Shrinking a hat?

[Alon]

This may be a silly question, but I came across an old hat that's too big for me. Would a professional hatter be able to shrink it by one or two sizes? (What about enlarging a hat a size or two up?)

Thanks!

 

[tandmark]

Hi,

It's definitely not a silly question.

But it does seem to me that there was a thread on this very topic, like yesterday.

The short answer is that you can glom stuff onto one side or the other of the sweatband, without having to call in a highly-paid specialist for radical surgery. This trick is good for a size or two. Some hatshops sell sticky-back strips or foam or felt for this purpose. And it doesn't even have to be so formal as that: Sometimes you buy a vintage hat, and tucked up underneath the sweatband you'll find folded-up dollar bills, Irish Sweepstakes tickets, and similar things.

If it's a wool felt hat, you could also try just wearing it in the rain. I do this for Greek fisherman caps, always, and appreciate the used and beaten-up look it gives them. You might not want a beaten-up look for your hat, though, so I'd recommend some caution before you use this trick. Also the rain trick didn't even resize a couple of my brimmed wool felt hats, or for that matter make them look much different, when I got caught outside in storms.

Cheers,
Mark

 

[Alon]

By Jove. You're right, there was a post about the very same subject only a day or two ago and I missed it.