Saturday 4 June 2011

A black 1940's hat


As we are on the subject of hats, here are a few photos of my back 1940's hat. I bought it years ad years ago and it has since nested, wrapped in silk tissue, in an old hat box. It's made to sit on the back of the head and despite having either combs nor rubber bands to keep it on, it stays on. Perhaps not on a very windy day, but still. It is made in black velvet, decorated with smooth feathers that are wrapped in black veil.











When I went to look for my hat, it wasn't in the attic at all, but in the cellar, I also found two hatboxes for travels that I inherited from my maternal grandmother. I opened them when I got them, seven years ago, and saw that they contained hat making supplies. I have since gone through them more carefully. I thought. In reality I had only checked out one of them. Probably because they are identical I somehow managed to overlook one of them. I knew I had a few unblocked felt hats, a lot of feathers and some other stuff, but now when I finally checked the other box, I find that I don't have a few unblocked felt hats- I have 26! I also got three hat blocks from my grandmother, so now I have everything I need for making the felt hats for my wardrobe.

However, in the bottom of this treasure box I found a whole hat. Dusty and buckled it looked awful, but upon examination I found that it's actually in a very good shape. I have now brushed it and steamed it and put it on a hat block to retain its original shape, and it looks good! No holes or tears at all. It is a rather flat round hat in navy blue felt and it was bought in a hat store in Stockholm. Now my grandmother moved to the capital in 1938 or -39 and the shape of it look late 30's to me, so I think she bought it after her move. I think the shape could be stretched into the early 40's as well. I'm going to show it to my Mum and se if she remembers it and I promise there will be photos of it soon!

4 comments:

Vintage Vicky said...

How exciting! I hope that you will be able to do some posts about the reconstruction/blocking of the hats as I would really like to see that.

Wendy Bayford said...

Oh my what a find! It is really beautiful and suits you to a T!! I look forward to your hat making expolits!!!

Erin said...

Such a lovely and versatile hat, I'm glad you rescued it from the cellar! :)

Isis said...

Vintage Vicky: I'm sure there will be more of that. :) I need a brown felt hat, for example.

Wendy: Isn't it! Thank you!

Erin: Thank you!

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