I am making a cake in the shape of a panama hat in late June, and I'm having a hard time figuring out what might help give me the texture I need. I'll be working with a fondant/candy clay mix (and gumpaste for the brim), and the color I'll be using is a burnt orange. The orange hat in the picture is the one I'll be making, just with a bit deeper orange. This cake is going to get a lot of attention and I want it to be perfect, any help would be greatly appreciated!

I would think you could put a piece of tight saran wrap down and then emboss the hat fabric over it.

I'm pretty sure they are made of straw. So I don't really know what I would use.

You could go out and buy a vinyl tablecloth that has that texture embossed on it. I know they exist because after I tried rolling out fondant on my mother's tablecloth and flipping it over to put the fondant on my cake, I noticed it had a linen like texture to it. I think she bought it at Walmart. Hope it helps!

I use fabric all the time to "emboss" my fondant. The fabric store has all kinds of different textures.
Have fun!

I'd get a piece of burlap at the fabric store and use that.

You can also find plastic canvas sheets at most craft stores in many different gauges if what you need is a regular weave pattern - can be washed and sanitized

If you are going with buttercream, you can get textures using papertowels. You just have to find the right papertowel.