Adding Braid to Felt Tricorn

[Mick MacAnselan]

Well I got me a felt hat blank and steamed me up a fair tricorn if I do say so. Also got some 'gold' (well, gold colored metallic anyway) braid, and I'm wonderin' what'd be th' best adhesive t' affix it with. Somethin' fairly invisible like. Any ideas? TIA!

[Red-Handed Jill]

I used Crazy Glue on mine and it looks great.

[Merrydeath]

I used Fabric Tac on mine, from a sewing shop. It does get white if you mess with it..but otherwise its clear.

[Captian Wolfy Wench]

Using glue! What a concept!

I was thinking, so painfully, how fun it was going to be attaching the trim to the hat by sewing it.

I can't believe I didn't think of it.

[King's Pyrate]

I used a hot glue gun and paper binder clamps as I went to hold it in place.

[blackjohn]

I was thinking, so painfully, how fun it was going to be attaching the trim to the hat by sewing it.

On most of the hats I've made I've sewn the trim on by hand. I've got at least one farbulicious hat on which the trim was added with a hot glue gun.

[Capt Grey]

A hot glue gun or craft glue called Aileen's Tacky Glue (especially for felt, fabric, plastic, and wood; dries clear).

[Rumba Rue]

Have glue gun will travel an' if that don't work, then it's the handy-dandy superglue, an' if that don't work, it's Fabric Tacky stuff. An, if that don't work sew it as a last resort.

Depending on the thickness of the trim and hat, sewing may not be applicable.

I've hot glued most of the trims on my hats, works great.

An' if none o' the above works fer ye, then jest stomp on the dang thing, cuss a lot (be sure an' use them pirate cussing words), an' give it up as a lost cause.

Rumba Rue

**I can glue anything, includin' my fingers together**

[Gentleman of Fortune]

hee hee hee....

your not sewing it ?

[Gentleman of Fortune]

oops

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

For my son's hat (picture coming soon under "Simplicity Pattern" thread), I machine sewed a strip of yellow wool around the brim of the felt hat (the wool wrapped around to both sides of the brim, so the modern sticking is not obvious.

For hat #2 (in progress: mine): I sewed a fancier braid (again - felt hat) and plan to cover this with hand-sewn fur around the inside of teh folded-up brim (documented in pirate books with pretty pretty pictures)

[Duchess]

Personally, I'm against glueing anything on a costume. I know that it is quick and easy, but it really is just so 'tacky'. :)

I'm a proponent of the "if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right" costuming technique.

The Duchess

[Rumba Rue]

Unfortunately when it comes to attaching hat trim not everyone's sewing machine can handle the thickness (I know mine can't). It's the ONLY thing I don't sew.

All of my costumes that I make with trims are sewn on.

I have seen one gal here in S. Calif. whom I know, who glued her jewels to the front of her Court dress and did a horrible job and it shows.

Rumba Rue

**Cecil B. DeMille wannabe**

[Isabella]

Sewing machine with clear thread. The spools that look like fishing line. Works great on hats, and gives more wear and tear. I used a small locking stich. Work with stiffened felt first to get the tention right. I would also suggest a good medium or denim size needle if you try this way.

Aye, and Rumba is right, not all machines will puncture heavy layers. You can try on a scrap with a heavy duity denim needle.

The other cool thing to do is my machine has neat stiches on it. You could use gold or any colour top stiching silk thread and decorate it that way. I'm always game if anyone wants to try this, since I know my machine will handle heavy duity stuff.

Also pressure foot setting is important also, I tend to set mine heavy when sewing in layers to help combat the thickness. It helps sandwich them better.

Glue is also great. And Fabrictack is God. Great for keeping handy if your seams come loose at events. Sounds silly, but it's better than sewing up huge seams by hand at night. :)

Just keep an eye on it as years wear on, it'll start to get brittle with all the wear in the sun. :) Some hotglue can yellow too. But if it's on a black hat, you wont' really see it.

[Rumba Rue]

Arrgghhhh, I've tried many o' time to use those wonderful gold and silver threads, and my machine jest doesn't want any part of it!

The thread jest either balls up before it even hits the needle or if it does get through, then it messes up with the bobbin and breaks.

Even tried to hand sew with metallic thread and still have problems with the thread unraveling and breaking.

Someday when I win the lottery I want to buy an new sewing machine.

BTW- What brand of sewing machines are people using here?

Rumba Rue

**Fumble fingers**

[Stynky Tudor]

For shame, all of you guys are wussies. Except for Duchess and Isabella. . and maybe BlackJohn.

