After reading a few blogs I saw a steampunk tophat that was crafted out of leather. Having some leather and all the tools I needed to complete the project I began creating my pattern.
Steampunk Tophat
I wanted to give the steampunk tophat some flair and make it less traditional. I went with a stovepipe hat design as I thought that would be easier for my first time.
My head is a fairly average size at 22 inches, being no math expert and not having any drawing tools posed to be a challenge to draw my pattern on cardboard. I raided the family frozen food storage containers and to my surprise there was a bowl with a perfect 22 inch mouth.
After tracing it out onto card board I tried my best to visualize how to assemble the parts and their order. I started with the top and sewing the sides on. I laid out my stitches and pre punched the holes so it would be perfect. (This ended up being very important) Once stitched together I folded the hat inside out and it made a nice beveled edge at the top.
I cut out the brim of the hat and used the inner circle as a tooling piece for the front of the steampunk tophat. Now I have never done ANY leather tooling before in my life. I found a rough pattern of something I liked and just started to pound away at it. I am really pleased with how it turned out!
Once that was sewn over the seam on the front I did a wet mold of the hat. It needed to adjust a little wider since I had folded the seam from the brim inward.
After drying and creating the shape I wanted I brushed it with a coat of black leather dye and put a leather arcyrlic gloss finish on.
A leather steampunk tophat can go for $200.00. As I am sure mine may not be at that quality I am still very pleased at the outcome.
