How we handcraft our hats

Measuring:

When you come in for a custom hat, we take the time to measure your head using a conformateur and vermillion. These traditional tools help us capture your exact head shape and size so your hat sits comfortably and naturally.

Blocking:

we start by using steam and wooden blocks, stretching the felt by hand to your requested crown height and size. Once the steam softens the felt, we work it slowly over the block, pulling and smoothing it into shape. After blocking, the felt will sit until it is completely dry before moving on to pouncing.

Pouncing:

Pouncing is the stage where we carefully sand the felt to refine the hair fibers and create a smoother, more luxurious finish. Using steady, even passes, we take down any rough texture until the surface feels soft, consistent, and clean to the touch. This step brings out the quality of the felt and gives the hat its polished, buttery feel. it’s an essential part of creating a hat that looks and wears beautifully.

Shaping:

Using steam to help open up the felt fibers, we are able to hand crease your desired shape. we focus on traditional crown and brim shapes that pre-dates the 1950’s hat era, a period that holds a large part of our inspiration.

Trimming:

after hand sewing in your sheepskin leather sweatband and installing your custom silk chainstitched liner, we add your trimmings. we offer several accessories to complete your hat, choose from our selection of made in house loom beaded bands, hand tooled leather bands or a traditional hand sewn grosgrain ribbon.