Club Obi Wan

Can felt be died? I love my vintage indy hat but its not dark enough, is there any way to dye the felt?

George

Technically, you can dye a fedora, but it's a lot more work than you think. That, and the last thing you want is for the color to run down your face if it gets wet. It's tricky to get the color to come out even and you'd have to reblock the hat anyway, so depending on the reblock job, it might not even look quite the same shape as before. Besides, if it's truly a vintage hat, leave it be and enjoy wearing it. It also gives you another reason to buy a second hat! You can never have too many fedoras.

bink

I'll let Fedora go into more detail, but I will say basically yes, you can.
A bunch of us have found RIT dye to work just fine.
HOWEVER, I would be very careful doing this to a vintage hat.
You have to make sure you get the hat very clean.
Get all of any kind of conditioner/repellant out or you could easily find yourself with a blotchy dye job because something was preventing the dye from evenly absorbing into the felt.

And like Bink said, you'll have to reblock when you're done.

Dalexs

(Leave the vintage hat alone!) What kind of hat is it, anyway?

bink

I think Fedora also found that no matter how long he left the hat in the dyebath, it still tasted like turkey. Steve can explain that if he wants

Seriously, no matter how long it is left in the dyebath, the dye still did not seem to penetrate the middle of the felt. That might not be a big deal to most, until you decide to trim the brim. Then it will be obvious, as you get a dye-sandwich kind of look with the lighter felt in the middle. It would be best to trim the brim prior to dying.

Rick, that hat you have that I dyed must still smell like turkey!! A perpetual Thanksgiving dinner?
Seriously, you can dye felt with the popular dispersion dyes like Rit, but penetrating the core is hard. The best way is to leave the hat in the dye for say, 30 minutes, pull it out to cool, and repeat this 5 or 6 times.The cooling off seems to make the dye penetrate deeper. Fedora

Ok Guys: dyeing a felt hat all the way through.

Dyeing hats in factories is done during the time the felt is being shrunk, so the felt is not as dense as a completed body and will take dye easier. If we are to go on this principal then it stands to reason that we need to push the dye into the felt, due to greater density.

Therefore, lets start by going to a Goodwill, salvation army, or other thrift store to find an old fashioned pressure cooker. Fill wil water and clamp down the lid and boil to check that it seals well. Mix up the dye and throw in the hat, reclamp and boil for probably 20-30 minutes. should do pretty good.

Now' side effects:
most likely
SHINKING!!!

other than that, felt might get slightly thicker andor denser.

Would ppprobably want to start with a hat a few sizes larger than is required. And might want it to have a wider brim than what is desired.

Just a thought

Jimmy

Therefore, lets start by going to a Goodwill, salvation army, or other thrift store to find an old fashioned pressure cooker. Fill wil water and clamp down the lid and boil to check that it seals well. Mix up the dye and throw in the hat, reclamp and boil for probably 20-30 minutes. should do pretty good.

Just be careful. Another hatter that i know cooked the felt. One big, amorphous blob. Fedora

yep, another possible side effect

I would have to say you don't really want it to boil, just get to that point where steam starts developing but noe real bubbling.

This is all theory, I have never tried it, but I have been thinkinf about ways to dy felt for a while.

I guess, If you could put an air fitting in the lid of the pot, you could pressurize the pot without having to get the water that close to boiling.

Jimmy

Dyeing hats in factories is done during the time the felt is being shrunk, so the felt is not as dense as a completed body and will take dye easier. If we are to go on this principal then it stands to reason that we need to push the dye into the felt, due to greater density.

Yes, I think this was commonly used at one time, and perhaps still to this day. I dunno. But, they also use a pressure treatment too, just like you suggested JP. Perhaps it was added later on as technology moved on. I think they also use something other than a dispersion dye nowadays, but can't recall. That other hatter I spoke about was trying to get good core penetration, and overdid it. From what I hear, he literally cooked the hat to death. Fur pudding. Fedora