How I made my Felt Hats

[DiMarco_Mercantile]

Hello,
As per my last post displaying the felt hats I had made for myself, I'll be showing how I went about making them. I'm by no means a professional hat maker, just simply a guy who wanted to make his own headwear. Feel free to follow along and ask questions if you decide to build a hat for yourself!

Starting out I bought a hat body/capeline or two from Millinery Warehouse, which has both pure beaver and rabbit fur blanks which are ideal hat materials. If you'd prefer something cheaper to practice with, there's plenty of wool hat blanks on Etsy. I started out with a 180g and a 210g weight blanks, the higher the number the thicker the blank. The 210g is quite heavy, pretty similar to thinner cardboard in its workability. I found the 180g to be a good weight, still a little on the heavy side, but not impossible to work with. If you'd prefer a lighter hat that's significantly easier to shape and size, I'd recommend 160g or below.

After I ordered my hat blanks, I got started on constructing the necessary tools I'd need for making my hats. The most important tool you need in making hats is the hat block, which is what stretches the hat to a specific size or shape. You can either order a custom hat block online at the exact hat size you'd need, or you could try your hand at making one for yourself, in which I did the latter. Luckily my father has a wood lathe, so I had the opportunity to turn one for myself. My skill in turning is limited, so I was unable to turn an oval to perfectly match the shape of my head, so I settled for a slightly undersized "cylinder" shape, if that makes sense. Due to this, extra sizing will be needed later on which I'll discuss. Here is a photo of the "hat block" I made. It's 5 1/2" tall, with a circumference of 22", which is about an inch or so smaller than the circumference of my head. Of course, this is how I did it, and there's plently of other ways to make a hat block. I've heard of people carving out oval shapes close to their size from Styrofoam, and others have made moulds of their heads and made plaster hat blocks that are true in size. In the end of the day, it's what works for you that matters.



After I made the hat block, I constructed these two "platforms" that go around the base of the block. I just used some scrap wood I found in the garage, it doesn't have to be anything fancy or expensive. These platforms give the hat brim something to rest on while flattening it later on, or else it's much more difficult to flatten the brim. I can add pieces of wood below them to make the platforms sit higher or lower depending how far away the brim is. Technically you could utilize this "reduce" the height of the hat block, therefore being able to adjust the height of the crown, but it proves to be difficult with the hat blanks I use.


The final tool that I built for this project is a brim width marker. It's literally just a crescent-like shape with a hole-filled dowel attached to it, it took all of 5 minutes to make. It's used to go around the hat blank and mark an even brim all the way around that you can go and cut with a pair of fabric scissors, or a knife if you'd prefer. More will be posted following this.

 

[DiMarco_Mercantile]

After getting all my tools built, I could officially get started on my hat construction. The first thing I did was to take my hat blank and soak it in hot water until it got nice and pliable. This is what it looked like after a soak and a little bit of manipulation.

Next, I took this vaguely mushroom shaped object and steamed it really well with a clothing iron. If your iron doesn't have a steam function, a floor steamer works excellent as well. The moisture and the hot steam makes the hat blank quite pliable and much easier to work with. Once steamed, I stretched the blank over the hat block. I pull down on the sides of the brim until the top of the blank touches the top of the hat block. If it needed to be more pliable on a certain section, I'd mist it pretty good with a spray bottle of water and steam it some more. Next, I tie a hat makers knot about halfway down the crown section tight, and I work it all the way down to the base, tightening it as I go, to form the nice crease between crown and brim.

At this point, I take a thin and damp cotton towel and cover the whole crown of the blank. The towel is there to provide extra moisture and to prevent unnecessary burns to the hat while ironing. I then take my clothing iron and iron the towel covering the crown. This heat and moisture will help set the shape of the hat to that of the block. In this case, it gave my blank a nice, rounded crown. I then do the same thing for the brim in order to flatten it, making sure the platforms beneath it are at a good level to flatten against. While the hat makers knot is still in place, I mist the brim of the hat with the spray bottle, then apply the towel and iron the whole thing until I'm satisfied with how flat it is. After this I set the blank aside, still on the block and still tied with the hat makers knot, and I let it dry out completely. This may take a few hours, or possibly overnight.

 

[DiMarco_Mercantile]

Once the blank dried out completely, I removed the knot. I kept the hat on its block and grabbed some sandpaper, 400, 800, 1000, and 1500 grit. Some hat blanks already come with a nice smooth surface, while others don't. In my case, it was still kind of fuzzy. To smooth it out, I worked from my 400-grit sandpaper all the way up to 1500. When I sanded, I did so continually in one direction all the way around the crown and brim, including underneath and inside. This is to ensure that the surface gets sanded evenly and looks uniform. If I were to sand haphazardly back and forth, those streaks would appear. Think of when you rub your hand across one of those suede-like couches, or across a fuzzy rug. Once I was satisfied with my hats texture, it was time to move on to fitting it to my head.

Since the hat block I used is a cylinder shape, there was still further adjustments required if I wanted it to fit my head. I took the hat off its block and misted the inside of the crown with water and steamed it really well. I then worked it with my hands until it the opening of the crown was slightly oval, and then I stretched it over my head. I kept repeating the process of steaming, working, and stretching until it felt comfortable on me, while also re-flattening the brim a few times as I stretched it.

