Hat Deconstruction

Nothing quite lets you know that you're in 18th century territory like the cocked hat. They are so easily recognizable and awesome to look at. They appear deceptively simple to make to get the distinctive "tricorn" look.

I had always assumed that the hats were all blocked and then had the brims cut an equal distance from the crown. Then the hat was folded into the respective shape. Not the case. Though some styles of cocked hat may be shaped that way, the prevailing styles appear to have a non-round rim.

The two prevailing popular styles that I have come across are the Ramillies, which could be described as a balanced cocked hat with a moderately sized front and fantail that matches the sides, and the Nivernois, which appears to be cocked high in the front and back with narrower sides.

I'm going to start making my own hats, so I needed to do a little research, so I recently deconstructed a cocked hat that I had made for me by a hat expert that I was less than pleased with because it was not blocked correctly with a round block.

I started by removing the cockade, vertical cording holding the cocked sides and back in place, and then cut all the stitching. Taking out all of that work revealed that though the hat would appear round, it is in fact oval. The brim measures 5 1/2 inches at the front and back, and is 4 1/2 on the right side, and 4 inches on the left side. I always thought the sides of the hat were not even! If I try to recreate this style, I will have the front and back 5 1/2 inches but the sides will be a consistent 4 1/2 inches. Unfortunately, this hat is most likely fundamentally done. I will reblock and see what I can salvage, but it may just be a plain bowler looking hat.

It's really a shame. Other parts of the hat were well constructed, but the core of the hat was bad. It also felt like it had no stiffening in it whatsoever. Myself, and many others in the hobby are becoming disenchanted with the hat makers out there both in quality and timliness, so let's hope this hat making experiment goes well. I am picking up my hat block tonight and am super geeking out about it. More on that later.