Beaverslayer Hat Tutorial

[Beaverslayer]

Now apply a bead of glue to the INSIDE half of the brim strip as shown in the picture. DO NOT apply glu to the are with the holes punched on the actual brim.

Apply a bead of glue about 1/2" wide to the inside edge of the brim liner. Make sure you are apply it to the underside of the suede.

Fold the liner in half, and press the middle of the iner to the middle of the hat. Then workoing your way to the outer edge, then the same on the other side. You only want to glue the liner to the hat, NOT the brim itself.

Now take your modeling tool, and press the entire seam, you want to be able to see the skived area of the brim on the inside of the hat as shown here.

Now, apply a bead of glue to this pressed down area as shown in the picture. Make the bead go just past the first row of lacing.

Apply a bead of glue to the "cut" edge of the sweat band the same length as the bead you just put on the hat. I fold the sweat band and mark the middle, then apply glue outwards from there.

Fold the sweat band in half, and press it unto the hat at the centre of the hat. Make sure that it lays right up against the indented area from the modeling spoon. Work your way outwards pressing the sweat band into place. Now rollthis seam with your roller.

Here's what it should look like when properly in place.

[Beaverslayer]

You now have to re-punch the holes that are on the hat, NOT the brim. Just punch the holes as shown by the needle in this picture. YOU DO NOT PUNCH THE BRIM HOLES. Be careful that the brim liner is pukked out of the way, sometimes if your not doing this right, the brim liner will be under the holes you are punching, then you have to redo the liner.

Here's what the inside edge of the hat should look like with the holes punched.

And here's what the brim looks like under the liner.

[Beaverslayer]

Start by running your lace under about 4 or 5 stitches up from the bottom on the centre seam as shown here.

Then, cross over to the brim side, and into the second hole from centre, and run your lace through. This lace should be 7 times the length of this seam.

On the inside, run your needle into the centre hole as shown here, pull through and tight.

Then across to the second hole on the hat side. This hole already has the lace from the front seam in it, pull through and tight.

On the inside, run your needle back into the centre hole, pull the lace through and tight. The lacing on the brim we want to do as tightly as we can to give it as much strength and sturdyness as possible.

To finish the seam off and hide the tail, just run your needle up under the side lace as far as you can and pull tight and then snip it off. Tuck any overhang under the lace.

You can see here that we only have one row of the lace seam showing on the inside of the hat. This will not be a bother to the old noggin while wearing it.

The otherside of the seam is going to be hidden under the brim liner.

Here's what the brim lacing should look like once completed.

[Beaverslayer]

Apply glue to the brim and also the liner, let this get tacky before moving on.

Giving the liner a bit of a tug, just a bit, pull it towards the front of the brim and press it to the brim at the centre only. Next, again with a bit of a tug, pull each side of the liner to the outer edge and press to the brim.

Once you've done the above two steps, then you can slowly work the rest of the liner and press and roll it to the brim. Be carefull not to get any wrinkles in it, as you will not get them out, and replacing the liner at this stage is going to take a lot of work.

Now cut the extra liner off.

Here's what you should have at this stage.

[Beaverslayer]

If you want, this is when you put the hat band on. You can be as imaginative as you want, snake skins, shark, bone beads, what ever you desire. I attach mine with the same rivets as I use to attach the adjustment strap.

Now we want to finish glueing in the sweat band. Run a bead of glue all along the remaining edge of the inside of the hat, and also all the way along the edge of the sweat band as shown, Then press and roll together and trim off the extra at the back of the hat.

[Beaverslayer]

Start marking your holes for the edge lacing at the start of the extra side lace seam. On a typical ball cap, I start my hole marking 1" from the centre of the back at the top of the curved area. The first set of holes will be punched using a four pronged chisel punch, as we only do a real simple loop through fro the first bit. This helps the hat bend right when adjusting to smaller heads.

Mark your holes 1/4" apart all the way around the edge of the hat, including the brim as well. You'll notice in this picture, the last hole before the brim is kind of in a precarious place. When it comes time to punch this hole, just move it up a bit, then punch 1 hole right in the centre of the brim and hat seam.

Here's all the holes punched. If you look closely, you can see what I mean by the hole punched precariously and in the middle of the seam. You also want to punch these holes a bit under 1/4" from the edge, about 3/16".

Starting in the back, run your lace down under the back seam. Then using the slotted holes just loop it through until you reach your round holes. From here carry on doing the Mexican Round braid. Again, only an arms length of lace. If you notice your lace wearing out before your ready to splice, splice it anyways, this will make sure the lace looks uniform all the way around.

When you get to the corners just behind the straps, nip a bit of the corner off, this will help you to make a clean and good looking corner.

This is what the lacing should look like on the back with the looping lace at the beginning and end of the run. Once you reach the end, just run your lace tail back up under the back seam and cut off.

Edited April 20, 2008 by Beaverslayer

[Beaverslayer]

And here you have it, the finished hat, especially made for my good friend Wolvenstien, for the last Paying it Forward. Hope you all like it and that the tutorial helps you. If you have any questions, please ask, I'll be more than happy to answer.

Ken

[TwinOaks]

Ken, that is a terrific tutorial. You've laid out the steps very clearly, and that makes it wonderfully easy to follow. It'll be a while to do it, but I'll be using this for a hat before too long.

Thanks for sharing your skills.

Mike

[Myriam]

Neat tutorial, Beaver! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us. Learned a few things with this and I sure am glad about it because it opens up even more possibilities. It's just plain amazing what one can do with leather.

Where do you get the mesh? Fabric store?

[walletman]

hi beaver you rock wicked

how do do the lacing plz coooooooool dude walletman (bob) once again wicked hat nice tutorial