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This series of pictures shows how to block a buckram hat. First the damp buckram is draped, with the grain squarely lined up with center front and back, over the hat block, covered with plastic wrap or foil to keep it from sticking to the wood.
Next, you pull down firmly and steadily on opposing sides, first the sides, then front and back. You really have to pull hard, bracing the block with your stomach, which is hopefully protected from the sticky goo by an apron. Izzie said she gets annoyed when people think a milliner just flits around sprinkling flowers. Hatmaking is hard work!
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While holding the buckram stretched, you hammer in tacks to hold it. Then you yank a string tightly around the place which eventually will be the end of the crown. Often there's a groove in the wooden hat block for the purpose.
Then you have to make it lie smoothly. That means that the material in the direction of the grain (front and back and sides) needs to be flat against the block. The diagonals have to be gathered and stretched down, beneath the string. The gathered pleats have to be small and uniform.
After we had our hats blocked the first night, we left them to dry and went to work on our brims.
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