Autumn in Cranford: Just a Wee Little Bonnet

Oooook....so maybe I told a little white lie in the title of this post.  This bonnet is not wee in any sense of the word.  It is HUGE!!  It is so very 1830s in its HUGENESS!  And totally fun!  I used Lynn McMasters 1830s Romantic Period Bonnet and modified it a bit.  I wasn't overly fond of the brim so cut it down a bit (or it would have been truly massive!) and had to enlarge the whole thing as my noggin is a bit on the bigger side.  I really wanted a straw bonnet that wasn't just regular plait straw.  I drew inspiration from these sources:  Fashion Plate, Augusta Auction, The MET, and The MET.  My straw is by no means era correct, but I reeeeaaalllly love the lacy look of it.  I sewed it to rusty orange dupioni silk covered buckram.  I knew that a using this straw braid for a bonnet of this proportion would more than likely fail miserable because of how wimpy it is, so the sewing it to buckram was my solution.  I was hoping that mounting it over the silk covered buckram would give the illusion of the bonnet being lined like these examples:  silk lined straw (I couldn't find the link to the original image :-( ), silk lined straw (I know this is an earlier bonnet, but you can see the silk peeking through the straw).  I had some incredible antique ribbon and ostrich feathers in my stash that I hoped would work really well with the color scheme of the bonnet and I think they do.  Oh!!  And hello wheat spray!  I have had this for years waiting for the perfect hat to put it on and I am happy that it has found its new home!  All I have left to do to finish the bonnet, is find some closely shaded ribbon for the ties.

So....here is the wee little 1830s bonnet with the 1830s day cap on my Emma head form...can't wait to get my bangs all curled up so I can wear this bonnet!

Next week is dedicated to making a Revolutionary War Patriot costume then after that I get to start on sleeve supports for the dress!

Be blessed my friends!

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