I have finished my first hat for my husband. I think he looks very handsome in it and you know…. Interesting people wear hats. This hat is a midnight blue fur felt trilby with a simple leather band trim.
Here are some photos of the process… at this point he wasn’t too sure about this whole hat thing.
He is still uneasy about were things are going
The brim is being blocked using a brim block that I carved last summer in Jane Smith’s block carving class at Morley College.
Jeff is tall and my original crown shape had a fairly deep crevice in the top which made the hat sit high on his head. The combination would have made riding the London Tube a little difficult. I didn’t want to carve a new crown block so it was time to do some hand shaping. I was able to combine steam from my kitchen kettle with an egg iron in a stand (thank you Susie Hopkins), a head block, along with some tips from a great video on hand shaping a hat by Kevin from Pork Pie Hatters. It took some time but looks much better.
The hat is getting closer and Jeff is starting to believe that it might actually be wearable in public. There was still a significant amount of cutting, brushing, sanding and stitching to go, but I was getting excited to see the finished hat on Jeffrey.
He wore his new hat to the Hidden London Underground tour we took last weekend at the Charing Cross Tube station. It was a good tour and he looked so handsome in his fur felt trilby, despite the high vis vest.
Hatting Happiness is both of us wearing hats I’ve made. I love my green velvet 8 piece cap with hand dyed silk lining.
and remember… interesting people wear hats.
How Long did it take to make the hat?
Hi Steve,
How long did the hat take to make? That is an excellent question and I will need to start doing time studies to have an accurate answer. However, upon reflection, I guess it took me about a week, but it was spread over a few months. I was interrupted by working on a couple of different hats for the Worshipful Company of Felt Makers Guild and the V&A Inspired.by hat making contests. I will be doing a blog post about this in May.
This is the kind of project that requires a bit of waiting. Put on stiffener, let it dry, get it damp, let it set for a few hours, steam the crown, let it dry, etc. The hand shaping of his crown took some time, but was wonderfully fun and rewarding. He choose a very simple trimming which went fairly quickly, but the actual sanding & brushing takes time to get a really nice finish.
Fur felt is wonderful to work with and very nice to wear, but a couture hat does take time to make.
oh, and it looks very dapper!
Hi Steve,
Why thank you, I thought he looked very handsome in his new fur felt trilby. I want to make him one with a larger brim, which I would call a fedora. However for this one I was trying to keep it fairly close to the head, so he could comfortably wear it on the Tube for the Northern line commute which can be quite a crush. Thank you for your comment. Cheers, Leanne