Source for fabric hatband hooks?

[Dave McCone]

With the weather warming up, I'm dragging out my panamas and getting ready for summer.

One of the fun things that I did last summer was to make my own pugarees/fabric hatbands - which is suprisingly easy to do. If you have a basic, work-in-the-yard hat with a fabric hatband it's pretty straightforward to take the hatband apart and figure out how they did it, take measurements, and re-assemble and reattach the hatband. Cut out a template using your measurments. Use the template to cut out a new piece of fabric, and use an iron and a straightedge to form pleats in the new hatband. I can post more explicit details on the board if folks are interested.

The one detail that has me stumped is where to get the metal hooks that are used to anchor the ends of the pugaree. For those of you who have never taken a look at the hooks they look a bit like squarish paper clips - with one of the two loops of the clip cut short, sharpened, and bent into a hook. So far, I've gotten by with using one of the hooks as a template and bending one of my own with a pair of needle-nose pliers, but my metalworking efforts leave a bit to be desired.

Any thoughts as to sources for these hooks (Art?)? I've come up empty handed on the searches that I've been able to do on the net.

[Andykev]

National Beatty Page used to supply everything from sweatbands, ribbon, irons, tools, display racks, brushes, steamers, initial machines, hat liners, cleaning products, hat stiffener, you name it. But...
They went out of business...

Art probably knows where to find some of the stuff that used to be sold by them, including hooks for pugarees. I also have bought pugarees from Carol at FINO FINO in Menlo Park, CA...and I KNOW that Optimo has them..as they make them all the time.

FINO FINO sold me some very nice pugarees for only $6 each, ready to go.

Good quality.

I know that Art has some made and they are quite nice.

[Art Fawcett]

Hi Dave,
Try Star Binding
2470 Locust St.
St.Louis. Mo 63103
314-652-2700
I had them make some for me last year out of my fabric but they had a tough time. I used only vintage fabric ( rayon) and their machines didn't do well with stretchy material. They might be able to provide some individual hooks for you. What should have cost me about $5 per ended up at $15 per becuase of lost fabric. uggg I'm looking for a new company.)

[Dave McCone]

Thanks for the info.

Every once in a while my wife decides to take up quilting again - and I found myself accompanying her to the fabric store. While waiting for her to finish up, I decided to pass the time by seeing if there was any fabric that might look good made into a hatband - and found several possibilities. Since my standard summer attire is a Panama, Hawaiian shirt, and shorts in the summer, I've found several batik prints that look very nice as hatbands. I'll try and get some pictures posted.

While I've found some pugarees, they are usually either very plain (solid colors) or very limited as to patterns - vs. several hundred possibilities in your average fabric store.

[Andykev]

So Dave, your usual summer attire is straw hat, Hawiian shirt, and shorts? In Seattle, that is what, about two weeks?

HHAHHAHAAHAHAH

Just kidding. You live in God's Rain Country!!

Here is the SF Bay Area, we get cool summers due to the marine layer coming in every night (natures air conditioning). But we do get several weeks of scorching hot weather, but no high humidity such as what Zohar and others face down on the Carolinas.

Most of our summer weather is rather pleasant. I firmly believe that the Greater Bay Area of SF has the best climate in the world. That is why everyone and his brother is moving here !!!!!!

[Panamabob]

High humidity? I've lived in bananaland on the equator for a few years now...Indiana humidity in August is unbearable compared to Ecuador...so I can only imagine the Carolinas in summer.

Off topic, sorry.

[Dave McCone]

It depends on one's perspective, I suppose. My own personal mode is to get out the shorts when the temperature gets past the low 60s. Hardy Viking blood perhaps? Ya, shur, you betcha!

On a serious note, the weather usually breaks the week after the 4th of July, and often stays nice through mid-September. And, starting about now, every once in a while we'll get an occasional break in the weather - and when we do, the city goes slightly berserk. When it gets sunny, suddenly all sorts of convertables come out of the woodwork, and everyone gets their sunglasses out, followed swiftly by the first sunburns of the season. It's the exuberance of folks who may have not seen the sun for several months at a time.

[in January and February, Kauai seems to be a popular vacation destination for folks here - sun and warmth are marketable commodities.]

So, my standard offerings to the Viking sun gods are the panama/shorts/hawaiian shirts. And, given the wacky days of early spring sunshine, the exuberance of a slightly-wild hatband just sets everything off nicely.