making a capeline

[shopkin]

Hello ladies.  First time poster here.  My forte is making bohemianish mens hats using fused layers of canvas and hand stitching the panels together.  It's boring now and I want to try to make a felt hat from scratch.  This is, by far, the best source of info about wet felting and I thank you all very much.

My flat test swatch was instructive, and I finally had something that looks and feels a lot like felt.  That is, until I tried to speed up the drying using a hot air gun and singed the felt.  Now it will forever smell like burnt hair.

By chance, has anyone here made a capelin (hat blank).  Would you make a capeline using with a resist, or hammer it out from the inside as if you were doing metal repousse?  I read an old Ninteenth Century paper about hat making and felting which was entertaining but not a lot of help www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/47090/pg47090-images.html.  

Thank you in advance for any insight or tips.

-steve

[Ann @ frabjous fabrica]

Nov 11, 2023 3:57:54 GMT shopkin said:

By chance, has anyone here made a capelin (hat blank).  Would you make a capeline using with a resist, or hammer it out from the inside as if you were doing metal repousse?  I read an old Ninteenth Century paper about hat making and felting which was entertaining but not a lot of help www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/47090/pg47090-images.html.  

Thank you in advance for any insight or tips.

-steve

Hi Steve,
I suspect that you may get many responses to this one. 
Our Teri Berry makes felted hats and has run some online classes in the STUDIO  I've given you the link to the details.  You will see that her hats in this course are concertina type but I believe that the resist she tells students how to make is similar to a capeline and her instructions will no doubt help in making the sort you want.  There are also several books out there which will tell you how to do it, but to answer your initial question, yes use a resist.  I have made a couple of hats for myself, one I wear almost daily and one which was for a Pantomime, so very mediaeval in design.  In fact I suspect that Teri's concertina hat resist may be based on a liripipe type head covering.

The book that I used to guide me through the process of making the resist and then working the felt is SHEILA SMITH'S FELT WITHOUT SEAMS   and having checked it I find that it does mention making a capeline.

Do let us see how you get on.👍

[Shepherdess]

A capeline is what milliners use, it is steamed and pushed into shape. What we do from scratch isn't quite the same. we do it all at once, sort of. We start with a basic resist shape and after it is felted(mostly or completely felted) we do additional shaping. We start out with a much bigger template than the finished hat to allow for the shrinkage we get in the process of making felt.

[MTRuth]

I would suggest that you get a bit more experience in felt making before jumping into your hat. I think your final outcome will be better with a bit more experience under your belt. Lyn and Annie of Rosiepink have some great free tutorials (they are members here too.) that will help. rosiepink.typepad.co.uk/rosiepink/free-tutorials.html I would suggest looking at felt pods and seamless purse. That gives you some practice felting over a resist and shaping techniques.

What kind of wool are you using? That makes a big difference in the outcome too. To dry your felt faster, you can roll it up in a towel and roll vigorously to rid the felt of water. I usually put my felt over a heating vent in winter to speed up the drying process. You can also spin it out in a salad spinner or in a washing machine on spin cycle.

The resist shape makes a big difference in how the hat will come out. This is a bit advanced but you can see what shape you get with different resists on this post:

feltingandfiberstudio.com/2016/01/22/book-resist-tutorial-by-teri-berry/

Here's one about making slippers:

feltingandfiberstudio.com/2014/03/03/felted-slipper-tutorial-using-ear-shaped-resist-by-nada-v/

There is tons more information on our site if you search for it. feltingandfiberstudio.com/

Or you can search here on the forum too as old posts/threads also have tons of information.