help dating and restoring Navy blue felt tilt hat

[Pinkcoke]

I feel, by the general quirkyness of this design it is probably 40's possibly 30's but I've not seen enough of them to tell what features came from either decade. You can just about see in the picture the zig zag tacking inside that holds the crown in a domed shape but partly crushed down. It's quite a striking piece when on, and we think the two ribbon ends have been tacked down later when they originally stuck out quite a lot, with the ribbon loops also much more prominent. I plan to restore this to the original effect but am not sure what I can and can't do to a felt hat like this.
It also has an elastic hat band with a metal end piece that looks remarkably like a fountain pen nib (seen on the right hand side, just below the glass hat pin), and I just wondered if anybody else had seen them looking like this before or it really was a case of make do and mend! This came from the house with plenty of other 30's & 40's garments including CC41 so I know I'm in that area somewhere.
I did take some pictures of it on my sister, if it helps to see it on, but the contrast between the wall and hat made it so dark you couldn't see any of the detail.

 

[Rue_de_la_Paix]

This is an adorable hat, and must have been quite snappy looking when it was new. Not having it in hand, I can only guess, but I suspect that it has been reworked at least once. It may have even started out as man's hat, made over into a lady's style. The inside hatband is odd to me for a woman's hat, and is not the normal type of ribbon banding usually found in a woman's hat. It looks more like a man's cap's inner sweatband. Also, the inner band looks newer than the hat. That has either been replaced or is another clue that it was a man's hat. Also the zig-zag stitches should not be so visible, so again, signs of re-working? The brim edge appears to possibly have been trimmed also. Of course, it may have originally been a woman's hat, but the sweatband inside has been replaced.

I cannot tell if this is wool, or a fur-felt, and that can effect the ability to restore it. The petersham ribbon and bow loops can be steamed and stuffed with tissue while cooling, and that should perk them up nicely. You can snip back the raw edges of the ribbons to make them look newer (probably been done before as you say they were longer?). But the fading of the ribbon is not anything you can really do anything about, unless you want to take off the ribbon and dye it. That is a lot of work and then you have to get it back on the crown the way it was, again not easy unless you are adept at ribbon work. A good brushing will perk up the felt too, it looks to be in OK shape except for it is faded.

As for dating, hard to tell for sure, but late 30s' or early 40s is a good guess.

Oh yes, the elastic band with the metal tip sounds exactly like the hatlastics that were commonly used in hats after WWII, and are still available today. I use them all the time.

 

[Pinkcoke]

Thanks Barbara, I never thought it was a customised hat, mainly because the two ribbon ends are backed on what appears to be the same felt as the main body but stiffened, and to clarify what I meant in the first message, I believe the ribbon ends weren't tacked to the crown originally, and when cut free the ribbon will actually cover the felt backing again (tacking them down lengthened the distance the ribbon had to cover and hence it looking short).
I didn't think the ribbon was too faded, the contrast on my camera has lightened these images considerably and the colour looks fine in reality so I won't be taking the ribbon off completely. I will try and get some close ups of the felt for you in daylight however.
The hat band is intriguing, as in all my men's hats you could read the brand crown up, this is the first hatband I've hat with the writing up when the crown is down, so entirely possible it was replaced when the hat was altered, it does sound more like a man's hat brand too.