Lone Star Hatters has been in business for 25 years. We started out in the felt hat renovation business and progressed to the building of hats. Our speciality is the ability to "custom fit" a hat to an individual's head. We are able to do this with an old hat making apparatus called a "conformer." We put this on our customer's head and it punches out an outline of the person's head. This is the first step in making a custom hat. After we have the customer's head measurement we then decide on color,  crown height, brim width and the trim that will be used on the hat.

The first step in making a hat is "blocking." This is the process of actually creating the crown of the hat. This is done by putting the rough hat body on a wooden block. Then it is steamed and ironed until the diseired shape of the crown is achieved. The hat is then put under a "sand flange," which is a bag of 75 pounds of mason sand. The hat body with the block in it is inserted in a flange and put under the sand flange for 14-24 hours. Next the hat body with the block is put on the crown iron and ironed and sanded until the desired finish is achieved. The brim is then sanded, trimmed to the width desired and then fitted for a sweatband. We sew all of our sweatbands in by hand. 

The last steps are to sew the satin liner, which is embroidered with the customer's name, the ribbon on the sweatband, fit the self band and three piece buckle set. We usually wait for the customer to come in before we shape the crown and brim unless we are shipping the hat. In that case we already have discussed with the customer how he wants his hat to be shaped.

Lone Star Hatters is located both in Gainesville and Big Spring Texas.  Gainesville hat shop is operated by Jim and Jeanine Proctor at 5026-1 E. Hwy 82.  Lone Star Hatters in Big Spring is operated by Justin and Koby Jenkins and located on 11000 Longshore Road.  Phone 432-638-7122.