Cleaning & Reshaping Felt Hats

[Biscotti]

Hello all,

I purchased two vintage felt hats. The first is a army officer's hat, which the shape is fine, but there is still dust on it; how can this dust be removed? The second is a cashmere felt fedora; there are places where the felt has become somewhat 'rumply' and needs to be flattened out. Is there any DIY way in doing this? I've been told that one can steam the felt and flatten it out with your hands, but I do want to hear what you all think. This hat has significantly more dust, and so it needs to be cleaned as well.

Lastly storage, I can not find any boxes to store them in. Stores do not carry plastic containers that are the right shape and size. What do you recommend?

Thanks,

Ben

 

[Classically]

You can clean the dust off with a horse hair brush. Available at pretty much every website that sells hats. As for storage, you can always go the crazy route and devote several of your walls to hat storage by placing hat racks on them or buy a standing hat rack. If you're cheap, you can buy little plastic stands for them off of aforementioned hat sites.

 

[Classically]

As for flattening out the hat, you can do it yourself with steam. Every do it yourselfer uses steam via tea kettle or steamer. However, you could end ruining the hat even further (short story: I tried rebashing a cheap modern stetson. Didn't end well.) However, since the hat is made from Cashmere, I have no clue as to what might happen to it.

 

[tlmusic]

I would recommend contacting Optimo Hats in Chicago.

www.optimohats.com

They are in the process of cleaning a vintage Borsalino for me.

Optimo is one of the few places in the world that specializes in handmade hats--and they know how to restore them.

 

[Cordovan]

Does anyone have any advice for hats that have shrunk over time. I have found trouble with a couple of older hats that I wore frequently as the leather band inside shrank from heat and moisture (I believe).

Cordovan

 

[meister]

Originally Posted by Cordovan

Does anyone have any advice for hats that have shrunk over time. I have found trouble with a couple of older hats that I wore frequently as the leather band inside shrank from heat and moisture (I believe).

Cordovan

Buy a Hat stretcher from the Fedorastore.com about USD25 or this:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....MEWA:IT&ih=016

 

[Cary Grant]

Art rebuilds hats: http://www.vintagesilhouettes.com/

I believe they do too: http://www.adventurebilthats.com/

 

[KObalto]

Originally Posted by Cary Grant

Art rebuilds hats: http://www.vintagesilhouettes.com/ I believe they do too: http://www.adventurebilthats.com/
I don't believe Art will work on your hats unless you are already a customer of his MTM hat business. His hats are great, the beaver felt is amazing.