wwii axis reenactment forum

Anyone with experience of this very good german tailor?
I have two M43 Einheitsmutze from him.
One size 60 and one 59.
The 60 is a bit too large during summer but good at winter
wearing the "oma" head scarf.
The 59 is just a little to small even for summer.
I know it´s possible to shrink wool caps with hot boiling water,
but is it also possible to enlarge them?
And different quality of wool reacts in different ways.
Question:
Is it wize to try the hot water thing to
enlarge a Janke cap or is it better just to wear the cap
to make it fit after time?

Long time no see sir well going back to my army days to shrink a berret you whent from hot water to cold .To shape it you would you use hot water now I dont know if you can enlarge it by the hot cold way

What I do, is wet the cap with cold water and stretch it with my hands.It will keep it's shape, just pull it.

Stretching can be a problem not only do you have to stretch the wool but the cotton lining and don't forget the stitching. To see what I mean about the stitching take a piece of cotton cloth then fold a hem and run a stitch line along the fold. Then pull on either end of the piece of cotton and you will hear the stitches start popping. The same thing will happen to the cap. If you hear faint snapping noises while you are trying to stretch the cap you will know you are breaking the stitches. If you take a tapered bottom bowl that is less than the circumfrance of the cap and tapers larger than the cap wet the cap and carefully ease it down over the bottom of the bowl till it's just slightly larger than the circunfrance you need and let it dry on the bowl or just wet it and put it on your head and wear till it dries.
If you have a Hatter near by take it to him and have him "ease' or stretch the cap

OK, this might sound odd...but it works...take a shower with it!

I noticed my cps got bigger when I wore them in the rain for a few hours, so here's the trick:

Take a shower with the cap on so it fits to your head then squeez out most of the water then wear the cap for as long as possible if you're staying around the house...eventually it will get larger. But don't take it off and let it dry, it needs to form to your head. Why don't you just soak it and then wear it? Well I find that the shower (a hot one) works best as the steam also gets to it. Even better: wear it in the sauna. I have my own 2 man sauna here...works charms on caps to make 'em look "crushed" and battle worn!

In my experience , a smaller cap that is worn often will eventually stretch to your head , a 59 to a 60 say , though it shrinks back to a 59 in time , so you could keep it stretched to the required size between wearing it . I have a Janke size 60 , and its fractionally too big - the addition of a band of material around the inside alleviated that problem ( I have seen original examples of this ) , the thickness depending on how tight you want it - put it in behind the sweatband .

Regards ,

Halle

Buy a hat stretcher. I have a new made version: Try here
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywor ... 8h9hcogi_b

I also have a old one from the 40's. Just dampen the rim of the cap (including the liner ) and place the stretcher inside. Tighten it up and over a few days repeat and increase the size each day till it fits. Works very nicely. As mentioned, don't over tighten it. Easy does it.

Jim

Urwaldjaeger wrote:Anyone with experience of this very good german tailor?
I have two M43 Einheitsmutze from him.
One size 60 and one 59.
The 60 is a bit too large during summer but good at winter
wearing the "oma" head scarf.
The 59 is just a little to small even for summer.
I know it´s possible to shrink wool caps with hot boiling water,
but is it also possible to enlarge them?
And different quality of wool reacts in different ways.
Question:
Is it wize to try the hot water thing to
enlarge a Janke cap or is it better just to wear the cap
to make it fit after time?

Next time you could order a tailord size 59,5 that will solve your problem.