John J. Leen is starting 2013 working on a craft he thought he’d never be able to master again.

A hatter, he’d lost the use of his left hand after a stroke seven years ago. He’s left-handed, and that put an end to his hat making until last month when a former customer got him back into the business.

“More than 20 years ago, I bought some straw hats at a wholesale store, and they were so ugly,” said the 68-year-old. “I bought a book on hat making, changed the shape of the hats with a steamer, added scarves and material for bands, and sold them all at a shop in Town & Country Shopping Center.”

That ushered him into hat making. He continued to make hats for the shop, but thought he could make more money by selling them himself: “I rented a corner of a shop in the Oregon Emporium, and started designing and making all styles of hats, learning as I went.”

Then, he opened his own shop, The Hat Tree.

“I made pillboxes, fedoras, and hats for brides who were referred to my shop,” he said.

In addition to a dead willow tree used to display hats, he added mannequins and dressed them in clothes he’d made, specially designed to match the hats.

“Women would come in and buy the hat and matching outfit,” he recalls.

He had his shop for two years, then went to Rubenstein’s Department Store on West Third St., where he did window displays and sold his hats. When the store burned down, he worked at various jobs, but “all that time, I still made hats and sold them out of my mom’s home.”

After his stroke, he tried drawing with his right hand. He is a resident of Heartland of Kettering.

“I drew people here at Heartland of Kettering and finally started drawing hats again – they were better than the hats I’d drawn with my left hand,” he said.

Several months ago, a former customer located him and wanted some new hats, so he drew some designs for her.

His sister and girlfriend pulled and stretched felt over the head form, and Leen was able to complete the hats. But, before they were picked up, he contacted The Brim, a hat shop that opened earlier this year in the Oregon District.

“The owner came out and saw the hats, and now I’ll be doing special orders for them,” he said.