Shaping your Fat Red Bird Fedora

In the millinery world, hats are shaped using hat forms and although your Fat Red Bird Fedora is sewn rather than moulded or formed, you can still adapt some of these techniques to ensure your hat looks professional and has a lovely pressed finish.

You could stuff your finished hat with tea towels or pillow slips to provide a firm crown to press against or you can make your own form. Using some scrap fabric I used the Fat Red Bird Fedora pattern crown and side band pieces to make a stuffed form. The base is another crown piece but I have increased the size of this piece by approximately 1inch all around. 

Stitch all the pieces together leaving a 2 inch opening in the base so that you can stuff your form with a whole lot of fabric scraps that you have lying around. I safety pinned this opening close, you could stitch it but the lazy person in me couldn't be bothered making different size forms so I just take out stuffing and replace as required to ensure a snug fit into the finished Fedora.

Stuff your form firmly into your crown. This will now give you a nice firm hat to iron out all those crinkles in those hard to get to places.

Hope this helps take your Fat Red Bird Fedora to a whole other level :-)