Hat brim edging and binding

In hat making, once the material is selected, you can begin shaping the material. The material is first shaped into a large, loose cone, or hood, by repeated stretching and moistening. The hood is then shrunk and shaped into a shell, which is then turned into the finished hat some thirteen steps later. Once necessary adjustments are made to a hat, the hat maker chooses the type of brim and binding he wants, and begins the brim edging process. Hat brims vary in length, style and binding. Miller Hats sells a variety of brim styles including the raw edge, under welt edge, upper welt edge, bound edge and wrip edge. The edging of a hat brim can be designed several ways. It may be left plain, known as a raw edge, it may be welted, or it can be bound with ribbon.

Bound edge hat brim
A bound edge brim is fashioned by sewing the material around the edge of the brim. Most bound edges on hats are made of grosgrain ribbon. The binding procedure is often times consuming and adds cost to the overall price of the hat. A bound edge provides extra tension that enables the brim to hold its snap. It keeps the edge even without buckling or ripping. A bound edge is often used as an extra feature to dress up a hat. The binding color and width influences the overall look of the hat. A wide binding tends to make the hat brim look narrower that it actually is. Wide bindings also mean added expense, as more care must be given to prevent wrinkling. And, as you would expect, narrow binding gives the brim a wider look. Binding color also has an impact on the appearance of the hat, as a light contrast binding on a dark hat will make the hat look lighter. Likewise, a neutral binding on a bright hat will tone it down, and a lighter, brighter color binding on a neutral body will emphasize the color of the hat. In most cases, Miller Hats will design a hat with a matching bound edge. An example of a Miller Hat with a bound edge is the 066 Manhattan Miller hat.

Hand-felted hat brim edge
The finest and most expensive hats have a hand-felted edge, where the edge is formed into the brim edge as an integral part of the hat, and therefore requires no stitching. Ordinarily, fur shrinks too fast and unevenly in creating a hand-felted edge, and requires more time and effort to create; however, it looks better and lasts longer than any other welt. Hats with hand-felted edges require constant individual supervision from beginning to end in the fabrication and shaping process. At this time, few manufactures produce this type hat. Miller Hats selections do not include hats with a hand felted edge.

Hat brim bindings
There are three sizes or types of grosgrain generally used in the bindings of hats. The binding may be the same width on the top and bottom of the brim or may be narrower either on the top or bottom. Several types of stitching are used to attach the binding to the brim: one is the regular, or through stitch, which is visible on both sides of the brim; and used on Miller Hats homburgs.

Another stitch is the concealed stitch, no stitching is visible on the outer side of the rolled brim. There is also the purely ornamental stitch, such as the saddle stitch, and finally the genuine hand-sewn binding, which is a tedious job, therefore used on relatively few hats. With this technique, a talented hat maker can trim only one to three dozen hats per day. Unfortunately at this time Miller Hats does not carry hats with this type of stitching.

Hat trim - sweatbands, linings, hatbands - read more