how to make an m34 feldmütze
how to make an m34 feldmütze
well i finally got a schiffchen pattern i'm happy with. it only took me this many tries:
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Last edited by moses on 29 May 2006, 13:07, edited 2 times in total.
and here's the final product, made of some "swiss" wool that i got quite cheap from ATF, which is also supposedly very similar to german polizei uniform wool from the era. i dunno, whatever, it was cheap. also you'll notice this one lacks the normal double line of stitching on the top part of the flaps. i just did that because i had done 12 of them with double stitching before and i felt like letting my hair down a bit. i'm a wild man.
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Last edited by moses on 04 Mar 2006, 20:09, edited 2 times in total.
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PzGr Conrad
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, I liked your m43 pattern, looking forward to try this one ok here we go. preface:
this tutorial will assume that the reader knows little to nothing about sewing. i'm not sure about the feasibility of a complete novice doing this, but it's better to cover all the bases that i can in the tutorial.
the patterns i provide will be a bit more slick than my previous m43 howto, not in appearance, but in sizing. i'll either be providing different patterns for every different head size, or i'll be providing a master set and telling you how much to resize the images up or down in, say, photoshop, before printing out, to achieve the arbitrarily desired size.
the overall hatmaking process will be easier here than in the m43, mainly because it has no visor. the one slightly unusual component you'll need will be the right kind of eyelets/grommets for the little vent holes in the sides.
i'll probably be editing many parts of this howto as i go along, as i think of things i left out, or correct mistakes, etc.
and now, the supplies you'll need:
this tutorial will assume that the reader knows little to nothing about sewing. i'm not sure about the feasibility of a complete novice doing this, but it's better to cover all the bases that i can in the tutorial.
the patterns i provide will be a bit more slick than my previous m43 howto, not in appearance, but in sizing. i'll either be providing different patterns for every different head size, or i'll be providing a master set and telling you how much to resize the images up or down in, say, photoshop, before printing out, to achieve the arbitrarily desired size.
the overall hatmaking process will be easier here than in the m43, mainly because it has no visor. the one slightly unusual component you'll need will be the right kind of eyelets/grommets for the little vent holes in the sides.
i'll probably be editing many parts of this howto as i go along, as i think of things i left out, or correct mistakes, etc.
and now, the supplies you'll need:
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- m34howtoallsupplies.jpg (44.75 KiB) Viewed 14189 times
fabric:
- tan/khaki cotton twill (left). this can be found at pretty much every fabric store.
- feldgrau wool. this is trickier. the only place i know of at the moment to get it is here: http://www.historicreproductions.com/cat_clothes1.htm (way down at the bottom)
you'll notice that it is expensive. you'll probably want to poke around your local fabric store and look for some cheaper wool to experiment on first, maybe making a couple hats out of that before using the real feldgrau stuff. look for something probably called "wool coating." it's a fairly thick, non-stretchy, coarse wool. you may find wool of very similar weight and texture, but you won't find it also in matching feldgrau color except from repro wool makers. trust me.
you could also get black wool for making a panzer hat, but i won't be doing that here.
- tan/khaki cotton twill (left). this can be found at pretty much every fabric store.
- feldgrau wool. this is trickier. the only place i know of at the moment to get it is here: http://www.historicreproductions.com/cat_clothes1.htm (way down at the bottom)
you'll notice that it is expensive. you'll probably want to poke around your local fabric store and look for some cheaper wool to experiment on first, maybe making a couple hats out of that before using the real feldgrau stuff. look for something probably called "wool coating." it's a fairly thick, non-stretchy, coarse wool. you may find wool of very similar weight and texture, but you won't find it also in matching feldgrau color except from repro wool makers. trust me.
you could also get black wool for making a panzer hat, but i won't be doing that here.
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Last edited by moses on 09 Mar 2006, 22:28, edited 1 time in total.
insignia and thread:
- eagle
- cockade
- tan/khaki color of standard cotton thread that more or less matches the color of the cotton twill fabric you have
- green cotton thread that more or less matches the color of the background of the insignia you have
i'll be doing a wehrmacht heer hat in this howto so i'll be using the WH eagle and cockade. this hat pattern is also appropriate for heer panzer uniforms, and for heer tropical (DAK), but for no other service that i'm aware of. WSS, luftwaffe, kriegsmarine, etc, all used a different pattern. oddly enough, i've had trouble finding the proper insignia for this, even though it ought to be real common. the repro places i'm familiar with have been out of the eagles for a long time now. since i don't have the right eagle, i'm going to take a "T" shape insignia which includes the eagle and cockade, and just cut the cockade off.
