1. Materials for hats and manufacturing

2. Sinamay Banana fibre for hats – similar properties to cotton
Seems to be a main material for hats.
If you want to make the most up-to-date hats, you’ll want to use sinamay, the contemporary hat making fabric. Unlike traditional hat fabrics like straw and felt, it comes in flat sheets by the yard (metre).

3. Sinamay
Choose a crown block and an up-turning brim block (one with a hole in the middle) and go for it!
                       
A beautiful hat by Alison Howitt, in black sinamay with blue trimming.
This vibrant orange and pink hat by Gail Smith looks very different, but the same method has been used.
Aashild Oma Sele creates yet another look by using a basket-weave sinamay for her brim and combining it with a silk crown – a very special hat!

4. Sinamay
Using pre-formed brim shapes will saves all the work of planning, cutting and finishing brims – and there are cost savings too. Its well worth learning how to use these lovely brims which come in a number of styles and sizes and can be dyed to whatever colour you choose.
Note that these pre-formed brims will not have a hole in the centre.

5.
                       
Select a brim to work with – not an easy matter with such a variety to choose from!

6. You can become addicted to using sinamay in this ‘freeform’ way, because the possibilities it offers are almost endless.
                        
                
Start with a piece of wired-edge sinamay...
...and end with a fantastic hat. This amazing example is by Wendy Wallace Williams.
Another hat by Wendy modelled by Beth Matthews.
And yet another hat to turn heads, this time by Elisabeth Koch.

7. Buckram
Buckram is a stiff cloth, made of cotton, and still occasionally linen.
It can be shiny or dull.

8. Buckram
Millinery buckram is impregnated with a starch, which allows it to be softened in water, pulled over a hat block, and left to dry into a hard shape. White buckram is most commonly used in hat making, though black is available as well.
Millinery buckram comes in three weights: baby buckram (often used for children's and dolls' hats), single-ply buckram, and double buckram (also known as "theatrical crown").

9. Linen and silk fibres
Linen & Silk Fibre Hats Don’t be restricted by the idea that ladies hats are traditionally made from only sinamay, straw or felt.
These would need to have a fabric stiffener applied to them to make them usable.

10.                   
The linen hat is taking shape…
…and a beautiful summery hat emerges!
The silk fibre hat is shaped and ready to dry…
…and is soon finished.

11. Felt
The felt ‘cones’ and ‘capelines’ (the technical names for the preformed shapes used) are made from such beautiful, thick fur-felt that, by using steam and some careful manipulation, brim shapes, and even whole hats can be formed by hand.
And don’t throw away any left-over pieces of this lovely felt – they can be made into cocktail-style hats by a very similar method

12.                        
Moment of truth (left)! Moulding your first brim by hand will be a little scary, but press on…
… and you'll end up with a really striking hat!
NOTE: bias binding has been applied around the edges.

13. Lots of different kinds of Sinamay (weights and colours) ...
                       
Lots of different kinds of Sinamay (weights and colours) ...
‘spring steel wire' and ‘brim reed – to add shape and style
Hat linings, hair bands, combs etc.

14. French canvas 100% cotton or linen mesh hats.
You not only get broad brims for cooling shade, but also mesh crowns to catch every hint of a breeze.

15. Other hat materials Leather Sheepskin
Cotton, polyester, synthetics, etc
Interweb is also sometimes used as a fusible web without paper backing to bond two layers of textiles together. Millenary wire is also used to form shapes in both steel and clear.
Edges of wire are generally covered with sinamay, bias binding, or ribbon.

16. Manufacturing One off: straw and felt hat making, hand blocking
Batch: The blocking machine
Mass: Hydraulic press
Hat making technology is generally ‘low tech’.
Even in the most up to date hat factory, all hat making calls for skilled workers and it is a labour intensive craft with anything up to 12 different operations carried out by 4 different departments before the hat can be delivered to the customer.