Adventures in hat dyeing
Mar. 9th, 2023 11:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
branchandrootSo, last year I started collecting sun-hats so that I'd have to do less in the way of slathering on sun-screen before nipping down to the farmer's market or out to the park. I settled on Walleroo's Victoria style, because to be honest I'm not a big hat fan. In order to wear one comfortably I need it to be well-made, with suitable thought given to breathability, and also to know that it is killingly adorable.
The only one of my hats I am not utterly delighted with was the purple one. It was quite a nice dusky lilac; it just wasn't my perfect wine-violet purple. So eventually I wondered if I could maybe fix that little thing. It took a while to decide to try, because that's an expensive hat right there, but acquiring a violet sundress finally decided me. I would take the plunge.
The fun part of this is that Walleroo uses poly-straw to make their sun-hats, which means using a polyester dye, and getting those dyes to take requires boiling the garment in question. So, with some trepidation, I got a packet of iDye Poly in crimson, hauled out my ginormous stock pot reserved for stove-top dying, and dunked the hat in. Predictably, it immediately lost shape and became floppy and (over the course of boiling it for 30 minutes) extremely creased.
It came out a gorgeous violet, though! Progress.
The next step was watching several DIY videos on how to re-shape a hat, which all agreed that the thing to do was steam it, and ordering a hat-form. Then, with yet more trepidation, I steamed the heck out of the hat, smoothing the crown over the form as I went, and re-shaping the brim with some rolled up washcloths. That was a bit alarming, as working with hot steam generally is, but I could see progress happening, so I stuffed and shaped the hat and left it to dry back out overnight.
And behold! I have a shapely hat again!
You'd never think that this hat was boiled and crushed.
Altogether, I'm calling this a complete success. It still needs a spritz or two of fabric stiffener, but this project came out extremely well for something that I've never done before and which would certainly void the warranty if hats came with such.
The only one of my hats I am not utterly delighted with was the purple one. It was quite a nice dusky lilac; it just wasn't my perfect wine-violet purple. So eventually I wondered if I could maybe fix that little thing. It took a while to decide to try, because that's an expensive hat right there, but acquiring a violet sundress finally decided me. I would take the plunge.
The fun part of this is that Walleroo uses poly-straw to make their sun-hats, which means using a polyester dye, and getting those dyes to take requires boiling the garment in question. So, with some trepidation, I got a packet of iDye Poly in crimson, hauled out my ginormous stock pot reserved for stove-top dying, and dunked the hat in. Predictably, it immediately lost shape and became floppy and (over the course of boiling it for 30 minutes) extremely creased.
It came out a gorgeous violet, though! Progress.
The next step was watching several DIY videos on how to re-shape a hat, which all agreed that the thing to do was steam it, and ordering a hat-form. Then, with yet more trepidation, I steamed the heck out of the hat, smoothing the crown over the form as I went, and re-shaping the brim with some rolled up washcloths. That was a bit alarming, as working with hot steam generally is, but I could see progress happening, so I stuffed and shaped the hat and left it to dry back out overnight.
And behold! I have a shapely hat again!
You'd never think that this hat was boiled and crushed.
Altogether, I'm calling this a complete success. It still needs a spritz or two of fabric stiffener, but this project came out extremely well for something that I've never done before and which would certainly void the warranty if hats came with such.