2 good places to get insignia online:
http://www.landser.com/cap_insignia?b=1
http://www.atthefront.com/g_insig_heercap.htm
remember to get insignia with a backing color that matches your hat color. get green/feldgrau if you're making a heer hat like i am here. get black if you're making a black panzer hat.
edit: well about 3/4 through making the hat i noticed that the T insignia i was going to use for lack of a proper feldgrau eagle was actually smaller than a normal m34 eagle. narrower in width by about 1cm. but almost every repro vendor out there is out of stock of these things for some reason, and i don't have any. so i guess i'm just going to have to make a screwed up hat. maybe later i can hand-stitch a proper one on and give it that "de-nazified, re-nazified" look. so if the eagle looks wrong to you in the photos, well... it is.
- eagle
- cockade
- tan/khaki color of standard cotton thread that more or less matches the color of the cotton twill fabric you have
- green cotton thread that more or less matches the color of the background of the insignia you have
i'll be doing a wehrmacht heer hat in this howto so i'll be using the WH eagle and cockade. this hat pattern is also appropriate for heer panzer uniforms, and for heer tropical (DAK), but for no other service that i'm aware of. WSS, luftwaffe, kriegsmarine, etc, all used a different pattern. oddly enough, i've had trouble finding the proper insignia for this, even though it ought to be real common. the repro places i'm familiar with have been out of the eagles for a long time now. since i don't have the right eagle, i'm going to take a "T" shape insignia which includes the eagle and cockade, and just cut the cockade off.
2 good places to get insignia online:
http://www.landser.com/cap_insignia?b=1
http://www.atthefront.com/g_insig_heercap.htm
remember to get insignia with a backing color that matches your hat color. get green/feldgrau if you're making a heer hat like i am here. get black if you're making a black panzer hat.
edit: well about 3/4 through making the hat i noticed that the T insignia i was going to use for lack of a proper feldgrau eagle was actually smaller than a normal m34 eagle. narrower in width by about 1cm. but almost every repro vendor out there is out of stock of these things for some reason, and i don't have any. so i guess i'm just going to have to make a screwed up hat. maybe later i can hand-stitch a proper one on and give it that "de-nazified, re-nazified" look. so if the eagle looks wrong to you in the photos, well... it is.
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- m34howtoinsigniathread.jpg (66.39 KiB) Viewed 14186 times
Last edited by moses on 25 May 2006, 23:35, edited 3 times in total.
grommets:
- 1/8"/3mm 2-piece grommets
- a tool for pressing them (as seen in the package on the left, it's just a metal bar with a certain shape on one end. you put that end on the grommets and tap it with a hammer) (or also that blue/gray tool seen in the first picture which is a little easier to use but you have to put the grommet in the hat at a different point in construction if you use that, because it can't fit around all the extra fabric in the side flaps of the hat)
in the middle box is the stuff you need. i had a hard time finding this. i found plenty of boxes of the stuff on the left and right, which are 1-piece grommets of the same size, but that's not what we need. on the other hand, the boxes on right and left do have useful stuff. you can use those 1-piece grommets as part of the 2-piece set, which is handy because some of the 1-piece ones are painted. although their "green" paint probably isn't too good for a feldgrau hat. their "black" would suit a panzer hat just fine. and the left box has that little tool in it, of course.
i found the middle box by talking to the lady at a local fabric store, and she pulled out a thick wholesale catalog that she buys her stuff from. sure enough, it was in there, although most stores don't seem to stock it. so i ordered a bunch through her. you'll notice that it doesn't SAY they are 2-piece on the front of the box, but that's a key feature that we're looking for. it says so on the back and you might be able to tell by looking at the contents of the box, but if you're ordering these online, that's kinda iffy. These are Dritz #103-35 1/8" 2-part fashion eyelets.
- 1/8"/3mm 2-piece grommets
- a tool for pressing them (as seen in the package on the left, it's just a metal bar with a certain shape on one end. you put that end on the grommets and tap it with a hammer) (or also that blue/gray tool seen in the first picture which is a little easier to use but you have to put the grommet in the hat at a different point in construction if you use that, because it can't fit around all the extra fabric in the side flaps of the hat)
in the middle box is the stuff you need. i had a hard time finding this. i found plenty of boxes of the stuff on the left and right, which are 1-piece grommets of the same size, but that's not what we need. on the other hand, the boxes on right and left do have useful stuff. you can use those 1-piece grommets as part of the 2-piece set, which is handy because some of the 1-piece ones are painted. although their "green" paint probably isn't too good for a feldgrau hat. their "black" would suit a panzer hat just fine. and the left box has that little tool in it, of course.
i found the middle box by talking to the lady at a local fabric store, and she pulled out a thick wholesale catalog that she buys her stuff from. sure enough, it was in there, although most stores don't seem to stock it. so i ordered a bunch through her. you'll notice that it doesn't SAY they are 2-piece on the front of the box, but that's a key feature that we're looking for. it says so on the back and you might be able to tell by looking at the contents of the box, but if you're ordering these online, that's kinda iffy. These are Dritz #103-35 1/8" 2-part fashion eyelets.
