I am not a big hat person. Typically I find them to be inconvenient and cumbersome. I am always knocking them off, or wishing I didn't have a hat on. But this hat. This hat, I love. Not because it is the perfect size, or the perfect shape, but because I made it. And because I designed it to look like Laura Holt's hat, from the 1980's TV series "Remington Steele," which is a long-time favorite of mine.
I mentioned that I made this hat in a post a few months ago, and a few people asked about it, so let me just tell you the story from the beginning.
If you are a long-time reader of this blog, you may know that I got a degree in theater with an emphasis in costume design. There are a bunch of really cool classes offered for aspiring costume designers, and one of them was a hat-making class. We made 2 or 3 hats of various kinds during the course of the class and one of them was a felted wool hat.
We went to this super cool, small hat-making factory in Salt Lake City. The owner ran it with a handful of employees, and had all this legit, specialized equipment for hat-making. There was a large steamer for forming and sizing the hat, a brim-cutting machine, special sewing machines, a machine cutting the binding that goes around the edges, etc. Basically, this wasn't a DIY project.
There was a certain feeling of stepping into the past in this factory. The machinery was pretty old, and none of it had any kind of computerization to it (a lot of legit old sewing equipment in costume shops and older factories is this way). It felt very old school in a very cool way. The owner had been making hats for many years and was an expert. He knew his machinery so well, and spent the entire morning with us walking us through the process and showing us how to do each step. It was incredible to see the time and effort that goes into every hat.
Also, it is nice to finally own a hat that actually fits on my head. I have a tiny head (hopefully you can't really tell), and I can rarely find hats that fit. I probably won't be making another custom hat anytime soon, but for now, I will have to be satisfied with wearing this one as often as possible. And, because it is a beautiful handmade felted wool hat, it just might last forever.
If you are new to my blog, I just updated my about page, and would love for you to go check it out!
shirt: madewell (via clothing swap)// pants: old navy (via plato's closet)// sweater: clothing swap(similar)// bag: made by me (somewhat similar)// shoes: clothing swap (similar)// hat: made by me (similar here or here) -- apparently I don't actually buy clothes anymore!
