can somebody help me to exactly define a fabric?

**ErWeSa** · 03-21-2015, 10:15 PM

Servus to the States!

F.B.: Thank you for your kind reply. It would be an honor for me to make a cap for you (whenever I have the time to do so and provided that I can manage to do a size 60 [what is called in Hutmacherkreisen – no offense! - a „Wasserschädel“] but I do not dispose of the proper fabrics, colors of pipings, etc. Moreover the whole thing is a game of luck for me every time – sometimes the result is more or less satisfying, sometimes not (only the real Meister could produce one masterpiece after the other). So the outlook for having „customers“ for my humble products scares me a bit as I know I won't be able to do a lot of sewing work for lack of time and/or talent.

What concerns Hempe: I scanned the whole book, I just don't know whether it is legal to pass the scans on.

Part of the perfection of the old masters of the trade (apart from knowledge and training which cannot be reached by an amateur) were also the correct aides such as special sewing feet for pipings etc.

And such masters existed in Austria, as F.-B. wrote. Apart from the uniform tailors (the eccentricities of the kaiserlichen „Gigerln“ - F. B. will know what I mean – are legend as are the skills of the Austrian tailors to come up to their wishes) there were many Kappenmacher (Mütze is the German term for the Austrian „Kappe“ although the two words strictly speaking designate 2 different types of headgear, as I once read: Mütze is with peak, Kappe without). Kappenmacher was a Lehrberuf in Austria, i. e. an apprenticeship up into the 1980s. As there were no more apprentices for this trade from then onwards this specialized trade was given up and incorporated into Modisten und Hutmacher as F.-B. shows with his excerpt of AMS Austria. (AMS = „Arbeitsmarktservice“ - euphemism for labor exchange).

All the old Kappenmacher have died out (such as Otto Rek/Vienna, Dürbeck/ Vienna – in his case I am not sure whether he only sold caps or if he really made them -, Schega & Neffe/Graz – closed in the 1980s, he, by the way, is said to have manufactured TR caps of materials he still disposed of well after the war, so be careful with „mint-condition“ Schega caps!, Kralke /Linz, Weichseldorfer/Wien – but this was already a small factory which I could visit in the early 1990s and many more I even don't know they ever existed. This is really a pity as there are only a few Austrian cap makers/factories left: Litto (short for Littomericzky and Slama & Sohn in Vienna (two old established firms which also produced caps during the TR) and Kurzthaler in Linz. As more and more outsourcement to the far east is taking place it is just a matter of time and these last local producers will disappear as well – and with them their knowledge.

In this context it seems important and justified that amateurs try to hold up a dying tradition, which is what I am trying to do.

Before I forget: a link for cap-obsessed people: ?????Schmidt&Sohn??????????????? (could be interesting not only for Helen)

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 03-21-2015 10:15 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**ErWeSa** · 03-21-2015, 10:19 PM

I just see the link doesn't work properly, perhaps this time it will:

?????Schmidt&Sohn???????????????

**ErWeSa** · 03-21-2015, 10:23 PM

There are even still sewing machines similar to those in the Hempe book produced, see here:

TEKIN 335

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 03-21-2015, 10:47 PM

can somebody help me to exactly define a fabric?

Thanks, colleague ErWeSa for a fine post. If you have pages of Hempe scanned, then please post them. I do not think the thing is under protection anymore.

Thanks for nice essay on Vienna and its wonderful life at court and the term Gigerin.
Ich bin doch ein Dickschaedel.
Servus nach Wien. FB

**ErWeSa** · 03-21-2015, 11:12 PM

Dear Sir,
thank you for your quick answer.
The servus should go a bit more to the west, a city known for quite a famous musician. The Hempe scan has some 17700 kb - do you think this is uploadable?
Kronenzeitung, as you certainly know, is not one of the papers one should read if one wants objecive information but I love the Zeitungshalter (have always wanted to procure one to prevent people [especially those to whom you are attached to "bis dass der Tod Euch scheidet"] from messing up the paper).

Liebe Grüße aus dem Sa von ErWeSa!

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 03-22-2015, 12:15 AM

Whoops. Then Servus nach Salzburg and Mozart. I am not at all a Krone person from my level of education or my political leanings, in fact.
I identify with the Frankfurter Allgemeine alte Probe, in fact. I also read Der Standard, too, and each day, at that from afar.
I follow Austrian politics for various personal and otherwise reasons, and that's why I read Die Kronen Zeitung.

I suppose I read the Krone also because this phenomenon has left an impression on me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KtCiKPtOqE

**ErWeSa** · 03-22-2015, 01:05 AM

Good Evening Sir,
I forgot to thank you for your calling me "colleague" and for your calling my post a fine one. I feel very honored!

Well yes, Kronen Zeitung really is a phenomenon which impressively shows how mass media can influence politics. Thanks for the link to Herr Karl! Qualtinger and Oskar Werner are two of the few internationally renowned Austrian actors (although Qualtinger is just known for his part in Eco's The Name of the Rose) whereas Werner's role in „Der letzte Akt“ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vdBxwmDpAU could be of more interest for the followers of this thread. Christoph Walz, the newcomer, born Austrian, and since he won the academy award suddenly rediscovered by Austria (and Kronenzeitung), also wore some interesting headgear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg8QARV8hZo

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 03-22-2015, 03:41 PM

More to my taste when I am in Wien....

**ErWeSa** · 03-22-2015, 03:43 PM

Some more info for Helen and a request to the specialists for fabrics, to tell us if that is any good:

Attachment 818653

Attachment 818655 Attachment 818656 Attachment 818657

Not exactly 50 shades of gray, but still enough to choose from. This is from the link I posted in thread 61, unfortunately it is all in Japanese - perhaps somebody can help us there? This firm offers complete caps (hopefully not with the intention to sell copies as originals), fabrics, insignia etc. etc. but I can't figure out to which terms, whether they do retail business and send their products.

Then, Helen, here the WRF-link to Eisenberg: Meet the Last Muetzenmacher!

and the links to youtube with Eisenberg (interesting how he sews the layers of the top-panel together and his templates):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2hksDDoPyc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPEp4df6i9w

There is another tutorial for visor-cap-making on youtube (in German):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPEp4df6i9w

He is a funny guy, a tailor obviously, who laughs off his error in taking a wrong measure. Interesting though how he takes his measures in a free-hand-way and by making quarters of the fabric. The outcome is not very convincing, yet we can still learn a bit - his marking the fabric by clipping out little pieces with his sciccors.

Hope this will help the amateur-Mützenmacher.

**ErWeSa** · 03-22-2015, 04:04 PM

Grüß Gott Friedrich-Berthold!

Oh yes, Vienna's Zuckerbäcker. Legendary - Demel and Club 45 (for all other followers: this is a very specific Austrian affair only F.-B. will know about). Demel had, for a short while, even an Außenstelle in Salzburg - the Café Glockenspiel. And then there is Zauner in Bad Ischl, and of course, Aida in Vienna. Haven't been to Vienna for too long a time.