The Cap Faction

[Rudie]

Here are some sources for cloth (those of you who source their suit cloth themselves will know these addresses, but just the same):

Harris Tweed Highland Shop (for Harris Tweeds other than the standard bunch of patterns; watch out for the cloth widths):
http://www.harristweedshop.com/tweed-index.html

I suggest to buy your Harris Tweeds directly from the weaver instead: http://harristweedandknitwear.co.uk/shop_pages/tweed.html These are the exact same fabrics at £30.00 instead of £76.00 per meter for the double width cloth.

 

[Johnny J]

I like how your caps sit up, Johnny. The way the retrosport cap I have bulges onto my ears I find a bit annoying

Thank you Adnamira. I have same feelings on the Retro Sports.

 

[Johnny J]

I took a ruler and tried to compare the ratio of height of the cap you have made. From that, I see that it is a bit higher and has more volume. Is that a feature that you deliberately have been working towards?

SBG, what happened there is that I used an interfacing under the lining that was just a tad on the thicker side, but just on the whole crown and not on the bill. So this really helps me determine going a little thinner next time, especially if the fabric is already thick, like this wool I used.
Do appreciate the feedback.

 

[St. Valentine]

Regarding the thickness of the brim of Johnny´s cap I have to say that I saw a brim of exactly that shape in the third episode of Jeeves & Wooster tonight.

 

[Adnamira]

Thick fabrics, thick brims.

[/url][/IMG]

[/url][/IMG]

If you buy these same makers caps in lighter materials, their brims will be thin... I'd actually prefer if they added more material inside to make them that bit thicker on thinner materials. I like big brims, I do not lie!

 

[Adnamira]

Those lighter shades really suit you. For some reason I can't wear caps high on my head like that. I don't know why - I think I have a very spherical skull, inspite of having a long face. I think you need to with the retros. Nice caps... it's a coot that they don't seem to suit me, because I like the lighter worsted fabrics they use... which is another thing I think maybe rarer in modern caps than they were in vintage ones.

 

[St. Valentine]

Thank you Sir! It´s true, the Retro Sport is much flatter and sits higher on the head. The best fit for my skull has my silk Stetson Hatteras but you will get two Retro Sport for the price of one Stetson cap!

 

[Rabbit]

I suggest to buy your Harris Tweeds directly from the weaver instead: http://harristweedandknitwear.co.uk/shop_pages/tweed.html These are the exact same fabrics at £30.00 instead of £76.00 per meter for the double width cloth.

AWESOME, thanks for the reference, Rudie! I knew that website and I had ordered some caps and ties from them before, but I forgot that they sold a wider collection of tweeds. Great stuff there!

 

[Rabbit]

Thanks, Rabbit. I'd like to get a worsted wool cap sometime, so I will have to come back to this post to reference those links perhaps. I paid for my cap via paypal and didn't recieve an email from them after the order, and unusually the paypal record says no shipping address available, which is wierd, so I guess I can only sit and wait to see if it shows up. Hat People are good in that regard... they also take 4 weeks to make a cap, but they don't bill you until the cap is made.

A worsted fabric to be used for a cap, are you sure, Sir?
I wouldn't recommend it. While it's true that a cap's fabric doesn't necessarily have to have much weight (due to the cap's lining and construction), the formality of the worsted cloth itself (with the exception of worsted flannel, which is a separate category) is not in tune with the casualness of the cap; the cloth is too fine and shiny.
I humbly suggest using woolen flannel (or maybe worsted flannel, which is made of super-number yarns and available in leighter-weight fabrics) if you want to try something else beside tweeds, corduroys and linens. That's just my opinion, of course.

 

[Adnamira]

A worsted fabric to be used for a cap, are you sure, Sir?
I wouldn't recommend it. While it's true that a cap's fabric doesn't necessarily have to have much weight (due to the cap's lining and construction), the formality of the worsted cloth itself (with the exception of worsted flannel, which is a separate category) is not in tune with the casualness of the cap; the cloth is too fine and shiny.
I humbly suggest using woolen flannel (or maybe worsted flannel, which is made of super-number yarns and available in leighter-weight fabrics) if you want to try something else beside tweeds, corduroys and linens. That's just my opinion, of course.