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- m34howtoeyelets.jpg (48.38 KiB) Viewed 14179 times
Last edited by moses on 25 May 2006, 23:36, edited 1 time in total.
ok, been messing with my 1/8 tiger and rebuilding a piano and a chainsaw, so i'm moving even slower than usual. like glacially slow now. but i think i have the pattern sizing crap worked out. when i finish this hat i guess i'll find out if it works right or not. should be a lot better than the dumb system i had on the m43 pattern.
it goes like this: i have jpegs of the pattern pieces all of which are small enough to print out on 8.5x11" paper. the original copies of them are about size 61, and i made a bunch of test hats on a 92% resizing of the pattern which came out to about 56cm head size. eventually with some math and more test hats i'll have sets of jpegs for every size from 56 to 62. right now i just have 56, 61 and hopefully 59 which i'll be making in this tutorial. having done some math on it, i've included a few ad hoc instructions and a formula with the patterns to help you resize them to your own arbitrary measurements.
find the patterns and brief instructions here: http://oym.org/oymr/m34howto/patterns/
and in breaking news, i just noticed that ATF is selling soutache braid for caps now! i never noticed another place that sold it, so this is good. m34 hats look a lot cooler with the soutache. although they don't seem to have panzer pink which is a shame if you want to make a panzer sidecap. maybe their artillery red would work... i probably won't be able to work the soutache into this tutorial though because i'm a little unfamiliar with the most accurate way to sew it on. need to research it a bit.
edit: having made the hat already, the size came out to more like 58 than 59. a little tight on my 59 head. so, my "formula" for pattern resizing is a bit off. not really sure how to rectify this, other than to make 4 or 5 more hats in different sizes and see how they come out, and then save a copy of each pattern for each size.
it goes like this: i have jpegs of the pattern pieces all of which are small enough to print out on 8.5x11" paper. the original copies of them are about size 61, and i made a bunch of test hats on a 92% resizing of the pattern which came out to about 56cm head size. eventually with some math and more test hats i'll have sets of jpegs for every size from 56 to 62. right now i just have 56, 61 and hopefully 59 which i'll be making in this tutorial. having done some math on it, i've included a few ad hoc instructions and a formula with the patterns to help you resize them to your own arbitrary measurements.
find the patterns and brief instructions here: http://oym.org/oymr/m34howto/patterns/
and in breaking news, i just noticed that ATF is selling soutache braid for caps now! i never noticed another place that sold it, so this is good. m34 hats look a lot cooler with the soutache. although they don't seem to have panzer pink which is a shame if you want to make a panzer sidecap. maybe their artillery red would work... i probably won't be able to work the soutache into this tutorial though because i'm a little unfamiliar with the most accurate way to sew it on. need to research it a bit.
edit: having made the hat already, the size came out to more like 58 than 59. a little tight on my 59 head. so, my "formula" for pattern resizing is a bit off. not really sure how to rectify this, other than to make 4 or 5 more hats in different sizes and see how they come out, and then save a copy of each pattern for each size.
Last edited by moses on 25 May 2006, 23:40, edited 1 time in total.
ataching the soutache
I had the oportunity to examine an original m34 cap that came from Collectors Guild years ago and the soutache was stitched along it's center with the same color tread as the braid. Top point of the braid was at the top edge of the cockade and was at a 45 degree angle. At the bottom ends of the braid they had pierced the wool just above the bottom stitch line and passed the ends of the braid through the tiny holes and was tack stitched on the inside of the flap. To get panzer pink braid you could either use some dye remover and try and lighten the red to a pink or dye white braid to pink. Rit dyes come in many shades just have to find the one that is closest.
certainly doesn't seem true around here. i haven't seen any locally and those that i've found online are either in the wrong size or wrong color (many are silver) are you sure yours are the right size? should be like 1/8" i think...Gesetz wrote:You can get soutache (russian braid style) at almost every fabric store....my local one has atleast 20 different colours!
maybe i just live in a shitty region for sewing appliqués and notions.