u/boethius61

Here we are on my 6th training hat. As with all the others it's a cheap wool Fedora I picked up for $10 (last image). Pics don't do the color justice, it's a lovely olive green. Cleaning it up, popped it, blocked it, shellaced, and shaped.

The last one was full cowboy hat so I wanted to go something more city, more dressy. Something I can wear casually but will dress up nice as well.

I'd call it 'open road adjacent'. At least that was my basic inspiration to guide me, cattleman's crease on top, brim binding, lift. For my take, I'm not a huge fan of a pure cattleman's crease so I gave it a little bit of wishbone. Obviously, the band is more of a Fedora ribbon to get that dress feel. Plus, my head just doesn't work with a full lift so I did a slight pull-down in the front.

Robin work was hard. Several hours hand stitching the brim binding. Next time I'm going to try my sewing machine. Also struggled with the bow. Not so much producing it as finding something I liked. However, the tone on tone really worked out.i love the palette.

I did a pencil curl but that also doesn't work in my head for whatever reason so I released about 90% of that so it's just barely a curl.

My fifth practice hat. As before, it's a $10 cheap wool Fedora. I cleaned it, popped it, and shellaced it for shaping.

It had the widest brim of all my cheapies, at just under 4". Given that and it's color I went for something more western. Technically, it's a fedora crown but with the stingray brim and braided leather band it lands totally cowboy.

It's a 4 strand braid. I bought a book about braiding leather. It wasn't hard.

Final touch, my wife picks up odds and ends at the reuse place, and she grabbed a copper leaf deco thing that really worked with the color palette.

I'm generally not cowboy, but I like it. Wearing it out tonight.

This is my third attempt at reworking a hat. Still just practice on cheap $10 used wool felt hat. This was supposed to be a practice and toss hat. My intent was to reblock it multiple times and shape and reshape and reshape till I destroyed it. I sanded it (pounced!) to see how that works. That worked okay. I made a homemade brim jack to cut the brim down. That worked less okay, I need to adjust my depth I think on the blade. Anyway, it was not supposed to be a finished hat.

But then it started to look good. I did this almost engineers hat shape with a slight taper front to back. It starts about 2.75" in the front to about 3.25" wide in the back.

I was still going to redo it but wanted to try a brim binding first. That's an old lanyard I got for free at our local reuse place. If you peeled it off there's writing on the inside.

Then I grabbed my red leather and be damned if it didn't look like something I should keep. Laced the band on (I riveted the first 2).

The final touch is a little keeper/clip thing. It's a spoon. *It's a fucking spoon!* I saw it at the reuse center and liked the simple design. Cut it down and bent it over. I think it looks pretty elegant.

I forgot to snap a before pic when it was a cheap fedora. I only thought of it after I debanded, cleaned, and popped it on the hat block the first time. I hadn't soaked it yet though. Last pic.

Anyway, surprising result on what should have gone to the trash.

This is my first reasonably successful rework (three attempts). Picked up an old cheap wool Fedora for $10. Popped and Shellaced. Made a hat block to put a telescope in. Picked up some leather from the shop near my work. Finished with my wife's old necklace.

Learned a lot. Wearing it out tonight. Got a compliment within 5 minutes.