Recently
at my favorite antique
mall I
picked up a rather battered black straw hat for a few dollars. It had
a few flaws—tiny holes in the straw and some miniscule tears in the
otherwise very nice veil. But it badly needed reshaped! It looked
worse in real life than in the photo. Because of the fragility of the
straw as well as the shape, I'm guessing it's 1930s or early '40s.

  

 Depending
on the style of the hat, vintage hats can be very different to
reshape. Some just need the crown misted with water and put over a
bowl to dry. I've reshaped a 1950s saucer
hat before
by dampening it, turning it upside down, and filling it with marbles
to “iron out” the top. This one, being broad-brimmed, took more
effort.

 

What you need:

spray bottle

some sort of form to shape the hat (I used a lampshade padded with
fabric)

clothespins

plastic bags

dowels cut the right length to span the underside of the brim

weights if needed

  

 

1. The first part is easy. Mist the crown with water inside and out,
place snugly over the mold, and let it dry. Be careful what you use
for a mold, however, since old dyes can bleed sometimes when wet.

  

 

This hat's under-band was all crushed, so I clipped clothespins to it
to help smooth it out.

  

 

2. Once the crown is dry, the more challenging part begins. First you
need to determine how the hat is to be shaped. Sometimes it's almost
impossible to guess at the original shape. For this hat, one side
curved up and out smoothly, so I decided the rest of it needed to do
the same. So, leaving the fabric in the crown to keep it from being
crushed as the rest of it dries, I wedged the dowels cross-ways into
the underside of the hat's brim and misted it well on both sides
with water.

I was lucky that the hat curves like it does and I can wedge the
dowels; and also the hem of the straw helps to hold them. But if you
need extra security, clip a clothespin onto the edge so the dowel can
wedge on that. If you are concerned that the dowels will make poke
marks into the straw, pad the tips with some felt or something
similar.

 

 

3. Now start tucking balled-up plastic bags under the dowels to plump
out the crushed places.

 4. As you can see, it still looked wrinkled since the plastic bags
weren't weighty enough.

 So, to the rescue comes something heavier. You can use anything you
have handy that will work – being the good country girl I am, I
used shotgun shells. 🙂

  

 

You have to be careful with the weights, since if they press a crease
or lump into the brim, it will dry that way. Make sure any sharp
edges of the weights are padded with the plastic bags between it and
the brim.

 

The completed mold:

See how much smoother it is?

 

5. Mist it thoroughly again on the outside of the brim, since it would
have started drying while you worked with it. The next step is to
let it dry completely. Because the crown was padded and wouldn't
crush, I let the hat rest upside down on a flat surface. Because one
side is more weighted than the other with the shotgun shells, I
propped it up (careful not to create creases).

Let it dry completely, checking occasionally to make sure the weights
haven't shifted and there aren't any lumps. You can put a fan on it
to make it dry quickly. A loosely woven straw like this will dry in
an hour or two with a fan on it.

 

Then fix the veil or whatever is needed for the finish. I had some loose netting ends so I pinned them back with a light-weight brooch. The finished product!

This particular hat I like a lot since it is a classic lightweight summer shape to shade the face, fits my head nicely, and can sit either on the top or back of
the head. Plus it's perfect for personalizing by pinning on my own
spray of vintage millinery flowers to match different outfits, if I
wish. 

 

See you next month!

~Kristen – Verity Vintage Studio

Look for my new tutorials posted sometime during the first full week of every month. Hairstyles, crafts, repurposing, etc.