Hat Making Supplies Checklist: Liners, Sweatbands, Ferrules and Labels

Whether you block hats from scratch or restore old ones, the inside of the hat needs the same handful of supplies every time. This is the checklist we use at Giusto Hat Supply, with what each item does and what to look for when you buy it.

Satin hat liners

The liner is the fabric inside the crown. A good satin hat liner is about 4.75 inches tall, gathers at the top, and tucks in behind the sweatband, with a touch of glue optional on the hidden bottom edge. Liners are sold by head size: if you keep one size on the shelf, 58 cm (US 7 1/4) covers the most hats, and 56, 58 and 60 cm together cover the great majority. Keep a few solid colours for repairs, black, cream and white cover most jobs, and a handful of prints for customers who want something personal. For your own brand, custom liners with a foil or printed logo are made to order.

Leather sweatbands

The sweatband is the leather strip that sits against the forehead and holds the crown shape. Our bands are about 1.75 inches (4.2 cm) wide and 1.2 mm thick, in a stock length of about 25 inches, which covers hat sizes from 6 7/8 to about 7 5/8; larger heads need the XXXL length. Every band is reeded, with a synthetic wire in the edge for a firm, even fit, and the two ends of that wire are joined by one ferrule. Buy by the piece for repairs or in bulk for production, and consider sewn-to-size bands if you would rather skip the cutting and joining at the bench.

Sweatband ferrules

Ferrules are the small metal tips that fit over the ends of the reed on a reeded sweatband. They stop the reed fraying, give the join at the back a clean finish and are the detail that separates a professional repair from a home one. Keep a bag of them next to the sweatbands.

Sweatband bows

The small bow at the back of the sweatband covers the join where the two ends meet. It is traditional on fedoras and western hats, and customers notice when it is missing. They come in packs, in black, brown and burgundy, and take a minute to sew on.

Woven size labels

A woven label with the hat size, in inches and centimetres, sewn inside the sweatband tells the customer and the next repairer what they are holding. It is a cheap step that makes a hat look finished and makes resale easier.

Thread, needles and tools

Beyond the supplies above you need strong thread that matches the sweatband, curved needles for sewing inside a crown, a flexible tape measure, sharp scissors and a hat stretcher for fitting. None of these are exotic; the difference between a good and a bad interior is almost always the liner and the sweatband, not the tools.

How much to keep in stock

For a repair shop, a dozen liners in mixed colours, ten sweatbands in black and brown, a bag of ferrules, a pack of bows and a run of size labels covers a month of ordinary work. Hat makers producing batches should order sweatbands and liners in bulk; both ship from the USA and bulk pricing is on the product pages.

Where to start

If you are setting up from nothing, start with the two items every hat needs: a satin hat liner and a leather sweatband. Add ferrules, bows and labels as you go. And if you want the inside of your hats to carry your own name, ask us about custom logo liners and personalized sweatbands. Curious how these supplies work out for other hat makers? Read our Etsy reviews, over 2,500 of them at 4.9 stars, before you buy.

The sewing kit

Most sweatband and liner jobs need no machine at all. Hatters sewed sweats in by hand long before anyone built a machine for it, and the hand method is still what a repair counter uses.

Two needles do the work. A leather needle, sometimes called a glover’s needle, has a three-sided point that cuts a clean hole through the leather when you join the two ends of a band. A long, strong straw or milliner’s needle goes through felt without bending and is what sews the band into the crown, passing through the existing holes in the tape. Some hatters prefer a stitching awl for the band-to-felt seam; it makes a lock stitch quickly and neatly, and it is worth learning if you sew more than one band a month.

For thread, use cotton or polyester close to the leather colour and run it through a lump of beeswax before you sew. Waxed thread pulls through felt without snagging and does not cut into the hide the way a dry thread can. Cut three to four times the crown circumference for the band seam so you do not run out half way round. Double the thread for joining the band ends; a single waxed thread is enough for sewing through the tape into the felt.

