Have you bought a hat online and been truly disappointed when it arrived? Perhaps it can be revived and restored.
Recently, I have been contacted by several people who have purchased felt hats online that were delivered in completely unsuitable packaging. Strangely (no I’m kidding, it’s really obvious!) these hats have arrived in a dreadful condition and were pretty much unwearable. Here’s an example showing before (left) and (right) after I had magic’d it back to life:
My millinery and hat making skills enabled me to return these unfortunate hats to pretty much their former glory.
Here’s the process I used on a crumpled felt porkpie hat: The first job is to restore the crown, because it has arrived in pretty poor shape as you can see from the photos below left. With a little help from some steam, I gently stuffed the insides with tissue paper, taking care not to stretch the soft felt. The next stage was to fix the ridge at the top of this porkpie hat with rope and pins while the felt was still damp from the steam, so it set back into place.
Once that was dry and the crown shape re-established, it was time to look at the brim. This poor hat had been quite biffed up, so before doing anything else, I needed to straighten up the brim to sit nice and evenly. The brim was gently steamed and then I put a curved hat block weighted on top of the brim (bottom photo below).
After straightening out the brim, the porkpie hat needed its proper all-round little turn-up restored (as shown in the promo photo below left). This work was a bit more delicate and done by using more steam, then hand-shaping and pinning it to hold it in place while it dried out and set its shape (photo below right).
With my work now finished, I think you will agree that the hat is in much better shape now!
If you have received a disappointing hat, perhaps it can be revived and restored. I am happy to make an assessment of a hat by photo and can advise on the best course of action.
contact me:
by phone: 07905 657343 (during sensible UK hours please)
by email: sarahmcalisterhats@gmail.com
Sarah McAlister 