Less a Tutorial than a Project Journal

I am not a person who can wear bucket cloches. Very few people can wear them well, and I am not one of them. So when I got a navy blue bucket cloche with a lot of other hats from an auction, I didn't know what to do with it. I kept it for years without wearing it. I did try crumpling down the center, and it looked like a fedora. Not my type of hat either. 

Skip ahead a few years…Recently I've become interested in hat making. I've been reading articles and how-tos on different types of hats, and also hat forms or molds since to buy one is so expensive. I've become more and more fascinated by how easy to shape wet wool felt is. But being impatient me, do I wait until I can find or order some hat grade wool felt? No…

Instead I get the brilliant idea to reshape my vintage cloche – especially since that means all the seams are done already and the hem.

It also means I have less scope for creativity because I have to work with what is there. I have to take into account the decoration already around the crown. But I figured I could do something better with it, and here is how I did it.

(I'm so sorry I don't have a before picture – I didn't think of using this for a tutorial until it was already finished. But here's a picture that shows the approximate shape of what it was before I started.)

 

The Hat Form

Basics first. After researching how to make your own hat form, I decided to do it easy and found that this works well, though it's not the prettiest hat drying form around, and only takes a few minutes.

 

First, I took a Planter's peanut can, which is about the right size and lightweight. Many other types of cans should work – I had this one on hand.

 

I folded styrofoam packing on the bottom of the can (now the top of the hat form) and used packaging tape to tape bubble wrap all around it to make a dome. This is to keep the hat from having a square top.

 

 

Then I covered it all over with plastic wrap to keep it dry when the hat is on it.

 

And the best part is – it only took me a few minutes!

 

The Hat Shaping

For the cloche, I first soaked it good in water. I ran water in it and outside it, all over it, until it was completely soaked through. It still retained its shape – it just looked like a very wet, heavy cloche.

I put the hat form on a bath towel and put the dripping hat on the form.

 

Then the fun part started. I had the decoration on the side to work around, so I knew what had to be front and what was back. Also the length of the brim was slightly different in front and back. But with those considerations in mind, I could play around with it, folding it different ways and pinning it.

 

 

I pinned up the brim on one side to make it look a little like a riding habit hat, then pinned all the wrinkles how I wanted them and smoothed out the ones I didn't want.

 

 

Since I didn't want the hat so tall, I punched the top in a little and sculpted the wrinkles that created.

 

With all the padding on the hat form, you can stick pins into it and they'll stay. So when it was all pinned, I set it – still on the bath towel – in front of a fan and let it there all day. It felt dry by the evening, but I left it on the form overnight, just in case.

 

The next day I took the pins out and this was the result:

It held its new shape perfectly! Hooray!

  

Hat Trimming

The fun part! I wanted a Lady Grantham style sort of hat for my Titanic costumes, and this hat lent itself well to that. I won't say it in the end it looks completely period, but it's close enough for the time being.

My favorite hat trimming devices are vintage millinery flowers and berries. They just look more authentic than modern ones, for some reason. But I also like hat trims that don't have to be sewn or glued on, since that way I can change them around to match my costume if I like. With that in mind, I keep a supply of decently-authentic looking flower clips and brooches (cheap in craft stores), which are admirable for times like this.

 

So first I wanted a dash of color. The millinery berries did that well, and with the turned up brim I could hide the stems easily.

 

Feathers are always appropriate, especially for this time period. I liked how this looked on the hat, but it came down over my eye too much, so I decided to wait until later to place it.

 

 

Then I had an idea to use a jewelry component of a strip of rolled ribbon flowers I've had for a while. I tucked one end under the side decoration, and the other between two folds on the crown of the hat. That makes a nice asymmetrical look.

 

But it needs more poof. Time to bring on the clip-on flowers.

 

This one? Nope. Definitely not polka dots. And the rose shape doesn't fit right with the style of the hat.

 

This one's better, but almost too much poof. It makes the hat look more steampunk, or gothic. Which is fine if that's what you like, but not what I'm looking for. Besides, I thought it added too many colors in a jumble.

 

 

Ah, now this is better! It's close to the ivory of the roses, but more of a champagne, to add depth of ivory shades. It will match anything and is more the right size. It's on an alligator clip, so I can move it around as I wish, or replace it if needed to match an outfit.

 

The feather adds a finishing touch. And all I need to do is stitch down the ends of the rose strip and maybe a berry cluster to keep it in place.

 

 

Hat views:

 

 

And of course, even though I am not in costume, I had to try it on.

 

 

I flatter myself that it really does look like a hat Lady Grantham would wear. And even if not, it's much better than the bucket cloche it was, when it sat in a hatbox for years!

 

 

Now I am excited about buying up all sorts of wool hats in antique stores that I wouldn't normally purchase, just so I can reshape them; and am sorry for all the ones in the past I decided I didn't like after all, and sold or gave away!

Just to demonstrate shaping a different style, here's the before and after pictures of another hat I at first didn't like and had the inspiration to turn it into a ritzy looking (and even more Period than the cloche) '40s style tilt hat – one of the more expensive styles to buy vintage and incidentally one of my favorites.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

I don't know if I'll get into actual hat making – shaping straw, for instance – although I do think I want to try making a hat from scratch eventually, maybe cutting up wool coats from a thrif store (not too nice coats, of course!). But I am looking forward to being able to make my own unique creation out of ugly or unwanted hats – and give them a new life.

 

See you later!

~Kristen – Verity Vintage Studio