Author Topic: Soaking a felt hat (Read 1038 times)

Cheyenne Ranger · « **on:** October 09, 2003, 07:47:58 AM »

I've lost a few pounds and my head has gotten a bit smaller!?!?!?
In any event my felt hat (which cost me all of $15 at an end of year sale) is too big.
Any thoughts on ways to shrink it? Was thinking on just soaking it for a bit and then re-forming it as it drys. Hoping it will get smaller if I do this.
Someday I'll need to buy a good one but wanted to see what I can do with this one.
Thanks
Cheyenne

howdy doody · « **Reply #1 on:** October 09, 2003, 08:31:00 AM »

Why wreck it pard. The water will wilt yer shape. Simply stuff something under the sweatband. A thin piece of foam would work or fold up some paper if you need to.
Congrats on your weight loss. Keep up the good work. You can always get another expensive hat ( hahahaha) but you cannot always lose weight. :grin:

44 Man · « **Reply #2 on:** October 09, 2003, 11:33:30 AM »

Wow, that's great! I always end up with hats that are too tight. Any ideas for that?! My old Indiana Jones hat became too tight and I ended up cutting the sweatband out of it so I could continue to wear it. (Always thought dad looked "old" with a fedora but it's still my favorite hat after all these years!) Going to have to spend the bucks one of these days and replace it. 44 Man

howdy doody · « **Reply #3 on:** October 09, 2003, 06:32:31 PM »

Cheyenne I think I have heard that if you stick your hat upside down on the dash board of your closed up car yer hat will shrink. So, I am thinking some heat might do it. Maybe even a hair dryer might do. Just throwing stuff out there pard. Let us know what you did. I have aspirations of losing some weight myownself. Just aspirations though :grin:

MOGorilla · « **Reply #4 on:** October 10, 2003, 02:03:44 AM »

Congrats on the weight loss, I too have lost some weight, 80 lbs in the last 3 years. The one thing that hasn't shrunk is my fat head. I wear a 7 5/8 hat, which is on the large size. I find my hat shrinks/stretches depending on the last hair cut I got. I know that you can use steam to reshape a felt hat, but I am not sure heat will shrink it. You might try an adjustable hat band and tighten it a notch or two. If it doesn't crunch the hat out of shape, that might do the trick. The rub there is most hat bands that are adjustable will probably double the $ of the hat. Congrats on the weight loss.

Big Hext Finnigan · « **Reply #5 on:** October 10, 2003, 03:46:29 AM »

Howdy,

I'll echo the congratulations on the weight loss. Seems like we all could use a little "light load" in our food choices.

The better the hat, the less they will be affected by heat and wet. But if you want it to shrink, then use heat. Leave it in a car in the sun. That will give you some shrinkage, but not too much. (and folks, you can steam a shrunken hat back to size)

The best thing to do is put the foam spacers or just a folded paper towel, and make the hat fit.

Adios,

howdy doody · « **Reply #6 on:** October 10, 2003, 06:40:27 AM »

44 Man, howdy. On cowboy hats you will see at the rear of the sweatband a seam where there is usually a bow. At the base of the seam nearest the hat itself you will see a bead. Carefully fold your sweatband down and with a sharp pair of scissors, snip that bead. It has a monofilament line, like fish line , in there and snipping it will give you a tad more room in your hat and it will be able to stretch a bit, with the cord cut.
That dumb bow there does nothing. The way I hear it, back in the old days of stetson and the boss of the plains hats the bow was functional. They didn't make as many sizes as today, and the bow was actually a string inside that could adjust a bit your size. The outside hatband was supposed to help in that regard too. :grin:
Those plastic hat stretchers they sell in western stores look like the would stretch a hat too, at least keep it from shrinking.

Old Cane · « **Reply #7 on:** October 16, 2003, 06:01:28 AM »

That's right. Get it stretched. But to keep it to size you need to wear it a lot. If you're not a cowboy by trade (if you were you wouldn't be saying your hat was too tight) try wearing it to and from work, days off, mowing, fishing, hunting and so on. If your head sees the sun (and you're not at the pool) remember, somewhere a hat is shrinking.

SingleShotShorty · « **Reply #8 on:** October 16, 2003, 06:29:48 AM »

I have a Bone Stetson that I had cleaned at a cleaners and the cleaning and it shrank up almost a 1/2 size. Check with a cleaners that specialize in hat cleaning they can most likely help you out. to the point of installing a new sweat band. just a thought

Shorty · « **Reply #9 on:** October 19, 2003, 12:27:33 PM »

Never "soak" a hat! A long time ago, I got a rodeo parade hat with a Roy Rogers type crease, which I did not like. I figured that I would blow out the crown to a Hoss Cartwright (sp?) dome, and start over. So, I poured boiling water into it until it did just that. But, when it dried, the dome had shrunk and looked like a stepped mesa!
My wife comes from a long line of west Texas cowboys, and tells me that all they ever did for a stretched out hat was add newspaper under the sweatband. :roll:

Old Cane · « **Reply #10 on:** October 21, 2003, 04:37:23 AM »

I think the boiling water was the problem there, Shorty. Unless you fall in a hot spring I think water is going to be ok n your hat. Otherwise nobody could go outside when it rains. Still soaking is not the way to go.

But yes, you will have problems going from a shaped crown to an open crown anyway. You need to buy one that way if you want to be Hoss. You can change the blocking on a crown somewhat but it takes a lot of living to stop seeing how it used to look.