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The first hat we made, in July 2002, was a buckram hat. Buckram is a stiff, flat woven fabric with glue on it. Wetting the buckram activates the glue, and you can then mold the material and let it dry in its new shape. It was much like papier-mâché (just as messy, too!). The buckram form isn't the end product, of course — it's just the inner support that's then lined and covered with fabric or feathers or so on.
The top three squares in the photo are buckram. I used something like the tulles in the middle row when trimming my felt hat, as a base to sew the feathers to. The middle of the lowest row is flannel, which we used quite a bit. You've probably never seen flannel before, which is why I point it out.
[I wasn't taking pictures of the process yet (that began at the end of buckram), so I've scanned in some pictures from two books (thank you, unknowing benefactors): From the Neck Up: An Illustrated Guide to Hatmaking, by Denise Dreher, and Hats on Heads: The Art of Creative Millinery, by Mildred Anlezark. Good, very thorough books! It surprised me how few pictures of hatmaking I could find online. I'm starting a trend!]
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