Club Obi Wan

Every now and then, I have an opportunity to make a hat that is very Indy like, but using a totally different color. This is one of those. First some stats on this hat. It is the same color as Josh Bernstein's hat on digging for the truth, and from the same feltmaker as Nathaniel uses. The color is called Sahara. I used the vintage block used for the gray travel hat in KOTCS, but instead of black ribbon, I pulled out some of my own private stock, real wood based pure rayon hatband, made in the 30's to 40's. I was fortunate enough to buy up various colors and widths of this very fine vintage ribbon a few years ago, at a price that is embarrassing to mention. The color of the ribbon is called Camel. Since I used to own a vintage Stetson, that was this same felt color, and ribbon color, I knew adding this Camel ribbon is something that had already been done, many years ago at Stetson. So, pure vintage in looks.

The felt is of course pure beaver fur, and as most know, when light colors are run, the furs go through a more extensive sorting, as you can't have darker furs mixed with lighter furs when you make lighter colored felt. And most times, you pay more for the lighter colors due to the extra work that has to be done at the factory in sorting the fur. Generally speaking, the furs in light colored hats are the finest on the animal, which means most of it comes from the belly of the beaver.

I also used an 1 5/8 width ribbon, to give Michaelson a little variety in his hat collection. Yes, old friend this is your long awaited hat! This hat literally took me 6 months to make, as I would work on it, off and on, trying to make the best hat ever to come from my shop.

The bow work features an almost no visible stitch bow, like Optimo makes. I figure I have a couple hours in just the bow work. I did use two visible stitches at the very back of each bow, ONLY because a hidden stitch at this location compromises the strength of the bow, and it staying secure on the hat.

Pics? Yeah, I have 4 to post. Hope this suits you old friend. If the ribbon is not to your tastes, we can change it out later on, but personally, I love it myself. One day, I will find the time to make myself one, exactly like this. I have always liked this particular color, in so far as light colored hats go. And it will go great with khakis!!










Also, instead of going with the 5 3/4 crown of the gray travel hat, I dropped it down to 5 1/2 inches and instead of the brim being 2 7/8 by 2 5/8, I used 2 3/4 by 2 1/2, which suites Michaelson much better, as we know from past experience. Wear it in good health my friend! Be sure to turn out the sweat and see that you have a special sweat in this too, just keep that to yourself!! Fedora

Holy @#$%, Steve. I'm beyond words.

It's absolutely beautiful. Nothing will be changed, I assure you.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

HIGHEST regards! Michaelson

VERY handsome hat! I can almost imagine the way it feels...
Not to be flippant, but gushing over the Adventurebilts sometimes gets a little repetitious, cuz you already know there's no marginal products being turned out. So it's nice to see something different and...just plain classy being turned out by AB. Great hat. Good job, Fedora and great hat, Michaelson!!!

That is a gorgeous hat Steve! What classy colors. I'm drooling to get my CS hat from you even more now.

Wow,that is a beautiful hat!

Wow ! Most impressive! I like this hat! W>

Beautiful!

Holy @#$% Steve!!! You made Michaelson say holy @#$%! Holy @#$%.


Travis

It's not OFTEN I get to type on the top row of the keyboard, that's for sure!

Regards! Michaelson

Beautiful Steve.

I think that might be a first for Michaelson.

Not hardly.



Regards !Michaelson

This is my favorite AB. The love that went into this hat is apparent. I was hoping to get a Sahara hat from you in the next year Steve. Now I know I HAVE to. It is beautiful my friend. And Mark, you better get as crazy as a Fox (Get it, Mitch's name is Fox and I want a to get crazy like a fox? Anyone?) with those pics.

Dave

That's a nice looking hat, to say the least. Thanks for sharing.

Steve, Michaelson said he wanted you to ship the hat to me first so I can take additional pictures of it. Then I'll pass it along to him.

Funny thing is that I looked at the pics before reading the thread and thought, "Wow! This hat is right up Michaelson's alley!" I was right!

Fantastic job Steve, I'm sure Michaelson will enjoy it as much as I like the one I got from you that looks kinda similar.

See Michaelson, good things come to those that wait.

fedoralover

I am drooling.....Simply amazing!!!

That is one nice hat, I love the colors, beautifully crafted! Private vintage ribbon stock, eh? Sounds like we need to start requesting more variety in hats.

Wow, that is one GORGEOUS hat! I love the color!

Hey Fedora, did Michaelson mention that I'm his favorite??

So, is this color going to be available in your hats, Fedora?

"It's beautiful!" Oh no, my face just exploded.

That's a seriously nice hat.

I cannot believe how beautiful that hat is.

