how to make an Einheitsfeldmütze

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moses
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how to make an Einheitsfeldmütze

#1

Post by moses » 21 May 2005, 14:10

when i first started learning about reenacting, my thoughts went like this:

"wow, that's cool";
"i'd like to get into that, i wonder how much a uniform costs";
...loaded up atthefront and lostbattalions...
"oh jesus christ nevermind";
"hey i have a sewing machine, i wonder if i could make my own uniform";
"i wonder if it might also be a problem that i have no sewing experience"; * yes it was
"well at least i have the internet, wherein all human knowledge is contained, so i bet there's a howto on sewing reproduction german army uniforms somewhere"; * no there wasn't
"well christ i'll just buy a hat to start with and see if i can sew a copy of it";
... about 6 months later ...
"aha, i think i finally sewed a hat properly"

and now that i've made a few einheitsfeldmützen which look more or less right, i thought i'd do the socially conscious thing and share my knowledge of the process

i drew up my own patterns and scanned them in, and they can be found here: http://users.adelphia.net/~benjamimpier ... tterns.zip
i'm a little hazy on the ins and outs of precise printing, so i scanned them in with a ruler on them all and left the jpgs huge, and you may need to know that (i think) all the jpgs are at 200 pixels per inch.
i drew up all the patterns on 8.5"x11" paper so i could make copies easily at home, so a couple of the big parts of the pattern are split across 2 pages.
the patterns are based on a visual copy of a repro EM m43 hat from atthefront.

i'm making a hat right now and photographing and logging the process for this howto, so i'll keep adding to this thread as i go along. i'll also be editing most of the posts over and over as i remember things i've left out or as i make corrections.

i will also at various points add a little annotation telling you about little variations you can put into the hat, so that they all don't look the same, and to give it a little more original "personality." i've noticed from lots of photos of originals that rarely do they ever appear cookie-cutter in design, as modern repros often do, so shifting little details around like thread and buttons can add a nice touch of realism.

so, here we go.

-------------------------

this tutorial assumes a minimal knowledge of sewing and sewing machines, the kind of knowledge you should be able to get by thumbing through a sewing machine manual. just about everything else should be explained in the text and photos.

to start off with, you'll need basic sewing supplies, like scissors, little pins with plastic heads on them, hand sewing needles, ruler, utility knife, and of course a sewing machine. it doesn't have to be anything fancy. i did all this on what was damn near the cheapest model at sears from about a year ago.

other supplies you'll need will be some fairly soft and bendable corrugated cardboard. this may be a little hard to find because most cardboard is very stiff, but i found some old stuff that had been sitting in my basement, and either through age or manufacture, it was rather soft and bendable. i should also note that this probably isn't the ideal thing to use in the hat, and i don't know how close it is to the original stuff they used. it's just the closest thing i found that seemed to work.

and, fabric and thread. for the liner of the hat you'll need some tan colored cotton twill type stuff, should be found in any fabric store, as seen below and left. the thread you'll need is fairly common too, 2 colors, first being any old clothing thread that's the same color as the liner, and second being a greener type that more or less matches the background of the insignia you're using.

the wool you'll need for the outer hat is the tricky part. see below right. you may find wools of similar texture and weight at regular fabric stores, but you won't find ones of the right color hardly anywhere. the only place i found online that sold the stuff in a quasi-retail fashion was this place: http://www.historicreproductions.com/cat_clothes1.htm (waaay down at the bottom)
it's also not cheap, as you'll see. i highly recommend you try to find some "wool coating" or other thick coarse wool stuff at your local fabric store for your first 1 or 2 hats, to save money. (your first couple hats will invariably come out wrong. it took me no less than 11 before i had things worked out)

i've also found that by asking around various reenactor web boards, you can find some people who get their own supplies of this wool and can help you out.
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Last edited by moses on 13 Dec 2005, 07:43, edited 8 times in total.

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#2

Post by moses » 21 May 2005, 14:20

other stuff you'll need that you cant get at any old fabric store.

insignia and buttons.
a couple places these can be found are http://www.atthefront.com ("german"->"fabric and parts"->"german buttons and uniform hardware" and "german"->"headgear"->"heer"/"waffen-ss"->"cap insignia" sections) and http://www.landser.com ("insignia"->"cap insignia"->"heer"/"ss" and "uniforms"->"uniform accessories")
you want the 12mm pebbled buttons or the 14/15mm "glass" buttons. two for each hat.
be sure not to get the black panzer or bluegray luftwaffe insignia, unless you're making one of those hats with corresponding wool color.

see below for examples. (i only had heer insignia handy)
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insignia+buttons.jpg
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moses
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#3

