Strapped-4-Cache
One Too Many
- Messages
- 1,112
- Location
- Lawrenceville, GA
In THIS recent post, John Galt shared a pic of a seasonal hat he's made. My wife has rolled her eyes at my recent hat purchases, but when she saw that image she told me that I needed to make something like that. Who am I to argue when my wife wants me to buy another hat? 
I located an inexpensive red cowboy hat on the 'bay and received it today. Needless to say, after I got home from work I headed straight to the kitchen to get some steam going so I could begin the transformation.
I'm still having problems with Photobucket rotating my images 90 degrees for some reason, but here's some pictures of the conversion.
Here's a shot fresh out of the box.
And a slightly different angle to show the cattleman crease better.
Removing the hatband and getting ready to scribe a line to trim the brim.
Back to open crown with the help of a lot of steam and my home-made stretcher.
My first attempt at a teardrop crease, thanks to the Teardrop Workshop thread.
After trimming the brim down a bit.
With the new "fur" hatband tacked in place.
And a top down view.
I don't have the tools to properly flange the brim, but there's so much stiffener in the felt that I managed to simply steam the brim up in the back and down in the front. By the time the felt had cooled it had stiffened enough to hold the shape. It probably wouldn't hold up to daily use, but it's good enough for holiday parties.
Thanks, John Galt, for the idea.
I located an inexpensive red cowboy hat on the 'bay and received it today. Needless to say, after I got home from work I headed straight to the kitchen to get some steam going so I could begin the transformation.
I'm still having problems with Photobucket rotating my images 90 degrees for some reason, but here's some pictures of the conversion.
Here's a shot fresh out of the box.
And a slightly different angle to show the cattleman crease better.
Removing the hatband and getting ready to scribe a line to trim the brim.
Back to open crown with the help of a lot of steam and my home-made stretcher.
My first attempt at a teardrop crease, thanks to the Teardrop Workshop thread.
After trimming the brim down a bit.
With the new "fur" hatband tacked in place.
And a top down view.
I don't have the tools to properly flange the brim, but there's so much stiffener in the felt that I managed to simply steam the brim up in the back and down in the front. By the time the felt had cooled it had stiffened enough to hold the shape. It probably wouldn't hold up to daily use, but it's good enough for holiday parties.
Thanks, John Galt, for the idea.
