Making the Bonnet (1830's style. Sort of.)

The final video in this little series about my two 1830's dresses. As promised, in this one I make a bonnet to go with the red dress!

I started off with a simple, small bonnet in mind...but my materials didn't lend themselves well to that vision. So I ended up with a much larger bonnet than I had intended, but I do like how it looks (at least shape wise)! 

Even though it turned out okay, this was my first time working with pre made straw hats in this way and I really did not enjoy it.

 I've made several hats with these as the base, and I like reshaping the brims and creating a new crown for them. But trying to work with its natural shape for a bonnet wasn't fun!

If I did this again I'd try to use my sewing machines zig zag stitch for a lot of the legwork. And even consider making a foam base with the wire and lining, with the straw serving as a decorative top layer. 

As it is now, It was really difficult to get together, really hurt my fingers, and looks really poorly made when you get up close. 

But from a distance it is cute! Here are a few unedited photos of it today that show the shape better. 

I would also just like to share my enthusiasm over how well these pictures turned out. I feel like every time I try to photograph things something goes wrong. It's either too sunny. Or it rains. Or it is humid and my hair falls flat. Or my dress gets covered with ticks. LIKE DOZENS OF TICKS.  

And last time I photographed things at this specific spot the fence was infested with caterpillars and I'm still slightly traumatized. 

But this time there were no bugs! The lighting was great! And there were even horses playing in the field. At one point the white one was rolling around in the grass like a puppy. It was great* 

*I may retract that statement if I get a rash in the next three weeks. There might have been poison ivy. 

Don't move to Long Island. 

The straw bonnet (YouTube)