Mike Breiding's Epic Road Trips: January 2016

30 December 2015
The Mad Hatter: Hats worn by a HillBilly

One might wonder why I would put a bunch of pictures of hats up on a web page let alone pictures of me wearing them. I will blame this on Dabneys John.
I sent John our Christmas hike picture to John in which we were both wearing festive hats.

Betsy was wearing the hat she wore for the 2015 Western Way Chorale Christmas concert and I was wearing a hat which Betsy's sister Charlotte had made. She actually made it as a Christmas gift for Betsy 5 or 6 years ago - at least. Betsy ended up not wearing it and so I tried it out. It was a perfect fit! So, I commandeered it.

When John saw the Christmas hat in the photo he wanted to know more about it so that one of his talented daughters might make him one. I obliged his request for more info - and then some. This gallery of hats is the result.

This hat started out as rectangle of fleece. It was then edge sewn to make a tube. One end was folded and sewn over to make a "cuff". The other end was then cut into strips to form the tassel. One of the tassel strips was used to bind and hold the tassel in place.
I later switched to a hair tie. This held better and makes the hat/tassel length easily adjustable.

 

Relaxed tassel mode. Typical presentation.

Alert tassel mode.
This presents when an attractive woman is encountered.

There are few things I would mourn the loss of and this is one of them. Betsy and I found this hat in June of 1997 while hiking in the Medicine Bow National Forest in south east Wyoming. I did not realize at the time it was hand made. I am sure the original owner was upset over the loss of this beautiful pate warmer.

 

 

 

When I found this hat in 1997 the tassel was much fuller. It has had a lot of hard use over the nearly 20 years I have owned it.

I reverse the hat and wear it this way during Kwanzaa.

My latest acquisition. Perfect for lounging around the house when one of the other hats would be too warm.

 

 

 

This was repurposed.
Do you know the original use for which it was intended?

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