Binding a Brim?

[mufflowne]

Hey guys,

anyone have any tips on binding a brim? So that you don't get ugly wrinkles?

 

[fmw]

Yes, send it to a hatter with the equipment to do it. Many hatters don't do it because they don't have the equipment.

 

[jlee562]

Berkeley, eh? My hometown!

I don't know if Hat Guys in Oakland does that kind of work, but Paul's Hat Works over here in SF certainly should be able to.

 

[gtdean48]

IndyCop posted a how to thread a while back...

 

[mayserwegener]

Mario did some nice binding work recently. Hopefully he will check in with some advice.

 

[mufflowne]

Alright! A Berkeley citizen!
Hat Guys don't do that kind of thing anymore. I asked. Paul's Hat Works I've never heard of, but I'm excited now, I didn't know there were any real hat stores in the Bay area! Gonna go there this weekend!

Oh and as a sidenote - a few months back I went to the hat shop on Telegraph in Berkeley and asked if they carry any open-crown hats. The clerk went to look for a hat that has no crown! Haha! And when I asked if they at least carry any grosgrain ribbons, I was told they only carry "regular ribbons". Upon inquiring, I found out that meant a folded silk ribbon. It's sad how little people know about hats these days.

 

[Brad Bowers]

Art Fawcett posted instructions several years ago on how to correcly bind a brim edge, but I can't find the post. I used his instructions, and if you follow the directions, you'll end up with a pretty good looking edge. The trick to getting no wrinkles or puckering is to make the loop of ribbon slightly smaller in circumference than the brim edge. Seems like it was around 3/8" or so smaller.

Brad

 

[jlee562]

Alright! A Berkeley citizen!
Hat Guys don't do that kind of thing anymore. I asked. Paul's Hat Works I've never heard of, but I'm excited now, I didn't know there were any real hat stores in the Bay area! Gonna go there this weekend!

Oh and as a sidenote - a few months back I went to the hat shop on Telegraph in Berkeley and asked if they carry any open-crown hats. The clerk went to look for a hat that has no crown! Haha! And when I asked if they at least carry any grosgrain ribbons, I was told they only carry "regular ribbons". Upon inquiring, I found out that meant a folded silk ribbon. It's sad how little people know about hats these days.

Oy...the Berkeley Hat Store.....I bought a Stetson Milan there. The employees are not terribly knowledgable about "proper" hats, but most of their market must be students looking for cheap wool felt hats.

Paul's is now run by a group of upstanding young ladies whom are enthusiastic about the craft hat making. Their custom hat prices are a bit steep for my wallet but I have had them stretch out one of my hats and I'm planning on taking another in to see what they can do about some moth bites.

 

[Lefty]

Tonyb's brim binding tutorial

advice from Art

 

[tonyb]

I've since revised my technique to something more like what Art described some years ago now, and to which Brad alludes above. Which is to say I now do the "closed loop" method. It ain't easy, and it's as much an art as a science, but once you've done it a hundred times or so, and wasted a lot of ribbon and time doing it wrong, you start to get the hang of it. It makes for a neater rear seam, for one thing.

The trick (and "trick" is as good a word for it as I can think of) is to gauge just how much shorter than the brim circumference to make the loop.

 

[mufflowne]

Thanks so much guys for filling me in with so much awesome info! I really love working on hats, it's a weekend hobby, and I've wanted to learn how to bind brims for a while now. Still can't get over how helpful this forum actually is!

 

[Sam Craig]

This certainly seems to fit right in with replacing a sweat as one of those things that is worth having a good hatter do for you.

IMHO, at least.

I've had Wichita Hat Works replace sweats on seven of my favs so far and I haven't regretted any of them. I couldn't save more than about $10 per hat and for that, I'm not about to try it.

I have a western conversion I'd like to have ribbon bound someday and that's where I'll get it done and I won't think twice.
Life is too short,

Sam

 

[mufflowne]

I dunno, for some reason sweats don't bother me quite as much to replace. I dislike having to wait for a hat to come back from a hatter, especially if it's a hat I like to wear a lot. For the most part the holes tend to be pre-made and I've got a few summer hats and a big roll of cotton sweatband that I replace periodically myself. But running a needle through a brim...makes me feel woozy.

 

[Art Fawcett]

But running a needle through a brim...makes me feel woozy.

:eusa_clap:eusa_clap No worries Muff, after all these years it STILL makes me woozy sometimes. What you are doing is exactly how I started out but there was nobody to guide me at all for years.
Good luck with the hobby...it can lead to good places someday.

 

[tonyb]

To riff a bit on Art's post ...

I suppose it goes without saying that you should start out on beater hats, because unless you are more innately adept at this sort of thing than anyone I've ever met, you will have your screw-ups, even after years of practice.

This is why I hesitate to restore a person's particularly precious hat -- the one that had belonged to his long-departed but still much beloved grandfather, for instance. When I irreversibly mess up an all-new hat, I just use the Lord's name in vain and then fetch a fresh body and start over. There goes a large chunk of the profit margin, but what the heck, all that's lost is a bit of money.