Failures in Hat Making

Failure is the best way to learn. The only hope is that when you do fail, you can salvage it into something that will be useful. This was a decent failure in my book, but I think that the lessons learned will make a load of difference the next time that I venture into hat making.

I wanted a fantail hat for less formal occasions that provides more shade than a cocked hat. The design is fairly simple in theory: cock up the back of a round hat and call it a day. There are so many 18th century re-enactors who wear hat blanks as their headgear so this should be a walk in the park. If only it was that easy.  I am not a conscientious objector. If I know that something is wrong, I can't ignore it and say close enough, which is why I couldn't cock the back of hat blank and call it a day.

Many sutlers sell wool hat blanks of a decent quality wool and manufacture that are a good starting point for making a hat. The big problem though is that the blanks are oval blocked as opposed the round blocked, which was exclusive to the 18th century. What does that mean to a non-hat affectionato? The crown on an 18th century hat is a circle as opposed to an oval. The hat won't fit your head as well because your head is not perfectly round, but the crown being the wrong shape is very visible when you can see most of the brim.

My first task was to shape the crown to make it round. If you've ever looked at hat blocks, wooden versions are mad expensive, do not come in a perfectly round pattern, and most will not produce a hat that will fit my giant, 24 1/4" head. To get the round shape, I cut a circle out of a scrap piece of 2x12 that I had laying around. I figured that I would need to make the base of the crown perfectly round using the wood piece, but I could adjust the top part of the crown by hand to make it round throughout. That plan worked for the most part.

I steamed the crown of the hat blank with a kettle to make the wool pliable and then put it over the round block. The band immediately became round, and the crown became misshapen. No problem though, it was to be expected. I put the hat blank on my plywood stand, creased the edges on the band with an iron, and weighed down the brim with some heavy books. Then, I left the hat on the wood piece for a few hours to dry and spot shaped the top of the crown later with a spray bottle and iron. Once I was happy, cut the brim to shape and admired my handiwork. 

The next day, I stiffened the brim using the period application of 2 parts clear shellac to 1 part denatured alcohol. I let that dry and then my hat was ready to be styled... except it didn't fit on my head. Because I was a dummy and didn't let the wool completely dry on the wooden disc, the entire crown shrunk as it dried. It shrunk over 1.5" total making the hat completely unwearable to me. 

I had to resteam the crown to stretch the brim back out. After letting it dry for a few hours, I again spot shaped the crown, and immediately put the hat back on the wood disc so that it would not shrink again. It did not. Unfortunately, because of the multiple steamings, shrinkings, and shellacings, my hat looks a little more worn than it's brand new condition. The crown is lumpy, the brim is warped in places, but it looks like a used hat, so I guess that's a plus. 

Like I said, I failed pretty hard shaping this hat, but I learned a lot. For next time, I'm going to just start with a piece of unshaped felt to make my hat. I found a place that sells round blocks for less than $30 that are made from automotive plastic that will fit my head and stand up to the steam treatment. I will also staple down the raw edges of the hat during the drying process to make sure that everything is even and does not warp. I will also do the hardening process while the hat is stapled down and before cutting. Hopefully it all works, and I will be on my way to hat independence.