Oh, your first link had a lot of worsted fabrics? I would have thought myself that worsted wool would be superior to linen, as it drapes better and is less inclined to wrinkle like linen. It is also superior to cotton in being colour fast so it won't fade in the sun. I think tweeds are great cap fabrics, but living in Australia, it is much too warm to wear them for half the year, but being a fine wool grower, it would be nice to have a cap that was of one of the lighter wool fabrics. I don't know what style of worsted fabric, my retrosport is, but it is quiet good; unfortunately, the style of cap doesn't seem to suit me. Gabardine is used in a lot of military caps. How would it work in a newsboy or flat cap? I suppose that would be formal.

 

[St. Valentine]

Please excuse my ignorance, but could the Retro Sport cap I just showed be made from "worsted fabric"?

 

[Chepstow]

Frank, cool Retro Sport cap. Suits you well! How good is the quality.

 

[St. Valentine]

Thank you Manfred! If you like the cut and drape of Mamie Blue´s caps you can´t have a better deal. Less than fifty Euro and the low shipping costs from Paris make them so affordable. Quality is much better than I would have thought, very nicely made. I didn´t want to go for a linen or cotton cap and too much beige doesn´t suit me so well. The grey "autumn" cap seems to be ideal and is light enough to work as a summer cap. I need to try their heavier, tweed caps in autumn too.

 

[Chepstow]

Thanks Frank, yes, that cap looks good on you. The proportions are good! Sometimes is it a color or a little detail whether a cap looks great!

 

[St. Valentine]

This one is a small, grey herringbone with brown and red, narrow stripes. Mamie Blue has so many nice caps, I could have bought them all! :eeek:

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Frank the only thing I would do is a drape to one side. I like that look better that the straight on the head.

 

[Chepstow]

That are the proportions of my old Borsalino Travel Cap!

 

[GoldenEraFan]

Pretty decent '20s-'40s cap replica by Worth and Worth I picked up yesterday. Complete with big bill, decent shape and leather sweatband.

 

[Johnny J]

Hey Golden, any pics of you wearing it please for all of us? Front, side and back views if possible. Thanks.

 

[Rabbit]

Oh, your first link had a lot of worsted fabrics? I would have thought myself that worsted wool would be superior to linen, as it drapes better and is less inclined to wrinkle like linen. It is also superior to cotton in being colour fast so it won't fade in the sun. I think tweeds are great cap fabrics, but living in Australia, it is much too warm to wear them for half the year, but being a fine wool grower, it would be nice to have a cap that was of one of the lighter wool fabrics. I don't know what style of worsted fabric, my retrosport is, but it is quiet good; unfortunately, the style of cap doesn't seem to suit me. Gabardine is used in a lot of military caps. How would it work in a newsboy or flat cap? I suppose that would be formal.

You were referring to Huddersfield, right? They do sell tons of worsteds, indeed. The reason I posted the link is that they not only have all those worsteds, but also a nice selection of woolen flannels, linens, overcoat woolen fabrics and other stuff; many tailoring houses get lots of their cloth from this source.

I see your point about the climate.
Well, for higher temps I would still heartilty recommend linen over worsteds (or cotton, for that matter, which has the shortest lifespan both regarding wear and color). A linen suit may look worn after half a day; a linen cap is less inclined to wrinkle, being supported by the cap's construction. I do believe that on a linen cap the wrinkling looks perfectly allright; it just looks worn in, not sloppy. I have two linen caps made of a rather heavy linen cloth; they hold up very nicely. Linen cloth is available in different fabric weights; the lighter-weight linens wrinkle, while the heavier-weight linens rumple (which generally looks far better). Plus, linen breathes very well (which is something that can't be said about the supernumber-worsteds).
On the other hand, there are lots of nice very lightweight worsted cloths in lighter colors out there that might be worth a try for a summer cap.
As for the draping, that's for you to decide. I can't see much drape in a worsted cloth. There are 13-14oz (around 360-400g) linens out there that do the job rather well, though.

Please excuse my ignorance, but could the Retro Sport cap I just showed be made from "worsted fabric"?

Can't tell for sure from the pics, but my bet is on a non-worsted woolen cloth...
Worsteds are made from very fine yarns, which makes the surface of the resulting cloth rather shiny (as compared to the dullness of tweeds, flannels, linens and cotton, at least in non-blended cloths). They are also unique in that the worsted woolen cloth can be dyed with crisp-clean patterns, while patterns on flannels, linens and cottons don't look that clear-cut; tweeds are a different animal altogether.