Newbie with question on cleaning old Panama straw hat

[John Scribner]

Hello- I'm new here, but an old lover of hats. Yesterday I acquired a Champ Genuine Panama "Hand Woven South American Genuine Panama" single-crease stingy brim hat in olive-grey with a 3 color band. Pretty "snappy" looking. It's been sitting on a shelf for decades, and just needs some TLC, but appears nearly new. Is there a way to safely clean it, and (here's the kicker) safely bring it from a 7 1/4 to a 7 3/8 without destroying it in the process? Please excuse me if this has been covered before- I looked but couldn't find any info on Panamas.
John Scribner

 

[Flieger]

Hi John and welcome to the Lounge!

I'm the first to agree that the search function here is somewhat lacking, but typing in "Panama" gave me 7 pages of hits and that was just a search in the subject line! Oh yes, we love Panama hats here!

Here's one on cleaning:
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=20891&highlight=Panama

...and here's one on stretching:
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=2815&highlight=Panama

There are MANY more.

Good luck on your search.

/F

 

[RBH]

Welcome to the Lounge John, Flieger gave some great threads.
Good luck in your cleaning and show us some photos!

 

[John Scribner]

Thanks!!

Thanks for the welcome and thanks for the links! Went to e-Bay and bought a stretcher today.
John Scribner