Post by moses » 21 May 2005, 14:28

so you print out the patterns and pin them to the fabric like so.
then cut out the fabric and pattern along the lines (not the dotted lines, those are where you'll be sewing).
you see in this pic how i use the two-part patterns for larger pieces.

note: when cutting out the bill of the hat, you pin the pattern to the wool and cut around the outer line. then you unpin the pattern from the wool and you'll use the pattern again in the next step.

note again: for each part you'll need to cut more than one piece of fabric.
top: 1 part wool and 1 part cotton
sides: 2 parts wool and 2 parts cotton (don't cut all these at once, it'll probably be too thick to cut properly)
flaps: 2 parts wool
bill: 2 parts wool
(see bottom pic)
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sides_pattern_pinned_to_fabric.jpg
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moses
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#4

Post by moses » 21 May 2005, 14:30

take the pattern of the bill left over from fabric cutting, and glue it to your soft cardboard.
make sure the corrugation is aligned so that the bill bends easily down on the sides.
then take a utility knife or something and cut the cardboard out on the inner pattern line.
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bill_pattern_glued_to_cardboard.jpg
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Last edited by moses on 24 May 2005, 20:03, edited 1 time in total.

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Ryan94
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#5

Post by Ryan94 » 23 May 2005, 02:26

Wow... that's an unbelievable instruction! :D

M43 hats never looked that good, but I think I'm gonna try again with this pattern, thatnk you! :)

Best Regards, David

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#6

Post by DarExc » 23 May 2005, 17:44

Wow, very nice indeed! Good work, I wish I had the skills to attempt this, maybe someday...

Jer

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moses
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#7

Post by moses » 23 May 2005, 22:53

sewing!

thread up your tan colored thread, (learn how to do this in the sewing machine manual) and you'll want to set your machine on standard straight stitching, and get it worked out so its about 4 stitches per centimeter, as seen below. also you'll need to adjust the stitch tension on the upper and lower sides of the machine so that it stitches properly through a couple layers of the wool. look up in your machine's manual how to do this, and test it out on a little scrap fabric first.

when you get to the real sewing, in almost all stitches, you'll want to hit the reverse lever on the machine at the beginning and end of your stitch, so that it'll stitch over itself a little bit, so that the ends of the string will be tight and won't unravel.

variation: some originals appear to have used thread which matched the feldgrau wool color all over, as opposed to the tan liner-colored thread i used here, so you could use the greener stuff i listed earlier in all the stitching too.
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Last edited by moses on 28 Jun 2005, 14:18, edited 2 times in total.

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#8

Post by moses » 23 May 2005, 23:06

next, you want to sew a bunch of the identical parts together. you sew the flaps together along their rear side, and the bill together along the outer edge, and the sides (wool with wool and cotton with cotton) together along the front (the wider) edge. i realized only after i had sewn them that i forgot to take pics showing how to set these pieces up for the first stitch, so i hope the attached crappy drawing explains it well enough. all these stitches will be exactly 1cm in from the outer edge.

also, notice from the photo that when you put pins in the fabric, you want to be mindful of what side you insert them in and which direction you point them. if they're not on the top side and pointing toward the sewing foot, you're gonna have a hard time removing them as you sew.
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Last edited by moses on 24 May 2005, 19:44, edited 1 time in total.

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#9

Post by moses » 23 May 2005, 23:15

next, on the wool flaps and the wool sides which you just sewed together, you want to take the little 1cm flaps next to the stitch, fold them flat against the fabric, and stitch them again. this is called a topstitch, and you want to do it between 1 and 2 mm away from the original stitch you sewed to attach the two pieces of fabric together. this may be a bit confusing to someone who has never sewn before, and i hope the photograph (bottom one) explains it.

then you want to take the flaps you sewed together, and take the lower outer edge of them (the longest side of em) and fold about 1cm of that edge under and stitch that fold down. be sure you fold it in the same direction as the little 1cm flaps that you just topstitched, so that they're all on the same side of the fabric. you'll probably want to pin this one in place before you sew it. when you sew the stitch on it, make it about 4-5mm in from the edge. see top photo for the final result.
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lower_outer_flap_topstitch.jpg
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Last edited by moses on 24 May 2005, 19:53, edited 2 times in total.

