As soon as I watched the 1942 British Pathe video demonstrating how to turn a men’s trilby into a smart topper I wanted to make my own version. I started with a fedora I found in a charity shop, and followed the basic steps from the video, with a few minor amendments. My version requires no blocking or steaming, and you can use either glue or hand stitch the pieces in place.
Before
After
First I detached the ribbon band, then cut the brim off the crown, leaving a small ‘lip’ at the top of the brim - this will provide an underlap to attach the two parts back together. Next I trimmed the lower edge of the crown as I was looking for a shallower ‘perch’ look to the hat - I eyeballed the amount to cut away by positioning the hat on my head, then pinned a rough cutting line to follow.
I created a pleat at the back of the crown - mine takes a slightly different form from the original British Pathe video - you can play around with the pleat to see what works. I pinned then fastened this in place with a few stitches.
Then I reattached the brim to the crown, tucking that underlap to the inside and glueing in place. Having made the crown smaller, the ends of the brim now overlap at the back - I arranged mine so the back brim is quite upright and the front tilts down for that femme fatale vibe. Finally I replaced the ribbon band, and voila, we’re good to go!
The finished hat!