The next thing I did was use my brim marking tool to mark the width of the brim that I'd like, once that was done, I cut it with fabric scissors and lightly sanded the new edges of the brim. This tool is really useful since it ensures the brim will be even all the way around the hat since it follows the contours of the crown. At this point, you can shape the brim to take on whatever curves or creases you'd like. All that's necessary is to mist and iron the section of brim you'd like to shape, and then add what you'd prefer and then let it cool. I added a little flip to the front right of my hat, although not pictured until later.

 

[DiMarco_Mercantile]

After that, it was time to shape the crown. I took some of this hat stiffener I picked up at a local Cavender's and sprayed the crown and let it dry. This stiffener is only necessary if you'd prefer your crown to retain its shape better, or if you'd like more rigidity. Once dried, I steamed the outside of the crown and carefully shaped it to how I wanted. There are tutorials on YouTube that show people shaping hat crowns, it actually pretty easy. Crown shapes are limited only to your imagination, or by the thickness of your hat. I got the shape that I wanted, and I set it aside to cool off and dry. I was happy with the shape, and double checked how the hat fit, and ensured it was still good.


Then it was time to burn off the excess hat fibers from the sanding process. I took a small butane torch and went outside, and with a gentle flame lightly burned the whole surface of my hat, being very careful to only burn the loose hairs. I did this on the underside of the brim and inner part of the crown as well. At this point, the hat was a slightly darker color and smelled horrible. I then took a brush normally used for scrubbing shoes, briskly scrubbed off the burnt fibers from the hat being careful to not accidentally ruin the smooth grain below. For the most part it brought the hat back to its original color and was noticeably smoother. Although it smelt horrible, as you'd except with burnt hair. I left it outside in the sun for a few days to help alleviate the smell. It didn't take it away completely, but it did help. It actually took about a week or two for the smell to fade near completely. Although it can re-emerge when the hat gets wet. There are a few tricks online of how to get rid of the smell, but I didn't follow any of those.

 

[DiMarco_Mercantile]

Alright so that was the majority of the actual hat making, next is purely optional. The good thing about making your own hat is that you won't feel bad about making any changes down the road if you aren't pleased with it, for it's easy to reshape the crown or brim once you get it down. I decided to decorate my hat a bit by adding some spare pillow ticking fabric I had from a previous project, all I did was tie a knot in the back to keep it in place. I also added a small strip of leather as well, also tied. Of course, you can add whatever you want to the crown, it's your hat! Here's a photo of the hat when I immediately finished it with an open crown. Although I got tired of the open crown, I didn't think it was very flattering on me, so I creased it a few weeks later. I hope y'all enjoyed this thread of my hat making, feel free to ask any question if y'all decide to give hat making a try. I'll answer them to the best of my knowledge and ability.

 

[JohnnieT]

Thank you! That was a great write-up. Very detailed.

 

[davidmc62]

Very cool, been wanting to try that some day. And for the same reasons you did. Hats are expensive and usually incorrect for my idea of the time period. Where did you buy the hat blank from?

 

[DiMarco_Mercantile]

Very cool, been wanting to try that some day. And for the same reasons you did. Hats are expensive and usually incorrect for my idea of the time period. Where did you buy the hat blank from?

I got mine from Millinery Warehouse - Fur Felt Hat Bodies, Hat Blocks, and Sweatbands, I believe my hat blank was about $50. Not too bad for pure rabbit fur either.

 

[JohnBHM]

Thank you, I was looking forward to this. As I was reading I couldn't help thinking back around 50 years ago when my father told my mother he was taking me to get a hat. I was around 10 and had no idea where we might be going. This was Troy N.Y. in the early 70's and we walk in this shop. I still remember we picked a blank and the owner fit it, trimmed it, and transformed it using steam into something similar to your lower picture.

 

[DiMarco_Mercantile]

Thank you, I was looking forward to this. As I was reading I couldn't help thinking back around 50 years ago when my father told my mother he was taking me to get a hat. I was around 10 and had no idea where we might be going. This was Troy N.Y. in the early 70's and we walk in this shop. I still remember we picked a blank and the owner fit it, trimmed it, and transformed it using steam into something similar to your lower picture.

That sounds like that was real nice, it would be cool to see a professional perform his craft right up front. Thank you for telling me.

 

[Whitworth]

Well done Sir, and thanks for sharing how you did it.

 

[Jaegermeister]

Love the hat. Wish I was younger.

 

[Trapper-Jack]

Great wright up. I'm sticking this in my favorites. Thanks!

 

[DiMarco_Mercantile]

Great wright up. I'm sticking this in my favorites. Thanks!

Well I’m happy to hear that! It took me a good while to compose this thread.

 

[Polecat_Tom]

Well done, very informative. Thank you for taking the time to write this.

 

[Eric Bye]

What a fine project and explanation of the process! Many thanks!

 

[Cherrybow]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Trapper Scott]

Great information for How To. Thanks for taking the time to document .

 

[Walkaheap]

If you ever decide to make 'em commercially, I'd sure be interested. They look authentic for sure. Let us know.
Hard by the Platte

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Crown shapes are limited only to your imagination, or by the thickness of your hat ///

... or to WHOM you want to portray, from WHERE and from WHAT time period.

Excellent tutorial!