Not sure where you are at, but if you are located in a large enough city to have a garment district with a millinery supply shop, they carry them. (Manny's Millinery in NYC or California Millinery Supply in LA for example.) Most of them only do mail-order for wholesale though, so if you are not near a shop of that sort, you can mail-order them retail from online suppliers like Judith M or Hats by Leko:
thanks hun! No we've DEFINITELY got no garment district here. ;) Does one wet the item, stretch it over said form and the setting/starching/etc substance is already embedded in it? Or do I have to then apply something to make it stand firm against the elments?
Wow, i JUST now saw that i never answered this question! (I was going back through old class posts, since i'm reteaching this class this semester.) Sorry i'm like, a YEAR late!
The cartwheel is steamed, then stretched over the block and secured with a pinned-tight rope or cord. When the water from the steam evaporates, the straw cartwheel takes on the shape of the block. You then spray or brush on your sizing. Some sizings are toxic, but the easiest thing to use is plain old gelatin, thinned out runny. It takes around 3 coats to get it stiff, but it does the job. If you wear the hat a lot while sweating, it'll need resizing at some point, but that's not a big deal.
Again, sorry for the SUPER late response! Dunno how i missed it 1st time around. :(
gorgeous, as always. Does the hat go between the block and the tolliker? so that the tolliker is sort of a shaped weight? It looks v. interesting.
have you any experience with the products from http://www.hatshapers.com/ ? I ran across them a while ago and was intrigued by the variety of shapes....
I have seen their products before and they look really interesting! I've never used them since they seem to be geared toward making your own felt rather than blocking existing felt hatbodies/hoods. They are on my list of "things to check out between now and the next time i teach the millinery class again (2 years down the line)" so at some point i'll invest in one and check it out. If you try them before me, please let me know how it goes!
Comments 10
See you soon!
Reply
Reply
http://www.judithm.com/
http://www.hatsupply.com/
Both of those suppliers call them "hatbodies," which is another word for them.
Reply
Reply
The cartwheel is steamed, then stretched over the block and secured with a pinned-tight rope or cord. When the water from the steam evaporates, the straw cartwheel takes on the shape of the block. You then spray or brush on your sizing. Some sizings are toxic, but the easiest thing to use is plain old gelatin, thinned out runny. It takes around 3 coats to get it stiff, but it does the job. If you wear the hat a lot while sweating, it'll need resizing at some point, but that's not a big deal.
Again, sorry for the SUPER late response! Dunno how i missed it 1st time around. :(
Reply
Reply
Does the hat go between the block and the tolliker? so that the tolliker is sort of a shaped weight? It looks v. interesting.
have you any experience with the products from http://www.hatshapers.com/ ? I ran across them a while ago and was intrigued by the variety of shapes....
Reply
Reply
The hell with Borsalino. I'll just make my own damn fedora.
Thanks for sharing this lovely work.
Reply
Leave a comment