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.

The Steampunk Emporium is a great place to shop as they have sets already setup for you to purchase. If you are going to a small party or something, this might be an avenue for you to go as.

If you are looking for some more unique mix and match styles, there is a huge variety of merchants out there that can provide you with the perfect pieces. Do some research and find what you are looking for! And most of all just have fun!