How I Fixed A Feather Cap

A few weeks ago I purchased a feather cap from EBay, and when I received it, the feathers were yellowed, which you couldn't see very well in the pictures. I thought it was unwearable, but I really liked the shape. So I went to the millinery store and I purchased some amazing pink and black feather clusters. I finally got around to fixing the hat and thought you might like to see what I did.


The first thing I did was strip the hat of all of its feathers. Then I recovered the edge with a velvet ribbon that matched the pink of the new feather clusters. I sewed the binding by hand because I am not sure where my sewing machine is- I packed it when we moved and it is still in a box somewhere. Hopefully by Thanksgiving we will be in the new house. But I digress.


Here is the hat with the new binding.







This is what the feather clusters look like. The feathers are glued onto felt backing. Unfortunately, whatever glue they used back in the day also has yellowed on these feathers, but not nearly as much.






I started at the smallest end of the hat and began to carefully sew the feathers to the buckram (the material the hat is made out of). I had to split a cluster to begin, then I slowly added each cluster to create rows.








I continued to sew the feathers to the hat until the end. And here is the final product:





The original cap had crystals which I might add to the new hat, but I haven't decided if this will be a day hat or night hat yet. I will be sure to post when I wear it for the first time.