Saturday, 3 January 2015

Bonny Bonnet

In November I went along to a two hour 'Make a Regency bonnet' workshop, in preparation for the inaugural Jane Austen ball here in lil' ol' Dunedin. The instructions said to bring a straw hat and whatever materials you required. So I read several 'how to' pages on the web, and settled on these materials, which I think are rather lovely.


They are a mix of items I had already and new things bought to match.so I had the tartan left over from the making of my husband's kilt. It was a wedding gift from his uncle in Scotland. The other shiny fabric is a pure polyester voile that I bought for wedding table dressing, it has a beautiful gold sheen that isn't visible in photos. I had the yellow grosgrain ribbon and some narrow green in stash, and bought some wider green and the velvet ribbon because I just couldn't resist them. And the peacock feather I had, as my mother had asked for some to make earrings for her wedding outfit, and then didn't use them. Oh, and the hat I was gifted by a friend.

At the workshop I hacked off the back of the brim and crown so the hat would sit right for a bonnet. Having stabilized the edge with the hot glue gun (I know they didn't have those on Regency times, but really, if they had, they would have used them. Either that or they wouldn't have tried to make a bonnet in two hours, That's my story and I'm sticking to it). I trimmed the edge in green ribbon, and then began making a tartan covering for the crown of the hat. This was necessary because the hat was a trilby style. I glued some ribbon ties on quickly so I could put my proto-bonnet on for a photo.

That was as far as I got in two hours, which was not far! And it was already clear that it wasn't working out too well. The brim was weak (it several cuts which I glued up, but that affected how it bent) and I wasn't happy with how it stood straight up from my forehead. The crown on the hat was also too shallow so the hat sat too far back on my head and was at risk of falling off.

Back home, I ripped off the ribbon trim and cut rounder edges to the brim. I then cut between the brim and the crown nearly all the way to the front, and glued it at a better angle. I had to trim off the extra brim underneath. Then I cut the top of the crown off completely. I attached a couple of strips of buckram with (gasp!) my stapler, but they may be unnecessary as the tartan crown will fulfil that purpose. It looks a lot better...



Then I turned under the edge of my tartan to make a casing for a drawstring, as recommended in the tutorials I read. Oh dear. It makes adjusting to the right size a breeze, but look at the awful thickness of those gathers! How will I ever cover those neatly with ribbon?


So now I plan to unpick the casing, and run gathering threads through instead. I won't turn the edge under (as it will be covered with ribbon) so there won't be so much bulk. Or I may try pinning in some pleats instead to see if that would look neater and not be so thick.

And if you are wondering about those delightful glue lines on the inside of the brim? It will be lined with the polyester voile, nicely ruched. But first it may need reinforcing with either buckram and wire round the rim, or a good layer of PVA all over. And before I can do that, or trim the edge, I need to get hold of some black spray paint. The reason I'm using this hat rather than a healthier one is the colour, and yet it is actually very faded and brown on the top instead of black. Sigh, I have a lot of sympathy for the ancestors I have who were straw hat makers in Clophill.

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