Boy's Prince Edward hat Part 2

Once I purchased some leather glue, the hat really began to come together! The crescent moon brims are glued together, and a leather binder is ironed into a curved shape, glued onto the brim, and then stitched in place to secure it. Next, the brim is hand sewn onto the straw hat, through holes pre-punched by a leather awl. The hand-sewing was due to the fact that I couldn't fit the hat under my machine :p, but at least it was a relatively small seam :).

Then, I sewed in a linen tape sweatband placed just over the stitching line of the brim.

Finally, I glued in a linen paper liner with a stamp of the Crown jewels (being that we are Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Nisqually, and therefore, British subjects) and voila! Done!

I still may tack down the upper edge of the sweatband, but otherwise it is ready for summer reenactments!

Here is a front view:

And one from the side:

I learned a lot from this project, about boy's hats and how to work with leather. I think I will be going in a different direction for my younger son's hat, simply because the size of this hat is pretty large once you get the crown cut down. But, on the upside, we can use it for years to come!

Making a Boy's Prince Edward hat Part 1

My current project is a Prince Edward style boy's hat like the one propped up on the book in this 1865 CDV. (Please note: I saved this image off of Ebay, if you are the owner of this image and would like it removed from public view, please let me know and I will do so as soon as possible.) This style straw hat, with a leather brim was a popular one for boys during the mid-19th century and can be seen in many CDV's and fashion plates of the time. I got the inspiration for this project from a very talented lady over at The Sewing Academy. I'm documenting it, because I think its a nifty little project, and I hope you will too!

I began with a $3 straw hat from a thrift store that had been crushed. I pulled off all the ribbons and hot glue (don't get me wrong, I love hot glue, it just doesn't belong on historic reproductions :) and I cut off the brim. Then I reblocked the hat on a casserole bowl using hot water and craft glue, leaving it to dry around the bowl. After it was blocked into the right shape, I trimmed the crown to 2 1/2 inches.

Next, I am hand sewing a brown cotton twill tape over the raw straw edges.

I cut crescent moon shapes out of a brown leather, and as soon as I can get to the craft store for leather glue, I will be in business building the brim. Pictures of that process to follow in part 2!