Yep, two separate processes. I'm actually looking to do both. Powdered dye to even out color on finished hats and acid dye to try my hand at getting something close to the blue/gray I love in some of my vintage hats. We'll see what happens.
Looking forward to seeing your results.
I'm pretty sure 90% of the chicken ended up on this one...
So I don't guess you'd be interested in this Resistol Stagecoach then? It's a rare, vintage, hard-to-find example of the Urban Cowboy era!
and someday will replace the macrame band with something less flashy, but it is indeed a good solid hat.
While I'm waiting on my stiffiner to do the final touches on my Stetson Nutria I took this Silverbelly Bradford 7X Quality apart again and am redoing it. I wasn't quite happy with the way it turned out the first two times. Hopefully the third one's a charm. Definitely going thin ribbon. I'm going to check and see if I have another ribbon laying around to do the brim binding. Like Penman and other well known hatters point out about their creations, all my work and sewing is done by hand. But if I could afford to buy the machines and tools to work with you better believe I wouldn't be hand making this sh*t! This hand making crap can be a tedious pain in the a$$ at times!
So I don't guess you'd be interested in this Resistol Stagecoach then? It's a rare, vintage, hard-to-find example of the Urban Cowboy era!
Thank you, buddy. Definitely true. Hand sewing is an absolute pain and it's time consuming that requires a lot of patience. I should be grateful that I can do it but I still would like to have the tools and a vintage sewing machine for hats to work with. I think the machine work, as far as sewing goes, does a neater and more precise job. I'd especially like to have one for brim bindings. Anyway, here's an update on my Bradford 7X Quality conversion. I robbed another hat of its ribbon and brim binding which I had from one of my first conversion attempts that I messed up. It's off the block and is creased and flanged with the sweat also sewn in place. I still have to sew on the brim binding and thin ribbon that I took from the donor hat. Everything looks to be a good fit. This is going to be a Strat / OR clone. I always liked the looks of Robert Ryan's OR in the movie, "Bad Day At Black Rock". For this hat I lowered the open crown height to 5 1/2 inches tall and tried to get a more rounded top, but still maintaining the straight sides. The crown is creased in my preferred tear drop with a looser pinch. It's creased to 4 3/4 at the pinch with a rake sloping to 4 inches to the back. The brim is 2 5/8 and is flanged on a 2 3/4 brim flange, (it's all I have).
Nice job.So I bought this grey fedora a while back to do a little project on, worn it many times, postponed the actual project many times but today I finally got to it.
Using steam from my water boiler I tried to take the standard crease out as best as I could and put a new cattleman crease in.
I’m actually quite satisfied with it as it is the first time I’ve really ever done something like this.
How do y’all think I did?
So I bought this grey fedora a while back to do a little project on, worn it many times, postponed the actual project many times but today I finally got to it.
Using steam from my water boiler I tried to take the standard crease out as best as I could and put a new cattleman crease in.
I’m actually quite satisfied with it as it is the first time I’ve really ever done something like this.
How do y’all think I did?
Very cool to see your process, Terry. Very informative.Thank you, buddy. Definitely true. Hand sewing is an absolute pain and it's time consuming that requires a lot of patience. I should be grateful that I can do it but I still would like to have the tools and a vintage sewing machine for hats to work with. I think the machine work, as far as sewing goes, does a neater and more precise job. I'd especially like to have one for brim bindings. Anyway, here's an update on my Bradford 7X Quality conversion. I robbed another hat of its ribbon and brim binding which I had from one of my first conversion attempts that I messed up. It's off the block and is creased and flanged with the sweat also sewn in place. I still have to sew on the brim binding and thin ribbon that I took from the donor hat. Everything looks to be a good fit. This is going to be a Strat / OR clone. I always liked the looks of Robert Ryan's OR in the movie, "Bad Day At Black Rock". For this hat I lowered the open crown height to 5 1/2 inches tall and tried to get a more rounded top, but still maintaining the straight sides. The crown is creased in my preferred tear drop with a looser pinch. It's creased to 4 3/4 at the pinch with a rake sloping to 4 inches to the back. The brim is 2 5/8 and is flanged on a 2 3/4 brim flange, (it's all I have).
