1830s Wedding Bonnet and Accessories

Good Sunday to you all!  I hope that your past week was a fabulous one!  Mine was good.  Mom has been improving with her shattered leg and working on her therapy and should be going home tomorrow!!  Huzzah!  

Today, I'm sharing the bonnet I made to go with the 1830s Wedding Dress.  There wasn't a bonnet that I copied "exactly", but I took some ideas from extant bonnets and fashion plates from the 1830s.  I noticed that a lot of the bonnets from then had a texture or pattern other than plain satin and that made me happy.  I also noticed that quite a few had narrow stripes.  LOVE!  I spent quite a long time trying to locate some fabric that would suit my idea of the bonnet I wanted and it wasn't until my Big Sis, Marilyn Holly gave me a bag of fabric.  In this bag was the perfect fabric!!! Huzzah!  I raced home with my bag of fabric and held it up to my dress, and low and behold they were in the same color family!!!  I was thrilled!  I also wanted it to be over the top to go along with the fabric and design of the dress.  I added three antique, off white ostrich feathers, a huge flower sprig that I took off an antique hat that was falling apart, wide antique ivory ribbon for the decorative bows and some incredible antique lace that was in my stash!!  

The pattern I used was Lynn McMaster's 1830s Romantic Era Bonnet

The Bonnet

Images that inspired me while making the bonnet for the dress:

LACMA

Old Rags tumblr

Necklace and Earrings

My sister, Kelly, made the necklace for me while we were in the waiting room at the hospital waiting for Mom's surgery to be over. Thanks sis!!! Little did we know what a 2 hour knee replacement would turn into an 8 hour surgery to repair the bone that was shattered into over 20 pieces attempting to remove the rod that had been placed in the fibula over 31 years ago.  On a happy note, Mom is improving nicely and will be going home from the care center where she has been rehabilitating for 2.5 weeks tomorrow!!!

The inspiration for the necklace came from Dames a la Mode tumblr.

What She Carried Down the Aisle

I had a hard time finding a fashion plate, portrait or any suggestion that a bride carried flowers on her wedding day in the 1830s.  I'm sure she did, but...  I will do more research into that, but for the fashion show, I liked the idea of a bride walking down the aisle with a prayer book.  All of the fashion plates that I saw from the 1830s of brides showed her holding a prayer book or Bible and many times a handkerchief.  I had a dickens of a time trying to find an era or at least antique prayer book on line or even in town, but I came across this one from the 1960s at a local antique store that was holding an Estate sale.  Huzzah!  I'll continue to look for a true, era appropriate prayer book, but until then, this will do!  I also had my 1830s bride wear my silk, fingerless mitts.

Inspiration below for prayer book or Bible carrying.

Source:  LAPL

Source:  LAPL

Source:  LAPL

Source:  LAPL

Sleeve Supports

To keep the enormous sleeves up and in place, I made these sleeve supports using a pattern that Annielese of The Young Sewphisticate sent me! Thank you my dear!  These are fabulous and totally aided in keeping the correct shape!!  Here is a pair of extant sleeves supports that are in FIDM Museum.

And to finish the blog, one more look at the lovely Miss Molly modeling the dress!  She was so adorable and such a good sport!! Thank you again Molly for joining us!!

Well, I believe that's all for the 1830s Wedding Dress....until I wear it!!  I can't wait!!

I hope you all have a wonderful first week of October!  See you next Sunday!

Blessings!

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