A job for a Saturday. Fixing one of our hat presses while listening to Blues By The Bay. Favorite this afternoon - Frank Bey singing John Lennon's Imagine.

The Stitched Bow Panama Fedora is a San Francisco Hat Co. classic. We first designed it in wool felt, inspired by Matsuda's tailor stitch blazer. When we showed it at the Accessorie Circuit at NYC's Plaza Hotel no one was brave enough to place orders and we gave the sample hat to our brave friend Linda Duchin.

We know Dan from the days when we were fighting city hall, trying to keep our properties from being taken by eminent domain. Sally and Dan ended up being elected to a  San Leandro planning advisory board along with our mutual pal Bob Battinich. It felt good to pull together and win.

We use a 25 ton hydraulic die cutting press and steel rule cutting dies (think ultra sharp & strong cookie cutters)  to "click" cut fabric parts. The resulting cut parts are very uniform and sew together preciesly for excellent fit and hat shape. We do contract die cutting, laminating and other precision sewing and garment work for companies such as Mountain Hardwear®  (we cut and laminated the pockets for their Alchemy™ jackets) and Ariat® for whom we cut fabric swatch books.  Pictured here - piles of cut hemp canvas parts for our Hemp North Coast Goretex® Hat. Our Hemp Forever™ line of hats and bags is made using heavy duty Romainian hemp canvas, the same sturdy cloth used for packs and tennis shoes. By the way, according to Wikipedia, the word canvas means "made of hemp," originating "from the Greek κάνναβις (cannabis)"