The Cap Faction

[Rudie]

Here are some sources for cloth (those of you who source their suit cloth themselves will know these addresses, but just the same):

Harris Tweed Highland Shop (for Harris Tweeds other than the standard bunch of patterns; watch out for the cloth widths):
http://www.harristweedshop.com/tweed-index.html

I suggest to buy your Harris Tweeds directly from the weaver instead: http://harristweedandknitwear.co.uk/...ges/tweed.html These are the exact same fabrics at £30.00 instead of £76.00 per meter for the double width cloth.

[Johnny J]

I like how your caps sit up, Johnny. The way the retrosport cap I have bulges onto my ears I find a bit annoying

Thank you Adnamira. I have same feelings on the Retro Sports.

[Johnny J]

I took a ruler and tried to compare the ratio of height of the cap you have made. From that, I see that it is a bit higher and has more volume. Is that a feature that you deliberately have been working towards?

SBG, what happened there is that I used an interfacing under the lining that was just a tad on the thicker side, but just on the whole crown and not on the bill. So this really helps me determine going a little thinner next time, especially if the fabric is already thick, like this wool I used.
Do appreciate the feedback.

[St. Valentine]

Regarding the thickness of the brim of Johnny“s cap I have to say that I saw a brim of exactly that shape in the third episode of Jeeves & Wooster tonight.

[Adnamira]

Thick fabrics, thick brims.

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If you buy these same makers caps in lighter materials, their brims will be thin... I'd actually prefer if they added more material inside to make them that bit thicker on thinner materials. I like big brims, I do not lie!

[Adnamira]

Those lighter shades really suit you. For some reason I can't wear caps high on my head like that. I don't know why - I think I have a very spherical skull, inspite of having a long face. I think you need to with the retros. Nice caps... it's a coot that they don't seem to suit me, because I like the lighter worsted fabrics they use... which is another thing I think maybe rarer in modern caps than they were in vintage ones.

[St. Valentine]

Thank you Sir! It“s true, the Retro Sport is much flatter and sits higher on the head. The best fit for my skull has my silk Stetson Hatteras but you will get two Retro Sport for the price of one Stetson cap!

[Rabbit]

I suggest to buy your Harris Tweeds directly from the weaver instead: http://harristweedandknitwear.co.uk/...ges/tweed.html These are the exact same fabrics at £30.00 instead of £76.00 per meter for the double width cloth.

AWESOME, thanks for the reference, Rudie! I knew that website and I had ordered some caps and ties from them before, but I forgot that they sold a wider collection of tweeds. Great stuff there!

[Rabbit]

Thanks, Rabbit. I'd like to get a worsted wool cap sometime, so I will have to come back to this post to reference those links perhaps. I paid for my cap via paypal and didn't recieve an email from them after the order, and unusually the paypal record says no shipping address available, which is wierd, so I guess I can only sit and wait to see if it shows up. Hat People are good in that regard... they also take 4 weeks to make a cap, but they don't bill you until the cap is made.

A worsted fabric to be used for a cap, are you sure, Sir?
I wouldn't recommend it. While it's true that a cap's fabric doesn't necessarily have to have much weight (due to the cap's lining and construction), the formality of the worsted cloth itself (with the exception of worsted flannel, which is a separate category) is not in tune with the casualness of the cap; the cloth is too fine and shiny.
I humbly suggest using woolen flannel (or maybe worsted flannel, which is made of super-number yarns and available in leighter-weight fabrics) if you want to try something else beside tweeds, corduroys and linens. That's just my opinion, of course.

[Adnamira]

A worsted fabric to be used for a cap, are you sure, Sir?
I wouldn't recommend it. While it's true that a cap's fabric doesn't necessarily have to have much weight (due to the cap's lining and construction), the formality of the worsted cloth itself (with the exception of worsted flannel, which is a separate category) is not in tune with the casualness of the cap; the cloth is too fine and shiny.
I humbly suggest using woolen flannel (or maybe worsted flannel, which is made of super-number yarns and available in leighter-weight fabrics) if you want to try something else beside tweeds, corduroys and linens. That's just my opinion, of course.

Oh, your first link had a lot of worsted fabrics? I would have thought myself that worsted wool would be superior to linen, as it drapes better and is less inclined to wrinkle like linen. It is also superior to cotton in being colour fast so it won't fade in the sun. I think tweeds are great cap fabrics, but living in Australia, it is much too warm to wear them for half the year, but being a fine wool grower, it would be nice to have a cap that was of one of the lighter wool fabrics. I don't know what style of worsted fabric, my retrosport is, but it is quiet good; unfortunately, the style of cap doesn't seem to suit me. Gabardine is used in a lot of military caps. How would it work in a newsboy or flat cap? I suppose that would be formal.