Just dyed my Gus Miller Hat

[metropd]

Do to long exposure to the sun the rays faded out the naturual tint of my fedora. Now the hat had such a slight, slight sliver of blue when I recieved it that due to the elements it took the naturual tint out and made it almost a little brownish grey. So I dyed it with some royal blue and pinch of black rit dye in boiling water and the results are perfect. I talked to a hatter and he told me do NOT do it. But I knew what I was doing and now the grey has just enough blue in it that the sun and elements will no be able to take it out. It looks brand New! The dyed is now absorbed into the hat and it is the naturual color. When it rained it did not take any of the dye out. The leather band on the inside is perfect aswell. It looks perfect!:eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[KY Gentleman]

How did you apply the dye? Brush it on, sponge it?

 

[feltfan]

Do to long exposure to the sun the rays faded out the naturual tint of my fedora. Now the hat had such a slight, slight sliver of blue when I recieved it that due to the elements it took the naturual tint out and made it almost a little brownish grey.

How long did you own this hat before the sun changed the tint
of the felt? Less than a year, right? This makes me wonder
about that felt. Could it have been powdered to get that hue?
Felt dye should be able to take a lot of sun- that's the point,
right? Years of use, anyway.

 

[metropd]

I have had it Only a couple of months but have worn it every single day. The dye itself I think was fine just the slight tint had changed.

 

[metropd]

How did you apply the dye? Brush it on, sponge it?

I Soaked it with rit dye in boiling water for almost an hour. Then let it dry for that day and by the afternoon it had dryed and was ready to be worn.

 

[Victor]

after all that soaking you didn't need a reblock? what did you do with the ribbon and sweatband? it would seem to me that boiling a hat would ruin its shape

 

[AlanC]

:shudder:

 

[metropd]

Yes I reblocked it to the same Exact shape. I can understand how you feel Alanc. Hopefully I can post some pictures so you and other loungers will no longer have that instinctive revulsion. I know I would too if I did not see the results. I took the black band and leather band and liner off and had it professionally reput it on. The hat is still a mid grey just with a little more blue in it. It looks much cleaner as well. I can completley understand people think I'm nuts I guess you have to be to do this. I do NOT recommend anyone do this unless they know EXACTLEY what they are doing and have done it before on a not so nice hat. I would never do this for the first time on a nice hat and I would not make this a habbit at all. It is very easy to screw up.

 

[metropd]

I think I am going to get some pictures up tonight.

 

[Lon Goval]

Sweatband replacement

Metropd, where did you have the sweatband re-sewn on? Was it local, or did you ship it out? That's the main thing holding me back from cleaning/dying some of my hats.

I used to perform in Little Italy with the San Diego Mandolin Orchestra during occasional festivals. Especially liked the Sidewalk Chalk Artwork.

Ralph

 

[metropd]

After the dye

<a href="http://s144.photobucket.com/albums/r191/metropd/?action=view&current=IMthebest5.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r191/metropd/IMthebest5.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s144.photobucket.com/albums/r191/metropd/?action=view&current=Imhappy.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r191/metropd/Imhappy.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

[RBH]

:eusa_clap NICE!! :eusa_clap

 

[AlanC]

Can't argue with success!

 

[David Conwill]

How extreme could this go? Could you go from say silverbelly to medium brown? Or would that be too much?

-Dave

 

[tonyb]

For whatever it's worth ...

As I type this there is an old (once) grey hat body in a pot atop my kitchen stove. In that pot is also a double dose of navy blue Jacquard acid dye, the type made for dyeing protein fiber, and a third of a cup of white vinegar.

Look, I don't know how well this will turn out, but this once very nice hat had a pronounced discoloration (dye from the sweatband, it seems to be) that I just plain couldn't get out of the felt. I tried naphtha, and Coleman camp fuel, and soap and water, and Tuff Stuff carpet cleaner. So now I have 10 bucks into this dye. And I like dark blue, so I'm giving it a try.

I've dyed various fabrics before, and I've done a bit of online research into the matter, and I've asked questions at the arts-and-crafts store here in town, and all that has me concluding that all-purpose dyes such as Rit brand probably isn't the best stuff to use. I've never known the stuff NOT to wash out of cellulose-based (cotton, etc.) fabrics. How well it works with protein-based fiber (such as the rabbit fur in your typical felt hat body), well, I'll trust metropd's experience that it has worked pretty well.

I was tempted to try Kool Aid (yes, Kool Aid), as I've had some success dyeing other protein fiber with it. But this Jacquard brand dye comes highly recommended, and I'm hoping to make a real nice hat out of this old thing, so I'm hoping it's 10 bucks well spent. It'll get a reblock on the No. 52 and a new sweatband and some fresh stiffener (all that cleaning has left it really, really limp). We shall see.

 

[tonyb]

So here's what I can tell you about Jacquard acid dye ...

The dye itself seems like really good stuff. The navy blue color is quite deep and rich. Indoors, under artificial light, the hat looks nearly black. Under bright sunlight the color absolutely pops. It's a very, very handsome color. Love it.

At one point in this process I was somewhat concerned that it wouldn't be as colorfast as I had hoped. This point was when I was flanging the hat's brim. I had wetted the underside with a spray bottle, draped an old white towel over the whole works and went at it with a hot iron. (No flanging sandbags around here.) Sure enough, some of the dye transfered from the felt to the towel. Hmmm ...

So I put the hat back together anyway. Wasn't all that happy with the end result. Sad truth is that all that time in that hot dye bath shrunk the hat body. Not a lot, but enough to make a difference. I blocked and flanged it in such a way as to give it a brim just a hair over 2 1/2 inches, but that left the crown about half an inch too short to suit my tastes. I mean, it wasn't a bad looking hat at all, but with an open crown at a whisker over 5 inches, there just wasn't enough height there for me to want to wear it. (It took me a day or so of trying it on and tweaking it this way and that to come to that regrettable conclusion.)

So ... I took it apart again and soaked the body in water and put it back on the block, where it resides at present. This time it'll have a 2 1/8 to 2 1/4 inch brim (or some odd fraction somewhere thereabouts) and nearly 6 inches of open crown. (Yes, I stretched it and stretched it to try to recover some of that lost territory.) The good news is that the dye did not bleed out even a little when I soaked it in water. So I trust I could wear the hat in a downpour without risking blue hair.

Another lesson here is that a good piece of vintage hat felt can take a fair amount of abuse. It still looks and feels very good. Indeed, it seems good as new. Better, even. But really, unless you're the sort who finds this sort of thing entertaining, it would hardly be worth all the trouble. I don't have much dough into this lid, but the hours ...