A five piece cap block

Selecting  this old 5 piece block , I am currently making a 1930′s inspired flat cap from a waxy, open plait panama.

I aquired this block from a Sydney firm who, for 100 years made the military and aviation headwear for our men in uniform.

By wetting and gently moulding the hat body over the wooden form and leaving it to dry for a few days, it takes on the shape of the cap.

open weave waxed panama wet moulded over 5 piece block

The circumfirence around the top of the form is larger than around the fit line.

So how do we remove the hat from the wooden form without loosing the shape and fit line?

 The form is inverted and dismantled into five pieces that can be removed without compromising the newly moulded hat.

Making 5 piece wooden  hat forms is a rare trade now. I treasure these old shapes and often think of the former lives  they had in the 20th century, before coming into my care.

The midnight blue flat cap is now being finished for it’s wearer.

Making a Dickensian leather top hat

After many years of making  top hats for stage and screen productions, I am very familiar with this type of hat. Toppers can take a long time to make by hand, but the results are always rewarding.

Hat fittings with the client are required to select the right sillouette and to tweek the style to suit the wearer’s body  proportions.

This particular image is of a leather topper for a client. It is made from a pattern and constructed on a foundation material. It will be crushed to give a  Dickensian character look.

Usually a topper is moulded around a waisted hat block (visible in the background) to achieve the very handsome curves that give this style it’s unique  curved crown.

The brims are often rolled up at the sides, a precursor to the brim lines in the American cowboy hat.

Top hats were a symbol of tradition and status in Victorian times, they chart domination in colonial outposts and have a unique place in our history and psyche.

A highlight of my top hat making careeer was the image in the feature film, Moulin Rouge where all the men throw their top hats in the air as Nicole Kidman decends from the ceiling on a swing  in her diamond studded mini top hat.

This scene took months to prepare for and watching it being filmed was a  hat makers delight.