Betrisher
Well-known member
- Jun 3, 2013
- 4,253
- 180
- Parrots
- Dominic: Galah(RIP: 1981-2018); The Lovies: Four Blue Masked Lovebirds; Barney and Madge (The Beaks): Alexandrines; Miss Rosetta Stone: Little Corella
what I did today!
My sister turned up with her brand new riding hat. It's a black felt 'cowboy' sort of one and it came with a round, bowl-like crown and a flat brim (think Hoss Cartwright, those of you old enough to remember). My assignment was to shape it into a stylish-looking creation suitable for wear at halter-shows, where the aforementioned sister will be showing her brand-new weanling Quarter Horse colt.
So. 'How do you shape a hat?' I hear you ask.
According to YouTube, you steam it with a steamer. In the absence of that, I got out me enormous stockpot in which I make nutritious minestrones during winter. I half-filled it with water and boiled the living tripes out of it until billows of steam were pouring out. Then, I placed the hat crown-down on top of the pot to absorb all the steam.
Well! That was unwise, wasn't it? As luck would have it, my niece (who was watching the whole operation with a nasty, smug smile on her face) bellowed 'Loogout Aunt! It's fallin' in!' And so it was! I snatched the hat just in time before it fell into the boiling cauldron and became Hat Soup! Now the hat was limp and dripping! OMG! My sister (faithless creature that she is) began wailing about the three figures it cost her. I, in the meanwhile, had turned on the iron and gotten a can of spray starch.
Eventually, I managed to iron the hat dry in the desired shape. It took three hours of trying. As I type this, The Hat is parked on my sewing table with splints on either side of it held on by bulldog clips. The sides of the brim are held in place by bits of string carefully tied at intervals. The creases in the crown are sharp and the felt is shiny and if my sister doesn't like it, I'm giving it to Dominic to chew on!
Now, I have a new fiddle to my bow: I am a hat-wrangler!
My sister turned up with her brand new riding hat. It's a black felt 'cowboy' sort of one and it came with a round, bowl-like crown and a flat brim (think Hoss Cartwright, those of you old enough to remember). My assignment was to shape it into a stylish-looking creation suitable for wear at halter-shows, where the aforementioned sister will be showing her brand-new weanling Quarter Horse colt.
So. 'How do you shape a hat?' I hear you ask.
According to YouTube, you steam it with a steamer. In the absence of that, I got out me enormous stockpot in which I make nutritious minestrones during winter. I half-filled it with water and boiled the living tripes out of it until billows of steam were pouring out. Then, I placed the hat crown-down on top of the pot to absorb all the steam.
Well! That was unwise, wasn't it? As luck would have it, my niece (who was watching the whole operation with a nasty, smug smile on her face) bellowed 'Loogout Aunt! It's fallin' in!' And so it was! I snatched the hat just in time before it fell into the boiling cauldron and became Hat Soup! Now the hat was limp and dripping! OMG! My sister (faithless creature that she is) began wailing about the three figures it cost her. I, in the meanwhile, had turned on the iron and gotten a can of spray starch.
Eventually, I managed to iron the hat dry in the desired shape. It took three hours of trying. As I type this, The Hat is parked on my sewing table with splints on either side of it held on by bulldog clips. The sides of the brim are held in place by bits of string carefully tied at intervals. The creases in the crown are sharp and the felt is shiny and if my sister doesn't like it, I'm giving it to Dominic to chew on!
Now, I have a new fiddle to my bow: I am a hat-wrangler!
