‘Normal’ felt is flat. If you try to use this flat felt to block a 3D shape – like a standard domed crown – it will have to have a seam. It might also rip and get a hole in it as it is usually quite thin. And modern day craft felt is also very likely to be synthetic or have a mix of synthetic in it. It will never have the same look and feel as a hat body made specifically for millinery.
Hat making felt is sold as already in a rounded hat shape. There are quite a few different shapes you can buy from factories that make hat bodies, but as a beginner you will probably either buy it as a cone or a capeline. When you are looking for what to buy you need to know 2 things:
- The shape you want to buy. The shape you will buy from a millinery materials supplier is either a cone or a capeline. Sometimes you might hear people talk about a ‘flare’ (which is a slightly bigger cone). See below for a picture of a capeline (needed for larger brimmed hats) and a cone (used for pillboxes / berets / short top hats and bowlers).
- The material you want the shape to be made in. Felt is what the material is. It is a compressed shape of felted fibres, but the fibres can from a variety of animals. And the cost of your hat body (cone or capeline) will change depending on what animal it has been made from. It could be wool, rabbit, hare, beaver, cashmere, mink….. and probably more that I have forgotten! If buying vintage felts, please remember that it is very likely the felt was made using mercury. Think about your health and safety and wear gloves when blocking it as you might otherwise absorb the chemicals through your skin.

A millinery felt cone

A millinery felt capeline
Felt is one of the oldest, if not the oldest material used for making hats. When you think of Guy Fawkes and see those tall crowned hats, they are made from felt. Below is a great film from the Torb and Reiner YouTube channel, where they describe some of the differences between different millinery felt hat bodies.
Some pictures of my own stock of millinery felt and what they are called if you want to buy something similar
A plain furfelt. I bought this from Kopka in Germany. A thinner felt than a peachbloom and a lovely matt quality. A good option for making vintage looking hats. I have not found a UK supplier of plain furfelt, and have been told by a large UK supplier that it doesn’t exist (not true!) If you want even thinner felt, which is perfect for draping and flower making, then you can buy ’tissue’ felt, also from Kopka in Germany.

Plain furfelt (have not found a supplier in the UK)
A peachbloom or velour felt. When you buy it they will normally ask if you want a single sided or double sided peachbloom. That means do you want the slightly fuzzy surface on both sides or just on the top (double sided is more expensive). Yes, this is made from rabbit fur. It is most likely if you buy this in the UK to come from a large felt producer in the Czech Republic called Tonak. The rabbit fur is a by product of the meat industry. Furfelt is much easier to block and has a softer look to blocked wool felt.

Peachbloom or velour – a furfelt
A soleil millinery felt cone, in blue and red. It is a quality of felt half way between a melusine and a velour peachbloom. The shiny surface shows up best on dark colours and for this reason the supplier I bought them from (Kopka in Germany) only sells them in jewel colours.

Soleil fur felt
I made this hat from nothing! I made the felt from raw sheep’s wool whilst on a course with The School of Historical Dress taught by Rachel Frost of the company Crafty Beggars. It took 2 days, 2 days! If you are interested in buying a hat like this, Rachel is an expert in hats that were made in the days when felt was made entirely by hand with very little machinery http://www.thecraftybeggars.org/hats.htm

Handmade felt from scratch by me
I bought this felt by mistake from Kopka and it was impossible to block. I bought it from the men’s section of the website and it is a very thick hood that is designed to be blocked by machines in a factory. ‘Melange’ means the way the colour is made up of different coloured fibres mixed together to create the colour, rather than a dyed flat colour.

melange felt sold for men’s hats
A melusine felt in hunter green. These are getting to be pretty expensive these days! You can create a nice recreation of a plush silk vintage top hat with this type of felt. After blocking you steam, brush and polish it and you get a lovely shine.

Melusine felt
2 wool felt cones, blocked on top of each other over a rounded crown to bring up the size of the crown to my client’s headsize. Wool felt is cheaper than furfelt, and you can buy it in a range of bright colours. There seem to be quite a few suppliers selling from Poland on Ebay, and most millinery suppliers will stock woolfelt, so shop around.
These types of hoods will not have the same finished appearance as furfelt. They are also more likely to shrink. When you are blocking them make sure you leave them for an extra amount of time on the block, to make sure that the felt is 100% dry before you remove them.
They are perfect to use for blocking skull caps to go under wigs or sculptural creations for carnival, showgirl, opera and pantomime. Get one in a colour that matches your creation, plus 1 meter of 1cm wide petersham to bind the edge.

