Hat #1 Ruched Bonnet
I thought I'd show a bit more of Natalie's, and my, favourite bonnet from Pride and Prejudice
It was inspired by everybody's favourite from S&S:
 | ||
| There's something so happy making about this bonnet! |
I was keeping brims back off the face, so the shape is ideal. But, a total dearth of straw hats! I found one only. And a sort of straw and fabric example, that had it had a straw brim and a cloth "crown," I could have worked with. But it was the other way around. And so, I decided to cover it.
I love this extant bonnet from the MET, albeit 30 years later, but I could still imagine such a bonnet with a shallower brim & plain trim. Because the type of bonnet your average Bennett type sister would be wearing was surprisingly simple.
 |
| American bonnet 1840 MET |
 |
| Side angle. It had to be an odd number of bands to look right and I couldn't face 5! |
 |
| Back angle, deciding what to do to cover the place where all the ruching came together took some fiddling. In the end I felt that this twiddle of gimp did the trick |
This angle shows the straw crown I could not work out how to incorporate. I machine sewed the pleated lining to the brim edge facing outwards, then folded it back in and hand attached it deeper inside. The machine sewing disappeared under trim on both inside and outside.
The simplicity of this bonnet belies the amount of time it took to make it but I enjoyed it very much!
0.5m striped Linen from Voldermart: $16
Hat from some random bigbox store, $8.
Gimp and silk lining both scraps from my stash.
Time: about 6 hours.
Hat #2
Total pivot now to the annual Polish Christmas Market, which is a street fair in November, when it's pretty warm here in NZ! I had been told I could amp up my costuming from the year before, so I put my thinking cap on. What had I not done before? I know, a Nutcracker!'
 | |
| Two nutcrackers that inspired me, with their tophat like hats, knobby tops and gold feather. |
I have a saucy, silly ringmaster costume to deliver military chic, candy cane tights, and I swapped the bolero from my ringmaster for a plainer and more covering cotton one, for heat management and family friendliness. All Ihad to do was add some bling to the jacket and tophat.
To make the knob, I used a small polystyrene ball, a slice of toilet roll and some card from a box.
 |
| The top hat got a red felt and gold motif I had lying around feather and a band of both gold and red. The gold seemed too plain by itself and the red was too narrow by itself, so we got both! I tried magnetising the knob to no avail, in the end a very few stitches held it on. This is a real top hat and they do not respond well to being sewn! |
 |
| The final look. Gold on jacket sleeves, epaulettes, and this very silly costume combo! |
To be fair everybody loved it, but the general consensus was I was riffing on some sort of Polish traditional costume! So funny.
No nuts were harmed in the making, or wearing, of this costume.
So this year, I have already found a gorgeous green cotton off the shoulder dress that is begging to become a Christmas tree inspired look. More on that in 6 months!
So, what do you make of my madcap adventures in millinery??
Dear Mrs. C.,
ReplyDeleteYour "Polish" costume is great fun and that hat! So cool to find what's lying around and repurpose it so that you'd never know what it was in a previous life. The knob on the top hat, for instance. I've always liked metallic candy wrappers but never had one big enough to do anything with. It looks quite convincing. That must have been an epic piece of candy...
Thank you so very much for the deeper look at the little Regency cottage bonnet. It's very doable and again, no one would have the vaguest idea that there was a straw hat under it. Especial Bravo to the trefoil gimp center back trim. Usually people opt for a covered button there, but this is much more seamless with the rest of the design.
Yay for creativity: what wonders it can produce.
Hugs,
Natalie, where it's early summertime
Hiya!! The type of chocolate I mean is a big 250g (8oz) block, the kind divided into little break away squares. Here, such blocks are wrapped in gold foil-faced paper and then a branded sleeve around that. S the resulting piece of paper is easily a letter size. And it is so obedient! And it smells nice heehee. I did forget to say that under the georgette pleated lining is a silk taffeta one, to hide whatever monstrosity of a print was on the sunhat. I think I trimmed out the back bottom edge of it too. I should take more photos and notes but at the time I wasn't interested in documenting the process. This year I feel like I want to blog more and am even toying with a podcast. If we are to be blighted by social media, let us get the very best out of it that we may! <3
Delete