Betreff: Erste Versuche an einem Montecristi

---

Hey gang,

last week (Wednesday) I was invited for a talk show on a local German TV station and while I was thinking about what to wear, the idea of just wearing a pair of jeans with a fine Montecristi came to mind. That when - somewhere in the back of my head - a voice mentioned, that I don't HAVE a Montecristi. NONE. Neither a fine one, nor a shabby one, nor any straw hat at all.

So I figured this might be the time to make one - which would be a good chance to learn some new skills as well. Since the show was planned for to tomorrow, I better got moving real fast. So, I ordered a good Montecristi rawbody and had it FedEx'd to me. When I received it yesterday, it look like this:

http://i38.photobucket.com/...CN1439.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/...CN1438.jpg

So... being rather nervous about how it would turn out (one has to pull it 100% straight on the block, as there just is no wide brim that can be cut to size later) I started to scratch my head on how the hat should look when done. I thought that a CS Fedora in straw would be a nice idea - perhaps with a navy blue ribbon - wo that's what I went for.

Well, I managed to convert some of the brim into crown and I even got that ever curling brim flattened out after lots and lots of work.

This morning I pulled it off the block, creased it and started to put the sweatband in as soon as I got back from work...

I can HARDLY describe how un-pleased I am with how it turned out so for. This might not be the common "uh, look at me, I can make so nice hats"-post, but it's part of the hatmaking too and I thought I'd share nontheless.

This it what it looks like right now, with the temporary sweatband stitching holding the sweatband in place.

http://i38.photobucket.com/...CN1440.jpg

I'll now take it apart again and reblock it. Perhaps I can figure out a way to make something worth wearing yet.

Regards,

Marc