Rainspots on Hat

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 35, 23 February 1940, Page 44

Rainspots on Hat

Dear Aunt Daisy, I have a light navy blue felt hat which is terribly marked and spotted by rain. I was caught in one of the recent storms. I have had the hat only a fortnight, and would be so grateful if you could tell me how to clean it, as it is impossible

to wear it in its present state,-

R.

B.

(Seatoun),

How very disappointing for you — and unfortunate too, for ail felt hats do not show rain marks, I wore one all last winter, and got very wet indeed lots of times; but it always showed up unmarked and unblemished when it was dry. I never put it near the fire — just left it in the hall, in the ordinary way, expecting the worst; and getting a pleasant surprise. Mine was a wine colour. However, that is not much comfort for you, is it? Try rubbing the spots carefully and gently with a gum-rubber, or art rubber, it is sometimes called — a soft kind which you buy at stationers’ shops. Or you could rub with another piece of felt — cut from another hat. It is always good to rub any material with a piece of its own kind; that is why we rub a marked material between our hands — it is rubbing against itself, as it were. Another good remedy for tain-spotted felt is to rub it with the finest sandpaper, first softened by being rubbed between the hands. In hat factories, they polish felt by holding it against an emery-wheel; but it has to be done very expertly, or the surface is weakened, and you may even rub it nearly into a hole with your sandpaper. It was a factory worker who gave me the hint. Sometimes holding the hat over the steam of a kettle will help. They stearn the hats in the factory, of course; but that, too, is an expert job, and done all over at once, and at a certain pressure. I think you will find the gum rubber quite good. If not successful, take it into a milliner’s shop and get them to have it done in their workroom.