I’ve sewn all the trim on the hats I’ve made, 8 so far I think. I just pin on the trim and run it through a sewing machine. (sewing machine!?! How period is that.) If the felt is too thick to go through my machine, then I do sew by hand, maybe punching holes in the felt first. (talk about a braggart and over simplifying the issue)

But now that I think about it . . . tacking the trim on with some light glue first before sewing might be a better way to go instead of all those pins.

[hurricane]

I highly recommend hand sewing. It's not very time consuming and it's easy to remove down the line - my hat has outlasted three trims... Can't imagine what would have happened if I had tried to remove the trim if glued. And I'm not even a thread Nazi... I just found it the easiest way to line up the trim and get it to stay on.

-- The Captain

[Iron Jack]

Me hat originally be a Jeff MacKay creation and be a wonderful thing to behold indeed. I've since embellished it with some braided trim which I applied with the dreaded Super Stickum (horrors!).

I've also added some silver "trading" type Crosses of Lorraine and feathers to dress 'er up a bit. To attach these, I used fine steel wire like the kind hobbiests use (available at most hardware stores). This worked really well as you can generally poke a hole in the felt with the wire alone, then just thread 'er through. Then It's just a matter of twisting the thing properly so it doesn't stick a hole in your melon when you put the thing on.

I've recently reblocked the hat (after many an adventure) and sure enough the Super Stickum be comin' loose and the braid is starting to come loose too. The crosses and feathers (wired) are standing firm. I might try flexible hotglue for the trim next time since this hat be one thick, wax/oil treated creation and I dread tryin' to pass a needle and thread through 'er. MacKay has assured me that this was the original way that these hats were treated to be waterproof and withstand the rigors of sea service and I believe 'im, but she be stiff 'n sticky to be sure.

[Duchess]

Thanks Stynky!

My sewing machine is a hand-me-down Kenmore, around 30 years old. The only time it has ever balked on me was eight layers of suiting.

But for hat trim, I use a large upholstery needle and do it by hand. I should hope that none of you have heads that are large enough to make that a truly onerous job!

The Duchess

[Patrick Hand]

Personally, I'm against glueing anything on a costume. I know that it is quick and easy, but it really is just so 'tacky'.

I'm a proponent of the "if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right" costuming technique.

I agree with Duchess on this one........ DANG.... it dosen't take that long to HAND sew any trim to a hat..... with a sewing machine you "might" mess up.... and with glue you might ROYALY mess up...... but hand sewing will get the trim exactly where you want it...... we are not talking about hand sewing an entire coat...... just a hat brim..... and best of all.... if you change your mind later.... you can cut out the stitching without any problems..............

Oh yah.... I use hot glue all the time on mascots, but I always handsew after..... hot glue has the nasty tendecy to un-melt when you least want it to.....

[Stynky Tudor]

I highly recommend hand sewing. It's not very time consuming and it's easy to remove down the line - my hat has outlasted three trims... Can't imagine what would have happened if I had tried to remove the trim if glued. And I'm not even a thread Nazi... I just found it the easiest way to line up the trim and get it to stay on.

Alright Hurricane, I‘ve taken ya off me list of wussies.

[Red-Handed Jill]

I'm normally in the hand-sewing camp, but my hat is made of very dense felt and I was having a hell of a time getting a needle through it. When a pair of needlenose plyers is a necessary tool for sewing, it's time for glue...

[Rumba Rue]

Aye Jill ye gots the right idea. When it's too thick, ye gots ta come up with a better plan.

Besides, I leave my blood on everythin' I sew by hand. Very bad on white ye know.

Rumba Rue

**Nothing is fool-proof to a talented fool**

[Isabella]

Rumba-watch the tention with the metalic threads. Also it's usually a top stiching thread, so it's thinner than your regular cotton/poly threads, so it will break. Sounds like your tention is too heavy for it if it keeps snapping.

I worth with three machines. Their all Whites. One is an old one that can sew through ANYTHING. The next one is from the 70's that has a ruffler foot on it that makes awesome Elizabethian ruffs, and other great detailing things. Then I got a White 2999 from ebay for really inexpensive. It was brand new and 300 bucks off the retail price! That was a berfday present, and it's paid for itself with all the fun stuff it does. One thing I love is it has a free movement feature so you can do crazy quilting, or even write in handwriting with it! It's so cool! I actually wrote out my name on scraps with it to see how cool it would look.

[Rumba Rue]

I've got an old Bernia 1010. It sews and that's pretty much the best of it.

The worst thing I do are buttonholes. I want a machine that all you have to do is put the material in and push a button and bingo, it does it all by itself without hand guiding. Gads, my eyesight is going!

Unfortunately, getting a new machine isn't high on my list of needs.

Rumba Rue

**Someday my pot of gold will come**