Steve, is Sahara a colour you can get more of? Please tell me you can reproduce this hat. It wouldn't be fair to show those pics and then never make another one.

I know what i'll be asking Santa for this year

Steve is more than an Indy hatter. Not sure why a hat this beautiful (and of course not being an Indy hat) would surprise anyone who knows Steve's work.

Dave

Thanks guys for the compliments!

So, is this color going to be available in your hats, Fedora?

This is one color that I can get, and had bought a few of them a couple years ago, to just have them in stock, since I knew I wanted one eventually when I got the time to make myself one. I made one, and Fedoralover wanted it in place of the Indy 4 hat he had ordered. I think I used the Raiders block on his.

I worked on this one, as time permitted, to get a break from brown fedoras. So, it took months before I could finally finish it up. And I was basically making a copy of an old vintage Stetson I owned, and liked alot, except I used a little different blockhape on this one.

Back when I first started making hats, I did non Indy hats too, but these days, its hard to find time to do the non Indy ones. They take so much longer to make, these vintage replicas. Anyways, I bought up alot of rolls of various vintage ribbon back when B and L had found that mother lode and was selling it to us hatters. Art bought a bunch of it at the time. I could only afford much less, but bought as much as the bank account would allow. It was very pricey, being the real deal hatband from earlier eras.

So today, I use this vintage ribbon on special hats, non Indy hats. And you won't find these colors today, from Schiff, or the quality of ribbon, that is hatband grade stock. Most modern ribbon from Schiff, unless you get a special run is pretty bad ribbon, for hatbands. But its all most hatters have to work with. Unless they get lucky like I did. So thanks again Art Fawcett for letting me in on this deal, years ago.

Old Art doesn't hang around here, as he is the resident hatter on TFL, but Art is a vintage hat fanatic, and creates remarkable vintage era hats of every kind imaginable. And he has the right ribbon for those hats too!! If I were in the market for a hat that was very vintage like, I would call up Art at Vintage Sillouettes. He's the man. Fedora

Utterly, utterly beautiful.


Sincerest Congratulations, Michaelson.

Sincerest Admiration, Steve.

Mitch

Sorry to find this so late, but am glad I did! Its a gorgeous lid and shows how versatile the blocks can be and what a change of color can do to make a totally "new" hat. It'll be nice when the Indy orders die down and we can see more like this emerge from the AB workshop.

Congrats to both and envy towards he who's #$%(#@! receiving it.

Major kudos.

Let's see the lid on your noggin when you get it, Michaelson. SOMEBODY there must have a camera and know how to use it.

AND, I finally get to use this!:

;0

Hey, let me get it first!

Regard! Michaelson

Having handled hats at Nathaniel's store, in particular hats just like Josh's, I can only say WOW.........that is one of the most awesome hats I have seen. Steve, you ARE the man..........

Great hat! Very classy...the kind of hat that will make people think why don't I wear a hat like that?

Do I get college credits for taking Fedora's classes on Advanced Hat Science? This hat is a gorgeous. Beautifull ribbon work. ..Sweet hat knowlege too.

Beautiful hat!
It remind me one of my hats


And a new one that I just got (Post the picutre later)

Regards,
-Alfonso

Steve/Michaelson, that is an amazing hat; I am jealous.

Steve, I do believe you have outdone yourself again.

Michaelson, I have a feeling, you have a hat collection that many of us would be quite envious.

I'm glad that I got to see one from that CS vintage block. I've got a grey one on order and was kinda curious what it was going to look like. I only saw the movie on the initial release and haven't seen it since. Maybe I'll go watch it again to get a feel for the hat.

Mike

I do have a few boxes stacked up in my closet, that's for sure, and love and wear each and every one of them when opportunity allows. They all have a personal 'history' for me, and I remember where every one of them came from.

Thanks for your kind remarks!

Regards! Michaelson

Fedora wrote:So today, I use this vintage ribbon on special hats, non Indy hats. And you won't find these colors today, from Schiff, or the quality of ribbon, that is hatband grade stock. Most modern ribbon from Schiff, unless you get a special run is pretty bad ribbon, for hatbands. But its all most hatters have to work with.

Old Art doesn't hang around here, as he is the resident hatter on TFL, but Art is a vintage hat fanatic, and creates remarkable vintage era hats of every kind imaginable. And he has the right ribbon for those hats too!! If I were in the market for a hat that was very vintage like, I would call up Art at Vintage Sillouettes. He's the man. Fedora

I ran across Art's website when I was first googling felt hats in fall of '08. His hats looked beautiful!
It sounds like there would be a market for reproduction vintage style ribbon, as so many people are back into the vintage stuff.
Why can't the current ribbon producers make this kind of product even if it does cost a bit more?

