Two hats, one style
After wearing a wool hat for years, I bought a Stetson open road. It is styled as a snap brim fedora.
Rather than taking my Stetson with me on a trip next week, I cleaned up my old wool hat and gave it a styling. The Stetson cost too much to risk losing or damaging on a plane.
The old wool hat isn't as snazzy as the Stetson, but it'll do to keep my pointy head dry while exploring Ireland with my wife.
The wool hat had sweat stains and so many cat hairs I'd swear the kitty had been sleeping in it. It took a good sized piece of duct-tape to get all the cat hair off. A gentle scrubbing with a damp cloth and a mild soap got rid of the sweat stains.
The hat says "crushable" on the inside, and crushed it has been. I mixed up a really thin solution of shellac and ethanol to stiffen it. I shaped kind of like I wanted it, then let the sprayed on shellac dry
A little steam from the vent on a pot let me refine its shape to be similar to the Stetson. The wool doesn't hold its shape as well as the thinner felt on the open road, but I think it worked out well.
The brim on the wool hat doesn't "snap" like the open road. Wool just hasn't got it in it to do so.
The band on the wool hat is custom made. The LEDs light if a phone gets closer than a couple of inches from the concho. No batteries, purely passive. The Stetson will get a similar band, but I haven't gotten around to designing a new, smaller circuit board for it.
