Canvas Sailing Hat

Lately I've been sewing hats. Because of that, I've been looking at a lot of hats, mostly online. I've established a Pinterest board where I drop images of hats that appeal to me so I can get a sense of what I like and what I might like to try to make next.

A couple of days ago, a friend showed me one of his favorite hats. He's sad that it has become sweat-stained, and he also wishes it were a little bit larger. The hat, a western style, intrigued me. It is a sewn hat, made of white canvas. It looks good when worn. What really intrigued me about it is how nicely the brim curves. I tried to understand how this hat was constructed to make that nice curve. This led to my borrowing the hat to study more closely. And that, of course, led to an attempt to duplicate it.

Follow along with me to keep me company on this journey, and please throw your comments or suggestions my way!

This is the hat.

The inside label

I found a very similar hat online, the Canvas Sailing Hat from Greenwich Outdoors, though a few minor details are different (elastic headband, different position for the lacing holes). It is manufactured in China.

It's really interesting to look at something closely and think about how it was made. This hat is made of heavy cotton canvas that has been stiffened with something like fusible interfacing. You can see this stiffener on the inside of the crown. The brim must be stiffened, too, but it is finished with a green fabric. There is a bit of closed cell foam inside the top of the crown, presumably to make the hat float if it is lost overboard, and there is also a sewn-in pocket for storing small flat things like a bit of paper money. There is a binding around the outside edge of the brim.

Stay tuned...