Michaelson wrote:I do have a few boxes stacked up in my closet, that's for sure, and love and wear each and every one of them when opportunity allows. They all have a personal 'history' for me, and I remember where every one of them came from.

Thanks for your kind remarks!

Regards! Michaelson

Do you where any particular hat on a regular basis or do you rotate amongst them? What is your favorite?

Sure I have one favorite 'go to hat', but do occasionally rotate them as time and weather dictates.

I have tried to never publically show favortism toward any particular vendor or brand (no matter what folks seem to think ), so I'll just keep that to myself, if you don't mind.

Regards! Michaelson

Because folks would form a lynch mob if they found out it was a DP. Oops.

binkmeisterRick wrote:Because folks would form a lynch mob if they found out it was a DP. Oops.

Michaelson, you wouldn't consider a thread in the Scrapbook entitled "My Hat Collection" would you? I'm sure there's a few members (including myself) who would be glad to add photos. I can think of a few off-hand. If we include our Indy hats, could we put it in the Fedora section?

lantzn wrote:

Fedora wrote:So today, I use this vintage ribbon on special hats, non Indy hats. And you won't find these colors today, from Schiff, or the quality of ribbon, that is hatband grade stock. Most modern ribbon from Schiff, unless you get a special run is pretty bad ribbon, for hatbands. But its all most hatters have to work with.

Old Art doesn't hang around here, as he is the resident hatter on TFL, but Art is a vintage hat fanatic, and creates remarkable vintage era hats of every kind imaginable. And he has the right ribbon for those hats too!! If I were in the market for a hat that was very vintage like, I would call up Art at Vintage Sillouettes. He's the man. Fedora

I ran across Art's website when I was first googling felt hats in fall of '08. His hats looked beautiful!
It sounds like there would be a market for reproduction vintage style ribbon, as so many people are back into the vintage stuff.
Why can't the current ribbon producers make this kind of product even if it does cost a bit more?

The reason is they don't make there money in hat ribbon. They make it in other area's. To the ribbon makers a small run is 10,000 yards. We are just lucky that they do some of the sizes in grosgrain 3/8'', 5/8'', 7/8'',1 1/2 inches and you can buy it in smaller amounts. Thats the modern stuff. Now the Indy ribbon is a vintage like because it is mad like ribbon was made back in the day. Modern stuff is rayon/cotton as the vintage like is cotton. It may have a tad of rayon in it. The pattern on the vintage like is more per square inch. Like the vintage stuff.

Though pictures will be shown sooner or later, I have to say that this hat has been interesting, to say the least. First of all, it's a masterpiece. Period. A true example of a master hatmakers art. That said, at first I was leery about wearing it....but then again, I KNOW it was made to be worn, and worn often, so as things start to cool down in my area, it's finally made its way out of its box to see the light of day.

The REAL problem is, in all the years I've worn fedoras, and for the past 33+ years of marriage, the ladies of my house have never really made a comment regarding a hat in comparison to what I'm wearing. Now, instead of just 'nice hat dear/Dad', I'm hearing, "GREAT hat dear/Dad...just not with THAT shirt!"

So, the few times I've TRIED to get out the door wearing it, it's pointed out to me that the combination I'm wearing just doesn't work with this particular hat color.

Should prove to be an interesting winter.

Anyway, photos will be posted as soon as D.E.M. has time to shoot one or two then down load them to this thread.

Once again, Steve, it's a work of art, and one I WILL wear on a regular basis....provided I get past the ladies of the house. Once I'm in the car and out the driveway, it's too late.

Regards! Michaelson

Looking forward to seeing pictures too, Michaelson.


Nothing quite like putting together clothing only to be stopped by the "what not to wear" partrol (yes, the wife). Of course I always thought they could only do that after a few years of marriage, sort of like a statute of limitations on trying to change us? But after 26 years, (you got me by a few) I guess they still care how we look.


Regards,

Soup

Yeah, they do.

Regards! Michaelson

Alright Michaelson, where are the pics?

Anyway, photos will be posted as soon as D.E.M. has time to shoot one or two then down load them to this thread.

She's still out of town.

Regards! Michaelson

Michaelson wrote:
So, the few times I've TRIED to get out the door wearing it, it's pointed out to me that the combination I'm wearing just doesn't work with this particular hat color.

The way I've solved this problem, either I wear a brown Indy Hat, or a black Derby. The Indy hat wins every time.

Like the colors, Fedora That felt would look great with a chocolate ribbon as well as the one pictured........

Almost forgot about this thread. So, any pics to show off?

Matt

Not yet.

Regards! Michaelson

After looking at the hat I began to drool.