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14th Century Bycocket (DIY Mad Hatter!)

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Ian:
An attempt to spruce up my soft kit headware:

So Historic Enterprises has these new felt hat blanks.  They're just a very basic rounded felt hat shape.  You can leave them as is, but you can also shape felt pretty easily.  I warmed up the tea kettle and steamed the sections of the hat I wanted to shape.  I then stretched the felt over some drinking glasses that had the shapes I wanted to use and let it cool.  It then holds its shape pretty well.  I formed it into a bycocket style hat, and voi'la! 

I had some old tie garters lying around that I used as trim to trim up the edges of the brim.  Then I put used a pewter badge of Saint George on the front to decorate it and used it to secure three pheasant feathers.  Not bad for my first hat making experience!

Here's the shot from the HE website that shows what it looks like unshaped and untrimmed:


Here it is shaped and trimmed


Hand sewed the 'trim' on the brim


Added the badge and 'stuck a feather in my hat'


And historically accurate period non-smile :)

Sir James A:
Excellent! The 21st century lacks enough fancy hats!

Sir Edward:
Great job! It looks really good. It came out better than I would have expected.

Ian:
Thanks! It wasn't too bad to make. I figured for the relatively low cost it was worth a shot trying my own hand at it. It's not a Hats by Kat bycocket, but I think it's cool that I can look at it and say I made that!  :) The cool thing is with felt it can be reshaped and reformed to a degree, so you have the option to alter it at a later date or add to it or whatever catches your fancy.

Sir Ulrich:
If you got that in green it would be a Robin Hood hat.

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