Wool felt
How do they make the felt hat bodies??
I’ve been making hats for over 10 years. I knew a lot of labour went into making the hat bodies (the ‘hoods’, ‘cones’ and ‘capelines’) but seeing how much work goes into them from watching this film just blew me away. (Also, the health and safety person inside me wishes they were all wearing dust masks!!!)
Below is a film of a modern day felt making factory. If you compare this one to the black and white film at the bottom of this blog post you will see that the machines are pretty much the same.
Similar to the film above, here is a film of modern felt cones and capelines being made. This one has a bit more information at certain points (like they get rid of the longer hairs in the felt, as the shorter hairs make better quality felt). Also, I like this film because you see some great hat making processes for making the finished hat. (Look for the heavy sand bags that are lowered down on top of the hats to press down the brims).
Below is another film of a hat being made from start to finish. It is from around the 1930s I think. At this time they probably would have still been using mercury as part of the process, something which poisoned many hatters, they had the ‘danbury shakes’ and were ‘mad as a hatter’. Mercury was used as part of the felt making process called carroting (so called because it turned the felt fibres more orange). You can find out more in this Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erethism
You see at one point in the film a man working the felt with his hands. It says 2 hours to felt 3 hoods. That’s 2 hours of working with bare skin against some very toxic chemicals. If you are using vintage materials, think about what has gone into making them (this also applies to buying vintage feathers).
If you compare the black and white film below with the colour more modern day film above, you will notice that the beginning bits are almost identical. The part where the felt cones are worked by hand to compress them in the black and white film has been replaced by a machine process in the modern day film.
One of the most amazing parts for me was at around 8 minutes. You see a Steson being hand blocked around a crown block. The men pull out the brims by hand, a brilliant thing to watch, so skilled.
What a great article. Thank you!
Oh thank you! Glad to be a help ?
Thank you for the time and research it is a great article. Catherine
Hi Catherine. You are very welcome. With the soaring cost of going to University, I’m trying to spread my knowledge through this blog when I have time to write posts. And to also teach people why a hat can cost a lot of money just in materials, before you then start taking account of the labour time. Millinery is such a wonderful craft, I want it to survive, and for the people who make hats to charge enough money for their hats to keep going.
Really interesting- thanks Claire
Isn’t it? so much work goes into them.
Is melusine fur felt from farmed animals? Are any animals killed to make this fur felt for hats?
Hi Avril. As far as I know (I am 99.9% sure about this), fur felt is made from farmed animals (rabbits) that are used in the meat industry in Czech Republic. I have always been told that the fur is a byproduct of the meat industry.
The reason melusine felt has long fibres on the top of the felt is because of the machine they use at the end to make it fluffy (a bit like if a piece of wood is made rough with sandpaper).
‘Melusine’ is a quality of surface, in the same way that ‘velour’ and ‘plain’ and ‘peachbloom’ are qualities of surface. It describes how the hoods have been ‘finished’. These types of descriptions are different from talking about the fibre / animal that the felt is made from (historically felt could be made from beaver, hare, rabbit, sheep).
I use either vintage hats that I reblock into the new shape I want, or wool felt, or rabbit fur felt. Although when reblocking a vintage felt you have to be very careful of the toxic chemicals you are exposing yourself to. Vintage felt very often will contain mercury. If you buy a hat in a high street disposable fashion store, very often the felt will be wool felt as it is the cheapest. For designer hand crafted hats, where the aim is for somebody to treasure and keep it as an heirloom, I use fur felt. It blocks into a much smoother and more attractive shape. Wool felt also has a tendency to shrink and warp, as well as being a rougher texture, and often when you put stiffener on it the felt ends up marked and stained.
I do use wool felt for skull caps in theatre, that are then covered in hair, or animal ears, a small boat, or whatever other outlandish idea the costume designer wants.
Beaver fur felt is a product of science based wildlife management. Preventing an over population of animals that cause damage to crops etc. and ensuring that the animal is not killed purely as a pest and thrown into the trash. If we need to manage populations to prevent disease from spreading, flooding roads and washing out bridges when they build dams and infecting water supplies with Tularemia then we should be responsible enough to make sure that the animal is utilized to the best of our ability, food, shelter, clothing just as indigenous native have done for thousands of years.
Hello Claire
Thank you for sharing this article again
In the US we talk a lot about beaver fur, in the UK rabbit.
What are the pro and con between the two?
And is there a good supplier for beaver capeline that you might refer me to?
Kindly,
Catherine
I have white, very stiff felt like fabric I bought SEVERAL years ago to make hats. What is it called and how would I use it? Or can you point me where to go to find out? If I just knew the name of it, that would help a lot. Thanks.