Project: refurbishing straw hats

[labricoleuse]

For our next mainstage production, a dramatic adaptation of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, we are using a number of vintage period hats, many of which are straw. Most people know that steam will help reshape a dented straw hat; this post covers a couple other tricks for repairing and freshening them up.



Pictured above are two of the hats we are using. Both have a spiral braid construction, meaning that a long narrow braid of straw has been stitched together in a spiral to form the shapes of the hats. (The hat on the right has sections of lace pieced into the brim.) The straw has grown extremely brittle and dry from age, and the hats are starting to break apart where the braid is seamed to itself.

One technique that can be used to rejuvenate dried-out old straw is a damp towel wrap. Put an old towel in the washer and run it through a rinse cycle. Let the washer spin out the water from the chamber, but stop the spin cycle as soon as the water's spun out so that the towel remains fairly wet.


Place the towel over a large bowl and make a depression for the hat crown.


Set the hat in the bowl.


Cover it gently with the towel.


Make sure it is completely enclosed, and let it sit overnight.
This will restore some pliability to the straw.


To repair a torn portion of a straw hat, make a patch from several layers of sturdy netting in a matching color, like so:



Then use a thin needle to patch it, taking care to slide it between the weave instead of stabbing it through the pieces of straw.

Comments

[unluckymonkey.livejournal.com]

I was wondering what your favorite online as well as book sources are for millinery. I'm a fiber artist and love to watch your work. I'm going to try my hand at taking apart and reconstructing a braided straw hat. For that I've found plenty of information. I've had difficulty, however, finding good online info on the how to's of making felt hats & stiffening them for daily wear. Any suggestions?

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

Sorry to be so late with responding to this--we had tech, opening, and first fittings on the next show all in the interim since you posted it.

I'm sorry to say i don't have any super sites on doing felt hats, but here is a link to check out in case you didn't come across it in your searches:

http://www.thehatsite.com/felt.html

It talks about blocking crowns and applying hat sizing (the stiffener stuff). You're probably better off checking out print resources in the library--if you can track down a copy of Denise Dreher's book, From the Neck Up: An Illustrated Guide to Hatmaking, that has a great chapter on making hats from felt.

Another option to making hats from felt yardage is to approach the construction from the POV of a knitter--knit a too-large hat from wool, boil it and felt it, then size that shape.

Good luck and let me know how it goes!

[unluckymonkey.livejournal.com]

WHEW! You HAVE been busy.

Thanks for the link! I've not yet tried making a knit hat in a specific shape for felting but that is a good idea to give a go. I'll check to see if my library has/can get that book it sounds perfect. I'm interested in making all types of hats so something more all encompassing like that would really get my little mind spinning I'm sure.

Thanks for taking the time to make suggestions I really appreciate it! Sammy

[(Anonymous)]

Would you know how to fix an old Italian style boater hat? Would this same method work? My tear is on the front of the hat so i'm not sure if the netting would work.

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

This would be unlikely to work for a boater, given how crisp and sparely-decorated they are, and especially if it is one of those made from multiple layers of straw.

Do you have a picture of the damage? Or pictures. Ideally a couple close shots from both sides of the damaged area, and at least one at enough of a distance to show the look of the whole hat. I would be glad to take a look and give you my thoughts on how to fix it!

[(Anonymous)]

file:///H:/DCIM/100KC183/100_0919.JPG

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

The image didn't come through, only the text above (which looks like it was a link to a file on your computer, not the web). If you can upload it to an image host so that it becomes a clickable/accessible URL, i'm glad to take a look!