Gents - I got me a hat. Felt, cheap "hat blank", but the wool is thick and seems stout. Got it in brown, which I prefer. Ok, so now what? I made a hat band and wonder about an interior sweat band. The thing is, the hat is a tad (maybe 1/4 size) too large...just a tad. So, I wonder if adding a sweat band to the interior might improve this - I like the hat in all other respects. If so, what sort of material might be best, and how does one sew such a thing into the hat? Never having seen a "good hat" (or any of this sort) before, I really have nothing to go on here. I have looked in the Buckskinning books (got them all) and nary a hat is discussed. Got Muzzleloader back to 2000 and nary an article on this, other than some on hat styles. Help and suggestions would be appreciated.

Boone

Boone,
I have been told that leather is good. You could experiment with the right thickness to get your hat to fit right.
I would think that veg tanned would give you a band to soak up sweat. But that is JMHO.
volatpluvia

Hey Boone! If you can get some real thin deer hide, or maybe in your case you might want a thicker hide to make up for the size difference, & vegetable tanned would be good to use like Volatpulvvia said.
Make a 3 inch strip the length of you hat's circumfrence. Fold it in half so it is about 1 1/2 inch wide. Set it in your hat so the seam will be either right in the back, or on one side if you prefer. Start sewing it in right where the crown and brim meet, maybe about an 1/8th of an inch up the crown. Tack it down in about 4 places, then if it looks right, and most importantly feels right on your head, finish stitching the band in. If it is still to large you can stick leather strips into the band till it fits right.
Hope this helps, and good luck!

after doing What sawbones said,and it still dont fit,Get it a little damp,set it in the sun for a while(or steam it and let it dry) It will shrink some, Been wearing felt hats(up to a 15 x beaver)for more years than I can count,They all act the same

We use linen on the inside. Cut a band of material about 2.5 inches wide and sew a 3/8 inch hem along both edges. The band is now about 1.5 inches wide. The length should be long enough to go all the way around on the inside with just a small overlap. Start at the back of the hat and sew the lower edge of the material to the inside just at the turn of the hat. Pass your needle through the hat and linen. It is possible to do this two ways; either all the way through the hat, in and out, or by just catching the felt half way, sort of tacking. Check that you don't drift up too high or too low as you work your way along. Use strout thread of the same color as the felt. You'll need a strong needle. When you get all the way around and meet back with the edge where you started, turn your sewing 90 degrees upward, now sewing the two overlapping edges of the linen together.

Another way is to sew the liner in while letting it hang down basically turned inside out. When you are finished sewing push the liner up into the hat turning it right side out. That way the stitches are hidden.

The linen absorbs sweat nicely, tightens a loose hat, and conforms to the inside shape very well. Choose thicker or thinner material to make the hat fit just right.

Lads - Thanks for the input, suggestions, and most important the methods. As noted, the felt hat deal is a total mystery to me, so a simple thing like this has to be learned. I have some nice, supply deerhide (vegie tanned) here, and no linen (other than my clothes!), so I shall try that in the hope it suffices. I shall report.

Boone

Leather will not help the sweat (imho) and give you a nice band of zits where it contacts your forehead. Go with Linen or cotton. You can use ticking material if you have some for patches for you gun that is big enough. The hat may shrink if it gets wet in the rain and dries on your head, so the extra room is probably fine, and if it gets cold you can wrap a kerchief around your head and over your ears and maybe still wear the hat.

LD

I have an Amish straw hat that uses a cloth , somewhat quilted sweat band. Very comfy.

FYM my son had one of those hat blanks, in black. Very durible, but when it got wet, it ran color....he looked like a chocolat Easter Bunny in the rain!.