The rest of the bench is ordinary: a tape measure, sharp scissors, small pliers to squeeze the middle of a ferrule so the reed cannot slide through, wire cutters for the reed, a seam ripper to lift old stitches without tearing felt, a tailor’s pencil to mark the stitch line, masking tape or clips to tack the band, a scrap of wood and a small nail to start the holes in the leather seam, and a letter opener or any blunt tool for taking up the slack at the end. Most of it is already in the house.

Buying in bulk

Every product on the site is sold by the piece, so a repair shop can order three liners and two sweatbands on a Tuesday without a minimum order tying up a month of cash. Hat makers and shops can order the same items in bulk at wholesale prices: message Lupo with the quantities and colours you want and you will get a quote. The catalogue is the same one everybody sees, which means the colour you tested on one hat is the colour that arrives in the box of fifty.

Some quantities are ready to order without a quote. On the sweatband side there is a set of four rustic distressed bands, two coffee and two khaki. The small parts are where bulk really matters, because nobody wants to run out of a tiny part in the middle of a job: woven sweatband bows come in packs of one hundred, woven size labels come in packs, and ferrules come by the bag.

Once a shop is selling a steady number of hats, branding the inside is the cheapest marketing there is. A set of twenty-five personalized leather sweatbands carries your name or logo in every hat you sell, setup fee included, with bulk pricing for larger runs, and custom satin liners can be printed or foiled with your artwork through the custom made orders page. Both are what a customer sees every time the hat comes off.

The two boxes

The bundle box is roughly five pounds of hat making stock: a minimum of fifty leather sweatbands in mixed colours and styles, a bunch of satin hat liners in a variety of colours and sizes, and a few surprises. The leathers are the same reeded stock we sell by the piece, in regular and full grain. Contents vary from box to box, which is the point. It is packed to order, processed in two to three days, and ships from the USA.

The mystery box is fifty satin hat liners in a mix of colours and sizes, every box different. It suits the shop that already has its sweatbands sorted and wants liners in depth: a printed liner sells a repair, and fifty of them cover a season.

The bundle is for the restorer who never knows which size or colour walks in next, the maker who wants stock without spending a fortune, and the beginner who does not know where to start. Neither box is a complete kit on its own; add ferrules, bows and labels alongside.

Running a repair counter

A hat repair counter is the most reliable trade in a hat shop. Hats come in with a torn liner, a sweatband gone hard, a missing bow, a stretched crown or a size label that has fallen out, and every one of those jobs is done with a few dollars of parts and half an hour at the bench. The shops that do it well keep a short, standard stock and a fixed routine for taking the hat in.

Turn the hat over in front of the customer and go through the interior in order: liner, sweatband, bow, label, crown, brim. Note what is torn, stained, cracked, stretched or missing, and say what each fix costs before the hat leaves the counter. Write the head size on the ticket from the customer’s head, not from the label, because felt shrinks and labels lie.

The commonest repair is also the quickest. A liner that has torn at the tip, gone shiny or stained past cleaning is lifted out and a new one tucked behind the sweatband in a few minutes. Keep a solid black, a cream and one paisley on the shelf, in the sizes that match the hats you see, and you can finish nine hats in ten on the spot.

For a repair shop, a dozen liners in mixed colours and sizes, ten sweatbands in black and brown, a bag of ferrules, a pack of bows and a run of size labels covers a month of ordinary work. Reorder when the last of any one item goes on the bench, not when the shelf is empty.

What we do not make

Millinery supplies is a wide phrase, and most searches for hat making supplies end at general craft sellers that stock everything and specialise in nothing. We are the opposite: we make and stock the parts that go inside a hat, and we will happily send you elsewhere for the rest. We do not make hat blocks, felt hoods, straw bodies, outer hat bands or brim wire. What we do make is the interior, which is the part that fails first and the part a customer sees every time the hat comes off.