Yellowbeard

Aye, that one was a commissioned piece that's gone. I guess this one is a stretch for pirate-related garb, but it would fit in with Jean Lafitte's time period; I'm particularly proud of this one because I made everything myself, no pre-made blank used at all. It's made of cardstock covered with canvas covered with silk plush. And thank'ee all for the compliments!

Thanks Laura, I'm thrilled you like 'em!

Back with more! These ones are all commissioned pieces. First up is a very weathered and piratical looking one; A more conservative look (I lightly weathered it since I took these) And this one was for someone who wanted a "Horatio Hornblower Hat"; Hope ye like 'em!

Thanks Captain Midnight! And I just shot a PM to you Mr. Noland regarding your question.

Thank'ee Strick, I sure hope so! I've been wanting to do one like this for a while now, and as I ruined a blank trying to make something else I figured I'd use the scrap to make it.

Here is a glazed canvas covered one, just waiting on the cockade Tried to base off this one at the National Maritime Museum in the UK:

Happy New Year me Hearties! Couple of my latest I'd like to share. Back to the fighting sail timeframe with these ones. The first is your basic duty cocked hat, tried to get it as close as possible to the ones in the Hornblower miniseries; This one I'm going to keep for myself. Sorry about the hideous looking creature ruining the picture, but I wanted to give a general idea of the size of the hat. Now let me ask a practical question; as I'm working towards starting my online hat site and plan on offering these two hats as standard designs, what do you think I should be realistically charging for them? As there are so few people offering stuff like this it's hard to get a good idea of what people are willing to pay. Thanks!

Well such are the vagaries of ebay! I'm glad a denizen of The Pub got it that's for sure. As far as the blank, this one I got from Leko, the pricey ones from hatcrafter I usually start at least 75 and usually get about 150 on average. One of my new years resolutions is to set up a website for my little cottage business and move away from ebay. I've got orders through February for hats just from listing on ebay so there really does seem to be a market for historical hats that are not priced equivalent to a car payment.

Just amazing! Museum quality.

This hatmaking thing is moving from a hobby to an obsession, Here is a more hollywood pirate look; I wanted to do a Jack Sparrow hat without doing a Jack Sparrow hat if you catch my drift. It was an extra blank I had and I wanted to experiment with stretching felt and artificially weathering them. It's on ebay in case anyone is interested: http://cgi.ebay.com/...em=180598389382

Sold!

Thanks! And I think they must have changed their business model as I've been buying one or two at a time for a year or so now and they have been nothing but friendly and accommodating.

Here is the finished lining;

Thanks PoD! It's up on ebay in case anyone is interested.

Yes the certainly do! Might have to knock out a few more before the movie comes out. Here is one I did with a spare blank, I really like the color combo on this one. I'll be putting it on ebay once I finish up the lining.

Yes, for this style their blanks work out fine.

Here is a simple civilian look I did on commission. First time I tried to do a full lining and am happy that it came out well.

Thank'ee! I made two of these, one for a friend and the other for sale on ebay. I've got another blank from Lekko and am debating on what style to make it into.

This one I did as a generic 18th century military hat. It's built using a fur felt blank from hats by Lekko. Put a pic of the lining up, and have to give a big thank you to Patrick Hand's tutorial on making hat linings.

Finally did something a little more piratical; I was going to trim it, but liked the rough edge. I've also tried to weather it slightly, while still being in good shape for the person I made it for. And not to beat a dead horse, but here is another cocked hat I made as a commission. This was more challenging to make as it is velvet covered on both sides of the brim, and it was difficult to work with. I really wanted to cover it with hatters plush, but that is basically impossible to find, so super plush velvet had to fill in. Just wish it had more sheen.

Je conviens. Très bon!

Thankee Gents! In answer to your question AlexRoberts, I got the blanks for the two canvas covered ones here; http://www.hatcrafters.com/page12.htm (N0.959 oversized blank). The reason I covered them is that the quality of the felt from hatcrafters is less than stellar to say the least; it;s heavy, but it wrinkles like cardboard and the dye turns purple if you steam them too much. The blank on the first one I got here: http://en.empirecost...s-c204-a176.htm but that had the opposite problem of being unbelievable floppy and I had to end up shellacing the bejeezus out of it to hold a shape. All in all, I'd say the hatcrafter blanks are better due to the large brim sizes (all the ones pictured have a fan of about 8 inches), but only if you plan on covering them. I trimmed the hats into shape by using the "screw measuring, I'm just going to eyeball the sumbitch" method and amazingly they turned out nicely. The canvas for the covering, buttons, and linen of the lining (not shown) I got on ebay. The correct lace for the period was extremely tough to find. I found a couple sources online ranging from 90 bucks for 10 meters, to a jawdropping 123 POUNDS per meter ( http://www.handembro..._Navy_Lace.html )! I eventually had a business trip to New York City and made a beeline to the garment district and the second trimming store had it for $5 per yard, so I bought everything they had in stock. The cockades are made of 246lb acrylic paper that I scored with an exacto, folded, and went crazy with black enamel until they were shiny and rock hard. I'm looking for some good quality, relatively affordable blanks for some GAOP stuff and revolutionary period tricorns and was thinking about getting them from hats by lekko,I've heard good things about them and they were extremely pleasant to deal with when I had some questions. I've tried Jas. Townsend fur one in the past and they didn't thrill me, but if anyone has any other suggestions I am all ears!

Started making 'em and selling 'em off myself, and while I have no delusions of grandeur I'm happy that I recouped my investment on each one! Obviously they are all from the late 18th century, the first one is rabbit felt and the others are canvas covered wool felt, all the cockades were made by yours truly, and everything was hand-stiched (The Blisters! Arrgghh!). The last one I'm almost done with, the person who is buying it wants it to look like Aubrey's hat from <i>Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World. </i>I think I've got most of the details right, just have to figure out a way to make it shiny now, anyone have any ideas?<br><br>And yes, I know it's basically the same hat made three times over, but just wanted to share!

I also have put up this one; http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180518217306&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

It is nice- I'm only selling it for space reasons, I bit the bullet and bought a custom made beaver felt one to replace this from Dirty Billy's Hats, and my office is beginning to look like an 18th century millinery. I'll be selling some more in the coming weeks as well.