P

Poordevil - Ha! That is a great image of a dripping hat. Mine has already gotten quite wet - it rains a lot here in the high country of Hawaii, and so far has not dispensed brown "dye" on me...so, that part is ok. Since it has gotten wet it also has shrunk a bit in drying, in fact, it developed some odd "rumples" in the brim as it dried out. Looks "period", though. I was rummaging in my wife's sewing stash and came across a nice piece of ticking material - cotton, well washed, and it seems rather stout - so I shall check that out - after I talk her out of it! One other aspect here that I am unclear on - the suggestion was to take a piece about 3" wide and fold it lengthwise to half that, then sew it in. I am assuming that when folded the "open" side of the fold would be up (toward the crown), with the fold itself down. Am I correct on this? Seems it pretty much has to be like that. I don't have any hats here with an interior band so I have nothing to compare with.

Boone

Hey Col. Boone,

I found this thread and was wonderin' how your hat came out. I've put a couple of sweat-bands in hats. What I've found is, the material has to be stiff enough to not turn inside-out when you pull it off your damp head. The one straw hat I have with a cloth sweat-band is sewn top and bottom so it can't turn inside-out when you pull the hat off. But, unless you want a stitchin' line up around the outside of you hat, you pretty much have to sew it down at the bottom and cover the stitches on the outside with some sort of hatband, (a wide hatband if you sew it top and bottom).

I use thin leather sweat-bands when I have to replace one. I grew-up around old-time cowboys who were always pullin' their hats off and wiping out their sweat-bands with their hankies. When I started wearin' hats outdoors most of the time, I realized you had to clean-off your sweat-band from time to time so it wouldn't cause the problems with the zits. I actually wash my sweat-bands with hand soap when they need a cleanin'.

I have a slightly different way to sew in sweat-bands, but if you've already found a satisfactory solution, I won't waste space with the explanation.

Will

Will - Thanks for jumping in here. At this point I used the cotton band I described previously and tack sewed it in the hat. It does just as you describe - turns inside out when I take off the hat if I am sweaty. Sort of a pain. I have not tried leather, though I have a lot of types to choose from. The zits deal sort of sent me away from that option.

The one positive aspect of the cloth band is that it did improve the fit a good deal. The cross section of the shape of the hat shows that there is not a sharp line between the brim and crown - rather it slopes. This means that the hat wants to jamb down on the head, which feels and looks silly. The cloth band does help this despite its' drawbacks.

Any further tips would be appreciated. I had thought that simply forking over enough $$ for a really good hat would be the solution, but as this one is earning lots of "trail wear" it is becoming a "personal artifact" and harder to part with!

So, any tips or tricks from you experience would certainly be appreciated.

Col Boone

Col.if the band is pulled inside out when you take it off that would aid in drying by evaporation and help prevent that musty hat smell.The other good part about a hat band is you can put extra cloth between the band and the hat to soak up swet or as you pointed out make it fit better.If you didnt want a stitch line,might try pine pitch and glue it in place,just stitch around the bottom.
Went over to Google Typed in, Felt Hat Mfg,goes to Felt Hat Making. try it,lots of information, 9,570,000 sites, on all types of Felt Hats and their history how to and such.First on or second was all I pulled up but there is information to be had.

Crow who Walks - Thanks for that. I almost don't dare to Google it...the flood of info is sometimes a bit much. But, I should buck up and just do it. The drying out notion I had not thought of and the idea of putting cloth inside the band to absorb sweat and improve the fit is great. I shall try that. At present it is just tacked in and I do have a narrow outside hatband under which full stitching can be hidden, so that should work. Thanks for the ideas.

Col Boone

How about wearing it as is? I have only used cheap wool felt hat blanks for years. End up lost on the prairie. The one I have now is several years old and is now and off color gray, with blood, grease, and sweat. No sweat band or liner. The wool felt wicks the sweat away, like wool socks or such. Just wear it use it. Not all their hats were top of the line.

Bufflr... "Not the top of the line" sure gets it here, but your point is well taken. Sometimes I just get fixated on some silly thing and have to fuss with it until that itch goes away. This may well be a "no win" effort, so perhaps your suggestion is the way to go. I could spring for a new, higher class, hat...but, like yours mine is now the proud bearer of dirt, grease and fade that just takes time to generate - I don't want to lose that.

Col Boone