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Stretching a Panama

SHARPETOYS

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,425
Location
Titusville, Florida
A piece of cake.

Kaleponi Craig said:
I am curious. Using a hat stretcher, how much can you stretch a Panama without breaking the straw? Can you easily go up one size, say from a 7 1/3 to a 7 1/2?

Thanks, Kaleponi Craig

Yes !
Thats not a problem at all. Steam the straw a little and stretch her. :)
 

feltfan

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,190
Location
Oakland, CA, USA
Home Panama Stretching... vintage

Hm, I guess I wouldn't try stretching a panama as much as
some describe here if the leather sweat band were in or
the fiber were old and dried up some.

I just got in three vintage panamas. Two are so-so (but good
for wearing 'cause they have real old leather sweat bands and
one has an open weave which keeps my head cool). The third
is awesome and just a touch small.

I plan to stretch the small one using steam off my espresso
machine (I have a big one- near infinite steam).

The other hats seem to have been treated with something-
a plastic spray or something? One has a dent in it I would like
to encourage to go away. But I'm not sure what steaming will
do to the coating. To make matters worse, the nudnik who owned
it used 2-sided tape to position the hat band. Yikes.
 

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