads and pulling right out of the hat.

 

[Rabbit]

Rabbit, that is a GORGEOUS 1930's Heather Blue Mallory. I have a green long haired Mallory from that time period and its by far one of the finest hats that I own. I love how your brim is bound in a blue grosgrain to compliment the heather blue felt. The black ribbon really makes those colors pop. Just an incredible find. Be very careful of that sweatband. Those un-reeded 30's sweatbands are notorious for popping threads and pulling right out of the hat.

Thanks very much Josh for the info.
Your advice about the unreeded sweatband is certainly called for. It has already two areas that have come loose. I intend to sew the popped areas back on by hand. Perhaps you have some advice for that, based on your experience?

 

[Joshbru3]

Thanks very much Josh for the info.
Your advice about the unreeded sweatband is certainly called for. It has already two areas that have come loose. I intend to sew the popped areas back on by hand. Perhaps you have some advice for that, based on your experience?

No problem, glad I could help.

Well, stitching the loose area is good to preserve the sweatband. There really is no good way to repair these sweats, but from what I have seen, its the actual thread that breaks and not the leather itself. If the stitch holes are still good in the leather, leave the original broken thread in the hat and just run the new thread in the original holes while tacking the thread to a slightly different area of felt than was originally stitched. As far as the rest of the sweatband, I would apply some mink oil and gently rub it in with your fingers. Some people say not to get any oil on the threads, but I have been applying light oil to the threads for quite a while and it seems to make them a bit stronger. At least from my experience. Try not to stretch the sweatband in any way and I would recommend only wearing the hat in cooler temps. Lots of sweat will break those original stitches for sure. Pretty much, just leave the sweatband where it is and don't try to pull it back for any reason. That's my two cents on the matter, for what its worth.

 

[Rabbit]

Thanks Josh!
I'll start working on the stitching. Seems to me the most effective way to re-sew here is to sew only the bottom row of stitches and leave the top row alone, or else sew a second row just above the lower one.

The leather on this one is intact, it's indeed only the thread that came loose. I can imagine a previous owner wanted to take a good look beneath the sweatband. The larger of the two loose areas is where the union label sits.

You can see the loose areas at 11 o'clock (the larger one) and at 7 o'clock on the vertical pic of the entire liner (when blown up in a separate window).

About mink oiling the sweatband, I'll do that.
Good news is that the hat is a comfortable fit The sweatband won't be much under stress.

 

[jimmy the lid]

Mallory 2 1/2" brim dark bluish grey (slightly more blue than the Winchester Steel felt).
The felt on this one is like butter. It's practically as soft as my Borsalino Misto.

Very nice. :eusa_clap

 

[Joshbru3]

Thanks Josh!
I'll start working on the stitching. Seems to me the most effective way to re-sew here is to sew only the bottom row of stitches and leave the top row alone, or else sew a second row just above the lower one.

The leather on this one is intact, it's indeed only the thread that came loose. I can imagine a previous owner wanted to take a good look beneath the sweatband. The larger of the two loose areas is where the union label sits.

You can see the loose areas at 11 o'clock (the larger one) and at 7 o'clock on the vertical pic of the entire liner (when blown up in a separate window).

About mink oiling the sweatband, I'll do that.
Good news is that the hat is a comfortable fit The sweatband won't be much under stress.

I think you'll repair it just fine. Good luck!! Let me know how it comes out.

 

[Rabbit]

I'll let you know. It will have to wait until tomorrow, haven't got the right thread and I'm a bit of a stickler. lol

 

[Rabbit]

Re-sewing on unreeded sweatband of 1930s Mallory heather blue

After sewing:

Before sewing:

I do hope the functionality exceeds the looks.
Josh, the oiling certainly was a good tip. I've also oiled the sweatband after sewing in order to "calm" the stitch-holes.

A humble tip of mine for future sewing sessions:
The important thing while sewing along the sweatband is to keep the non-sewing fingers busy holding the sweatband in place (immediately left and right from the area being stitched, fingers real close to the needle) by pressing the sweatband's upper end against the felt. Otherwise some of the still intact original stitchings might pop, and the leather might rip immediately next to the stitch-hole.

 

[alanfgag]

Good work on a very tricky situation. In the end, if it allows you to wear and enjoy the hat with the original sweat, you've won the battle. It is always possible to replace it with a new one if it doesn't work out, though it will have to be reeded, of course.

 

[randooch]

Good work on a very tricky situation. In the end, if it allows you to wear and enjoy the hat with the original sweat, you've won the battle.

+1! Nicely executed preservation effort.

 

[Rabbit]

Thank you Gentlemen.
Btw, some of the stitches had to be placed below the original stitch-holes, otherwise the holes would have cracked. The leftover threadloops on the brim are probably non-functional and could be removed, but I'm not quite sure, as they do sit rather tight. So I'll leave them alone.
I love repairing things

 

[Jedwbpm]

To day we celebrated my mother-in-law's 8? something birthday. Her older brother came. He was at one time was a felter for a job shop in Danbury and his mother worked at Mallory. So he came wearing is "old" but in mint condition Mallory

It's a "durafelt" 7 1/4 with an underwelt and a very nice back bow the color is a camel color. Very nice hat to bad it was not a 7 5/8.

Jeff

 

[Joshbru3]

Its been a while since my last ebay hat ad "purge", but I decided to go through again and try to find all the ads that havent been seen yet. I'm SURE there are going to be duplicates of some, but some I have never seen before.



1938

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1949

 

[Joshbru3]

cont.....


1949

1949

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1958

1958

 

[hatophile]

Fun Ads, thanks, Josh!

 

[zetwal]

Fun Ads, thanks, Josh!

+1