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#10

Post by moses » 23 May 2005, 23:23

last step for today is a little trickier. putting a faux stitch along one side of the bill. i call it "faux" because it has the appearance of being attached to the cardboard inside the bill when you're done, even though it's not. this is one of a couple things in my M43 hat construction which i'm pretty sure is just wrong and not identical to the originals, but i'll be damned if i could figure out how they sewed just ONE side of that wool into the cardboard. also, the only way to really tell that this stitch is "faux" is to handle the hat in person and wiggle the bill fabric around to determine that it's looser than it should be. it's not going to be discernable to any photography or eye examination.

you want to sew this stitch through just one layer of the bill wool, about 4mm away from the original stitch. you'll see from the photos why it's a bit tricky, but if you just take it slow and be sure not to let the wool get bunched up or misaligned underneath the sewing foot, you'll be fine.

ok, next time we'll move on to attaching the sides and top, and putting the cardboard in the bill and stuff.
(i work slowly so be patient with me)
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#11

Post by moses » 24 May 2005, 20:09

next another somewhat tricky one.
you're gonna fold the curve of the flap over, about 1cm of fold, and sew two stitches in it.
you'll need to pin it first, of course, as seen in the top photo.
because of the curve, it'll stretch the fabric in funny ways, but it's supposed to do this, because when you're done, the flaps will naturally wrap around the front of the hat.

sew the first stitch close to the edge, about 1mm. when you're into the curviest part of the curve, be careful not to sew right off the edge of the fabric, because it'll be hard to tell where the needle is in relation to the edge, with the sewing machine foot covering it up. might take you a couple tries.
sew the second stitch about 4mm in from the first one.
repeat this stuff for the other flap, of course.

variation: i've seen originals which only have one stitch on the curved upper edge of the flap, so you could leave the inner stitch off, too.
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Last edited by moses on 28 Jun 2005, 14:15, edited 1 time in total.

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#12

Post by moses » 24 May 2005, 20:15

now to the bill, where you'll make a bunch of cuts in the fabric outside the stitch, right up to about 1mm from the stitch, as seen in top photo. this is to keep that extra flap of fabric from bunching up too much when you turn the thing inside out.

so, turn it inside out and slip the cardboard in there, and stretch the wool tight and pin it in place so it stays tight.
then set the bill aside to let the wool loosen up, and we'll move on to other things.
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cutting_bill_edge.jpg
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#13

Post by moses » 24 May 2005, 23:19

pin the wool sides to the wool top. make sure you have everything aligned right, meaning specifically: the wide end (the end with you already stitched) of the sides toward the front of the top (the front of the top is the wider end); the peak pointy angle of the sides attached to the top, rather than the flat (or flatter, anyway) long edge of the sides. hopefully the photo makes this clear. you may want to pin and un-pin the paper pattern to the top at various points while you do this, to use its markings to find the center line of the top, so that the sides won't be shifted wrong to the left or right when you're done.

the edges of the fabrics should be right together all the way around, except for the peak pointy part of the sides, which will stick out a bit over the end of the top piece.

note my cat not doing a damn thing to assist me here.
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pinning_sides_to_top2.jpg
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#14

Post by moses » 24 May 2005, 23:53

now that you pinned that thing all around, you're NOT going to sew it. first, you have to sew the rear of the side pieces together.
so, since you have it pinned around, you go to the rear of the thing and you align the two rear edges of the side pieces and pin them together like so. (bottom attached image)
be sure that, when they're pinned together like that, they seem to fit the rear of the top piece. that is, that they dont extend out beyond it and stuff, and that the edges of the sides and top seem to line up close, the same as they do around the rest of the edges.

now, here comes a potential flaw in my design. i never did really get a good handle on how to adjust the size of this hat while making it, i just sort of eyeballed it and could make ones a little bit bigger than my head and a little bit smaller, but i was never too sure if i was coming out with a size 56 of 58 or whatever. i know that my head is about 58 or 59. this pattern, as is, fits me pretty well.
i'll try to elaborate on this: if you pin the sides as shown in the bottom photo, so that the stitch parallels the rear edge of the sides, you'll more or less get a 58cm size hat. the top side of that stitch has to stay where it is, so it fits the top piece of fabric, but if you move the lower end of that stitch, just a centimeter or so in any direction, you'll get some workable size changes. see the crappy sketch attached.

so then, you unpin the top from the sides around the rear area, enough to give you wiggle room to sew the rear, and sew it like you did the front side. one stitch to connect the two pieces of fabric together, and then fold the little leftover flaps apart and sew each of them down, about 1mm away from the first seam.

then, you pin everything to the top again, and sew all the way around it. go slow, and take care to make sure that one side of the fabric doesn't bunch up and fold under itself while you're going along, especially around the corners. also remember to sew the front end of it flat-ish, to conform to the shape of the top piece of fabric rather than the pointy edge of the side pieces. when done, it should look like the top image.
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sides_sewn_to_top1.jpg
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Last edited by moses on 26 May 2005, 23:41, edited 1 time in total.

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Kaiser Franz
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#15

Post by Kaiser Franz » 24 May 2005, 23:57

nice work.....

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