The resistol arrived in the mail today

[Dinerman]

well- the backbow porkpie showed up. It's a great hat. Nice felt, dark brown with a light brown band, and pink lining. Cavanagh edge. It looks sharp, and it is a porkpie, not a porkpied fedora, so it stays as a porkpie. The band is a tad over 2 and a half inches. The band on my resistol back bow fedora is a little under 2 and a quarter.

It does have a problem though. It appears the stitching on the sweatband has disintegrated in parts. It's still in there and still wearable, but it's coming out. I'm going to try to restich it myself. does anyone have any tips on how to do this without killing either the hat or myself?

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Just pull the ribbon up out of the way and follow the stitches that are already there. You can use the holes from the old stitching. Just takes a little patience. You can do it.

 

[Dinerman]

I wasn't clear. The sweatband is stitched to the reeded bit, whatever the technical name for that is. I guess I just slowly take out the remaining stitches andrestitch the hundreds of holes with a very small needle?

 

[Dinerman]

anyone done this themselves?

 

[Dinerman]

whoops!

I just took it off my head, and the sweatband stayed around my forehead.
I have a sweatband in one hand, hat in the other.

 

[feltfan]

whoops!

I just took it off my head, and the sweatband stayed around my forehead.
I have a sweatband in one hand, hat in the other.

Welcome to the wonderful world of dry rot.
Not an uncommon fate for thread and leather in old hats.
Thus far I have not been equal to the task of
stitching in a sweatband. But with Art's new
business model... well something will have to change.
Perhaps you mileage will be better.

Given the problem you have, is the sweatband leather
itself soft and supple? It might also be problematic.
No point in going to a lot of trouble to sew on a bad band.
These problems do not always go hand in hand, though.

If you don't simply sew the old sweat back in yourself, I
council care in choosing who replaces the sweat. It's worth
going to a bit more trouble to have someone who knows what
they are doing put in a quality sweat or replace yours the right way.

 

[Dinerman]

that's the funny thing. The stitching was dryrotted to hell, but the leather is incredibly soft and supple. Everything is in pretty decent shape as well.

 

[ideaguy]

It'd be worth a few bucks for a photo of the sweatband on head/hat in hand...lol lol