It won't be exact but I think I can come close with the addition of a few of my own touches....I always liked the look of Ryan's whole outfit in this movie, too. Amazon has western style belts close to the one he's wearing here.
Brim binding from donor seems to fit pretty good and snug. I just need to tack it in place and then sew on the permanent stitches as soon as I can get to the local fabric store and buy some thread that's close to the ribbon color. Another thing that's noticeable is that the crown isn't as deeply dished after creasing as my other hats since I lowered the open crown height. I have a Resistol Stagecoach in Silverbelly with an OR style thin ribbon which has a tall straight and deeply dished crown that is too boxy looking to more accurately achieve that Strat / OR look. My Bradford and donor hat, side by side.
This should be easy enough. Just follow the old stitch holes. Uh Oh. Just noticed a little stain on the binding. I'll live with it.
Now. What do I do with this donor hat that I messed up a few years ago. I'll try to save it! I have a good idea for the stitch holes from the brim binding and I can hide the sewing job where the hat was sliced through with a mid ribbon that's close to the color of the hat! After I finish up my Bradford project I'll see if I can save this one from the trash heap. How about some halo treatment on the brim using the old stitch holes?
Thank you steur. I've got the binding basted in place. I just have to go to a fabric store and buy some thread to match the binding. I'd like to finish it up this weekend provided that the wife doesn't continually interrupt me like she usually does..."Terry, Buffy needs to go out."..."Terry, did you wash me any clothes?"...."Terry, can you get me some ice cream with a plastic spoon."....blah, blah, blah. Looks like this hat won't be finished until next week sometime.
Nice save, Terry. You can always put a mid or wide ribbon on it if you want to cover up its battle scars. I know a hatter who actually makes some of his hats this way, that is with separate brim and crown stitched together. I can imagine how satisfying it is to save a good vintage felt from the scrapyard. Great job as usual.One of three hat projects finished, maybe. Going back to my favored thin ribbon fedoras. This was a 7 1/8 Bradford Ltd. OR clone that I won on a bidding site about five years ago. The hat was way too small. When I first started experimenting with doing conversions I thought I'd mess with this one to get it to fit me. I really messed it up. It ripped out at the crown when I was trying to tug on it. It became a donor hat for its thin ribbon and brim binding for my Bradford 7X Quality that I'm also working on at the moment. I was going to throw this one in the trash but decided to see if I could save it and make it at least wearable. I taped the torn part together and then stitched it up as best I could. I reblocked it to a 7 1/4 to fit me and it held together! I found another thin ribbon and bow that I had laying around, put in a new sweat, and got it put back together. It ain't pretty in the back but it's definitely wearable, and it's a favorite! I wish now I had a 3/8 ribbon to do the brim binding. I got a 5 3/4 open crown out of it and a 2 1/2 inches wide brim in the size up. The proportions are nice and the crown is fairly tall and is creased in my preferred teardrop. I really like this one. I think from the fact that I was able to save it and make the hat wearable rather than throwing it in the trash, gave me a sense of accomplishment. Like I said, it's not pretty in the back and it's not perfect but it's nicely proportioned and it has a lot of wear left wear left.
Mein Frankenhut....
On the head
Gustin Vintage Heavyweight Sweatshirt - Natural Rainbow Nep - $119 Rugged 14oz cotton that gets better with every wear. 
Grant Stone Diesel Boot Dark Olive Chromexcel - #395 Goodyear welted, Horween Chromexcel, classic good looks. 
Himel Bros. - The Ross Mk. 1 Leather Jacket Classic D-pocket motorcycle/aviator style jacket. 
