How to reshape your worn down cap?

And now for something completely different. 😉

I am an authentic ball cap collector. I have a couple of caps that are more than twenty years old. As a result some of them look quite worn down with crinkles and dents.

Instead of buying new ones, I decided to try to patch them up again. Some of those caps are not for sale anymore and if they are, many of them are ill looking replicas.

It took me a while before I found the solution: Duct tape.

I will show how to patch up your cap. First buy a cheap reel of duct tape. It takes some practice before you will get it right. As soon as you are more experienced you can buy 3M duct tape. I know it is rather expensive, but it is stronger, stiffer than the cheap stuff and thus better material. But for the smaller crinkles and dents the cheap duct tape will work as well.

Here is the cap that I tried to patch up:

First place your finger against the dent on the outside of the cap so you can feel from the inside where to place the duct tape. Press firmly from the inside so the dent will be pushed to the outside.

Repeat this for other spots in the cap. Eventually the inside of the cap will look like this:

Most of the time this is sufficient. If not you can take two old linen bags, fold them like this

and place them inside the cap like this

Then put the cap on your head. The linen bags will follow the shape of your head mostly and shape the cap like it as much as possible.

When done the cap probably will look a lot better.

Sometimes a cap is worn off too much, so it cannot be saved.

Remember that it is almost impossible to bring back the cap to it’s old shape. The best you can get comes close to perfection.

Good luck.