Club Obi Wan

I’ve been meaning to get to this for a while, and finished it last night. It’s a front-to-back (or back-to-front) conversion.

I had gotten this Fed III in well-used condition about a year and a half ago. It’s amazingly comfortable. It seemed to have been rebuilt when I got it because the liner has no markings of any kind (Akubra has their label in the top of the liner). The sweat band is also amazingly comfy. I don’t know if it’s because it’s the Deluxe sweat, or just a really good replacement.

The felt is worn pretty well in a few places on the hat, at the brim break, and at the top of the front pinch in particular. I don’t handle my hats by the pinch because I know what that can do to them.

A couple of months ago, the felt at the top of the front pinch was at that point where it was just a hair’s breath from forming a small hole. I put the hat away and made a point to do a reversal. I finally did it this weekend.

Normally, when I do a reblock, if the sweat is okay I just remove the liner, fold the sweat down, and wet the hat and slide it onto the block. Since I was reversing the direction of the hat, I removed the sweat, too.

On this hat, I wanted to try a trick I read about here to force a little more mushrooming so I pulled the ribbon very tight as I sewed it into place, then sprayed the whole hat down with water and let it dry over night. The ribbon shrunk up just a bit and gave the top a little extra mushrooming.

I used new ribbon that's not as dark as the original, but it looks good, if not terribly accurate. But that's okay, I'm the 'screen-reminiscent' guy.

Here’s the front. It’s wet here as I had just sprayed and put the final tweaks into the bash.



Here’s a side view.



The dry hat, on my head the next day. You can see the mushrooming, and get a better idea of the color of the ribbon in relation to the hat:



And before the reblock, old front in the front. You can see how blocky the crown was:



It still feels like it did before the reblock, but to me looks markedly different. I'm very happy with it.

Great reversal! It's been on my mind to try a reblock on my regular FED III until I have the funds for a Garrison. Any other tips and tricks you want to share for a successful reblock? I like the idea of tightening the ribbon when it's wet to mushroom the top. Glad to see it all worked out!

Tips and tricks . . . lemme see if I can remember all the little things that may not be so obvious.

I put my block on a microphone stand, minus the mic clip. The heavy base guarantees that the whole thing stays upright.

I put the wet blocked hat on the stand directly under a heat lamp. We have high-hats in every room. I replaced the indoor flood in one of them with an outdoor flood that generates more heat. This dries the hat a little faster and shrinks the felt to the block better.

Get a stitch awl and upholstery thread. The stitch awl allows you to hand sew but get the same type of stitch a machine would give you. Upholstery thread is much stronger than plain cotton thread and easier to work with because its a little heavier.

Use good lighting. I use a high intensity desk lamp.

Wear a glove of some sort on the hand you are not holding the stitch awl in when you push it in. Otherwise you risk a finger full of holes. DAMHIK.

Don't worry about scrunching up the hat a bit when working on it. It will remember its shape.

Before sewing in the ribbon, use masking tape to affix in place, from the sweat up onto the underside of the brim, but not into the crown. You'll need to fold it down constantly to sew it in.

Keep the stitch line above the bottom of where the ribbon will be.

Sew in the liner, don't glue it. I sewed it in at four points. If it's a flimsy liner, throw in a stitch at the top, as well. Be careful not to penetrate completely to the outside of the hat. Liner stitches don't need to be killer tight.

That's all I can think of right now.

Excellent job!!! And great tips! Any chance of getting you to do my Akubra?

Thanks! I've never done anyone else's hats and don't know that I want to, but I'm flattered.

I just thought of another tip. Before you pull the ribbon tight to create more mushroom, be sure that the hat is not too snug on you to begin with. This hat would slide down to my ears after a while of sweating in it, so there was room for it to be tightened up a touch. If it was snug to begin with I wouldn't have been able to pull the ribbon any tighter than the actual outer circumference of the hat itself.

Thanks 'Bugs'

hints, help and tricks about reblocking can be a bit thin on the ground around here - (all very hush-hush 007 ) - So tips like this are GOLD