A bonnet fit for a country lady

Is exactly how I think of this bonnet. It's so countryside-y with the pheasant feathers and the wheat and the berries. I'm going to start out with my progress photos (such as they are, there were points were I forgot to photograph anything) and then finally photos of my finished bonnet. This might be a
 long post.

My initial inspiration for my bonnet came from this fashion plate from 1810, the top three bonnets specifically.

But in the end I think it ended up looking a bit later than 1810, maybe 1815-20.
Anyway, here we go!

I started off by making a cardboard pattern. I used a slash and spread technique on a long rectangle to make the brim, the tip and sideband are rather self explanatory. 

 

 I then spent three hours drafting and re-drafting the pattern until I got a shape I was satisfied with. I actually messed up at this stage, I didn't take into account the angle of the centre back nor really how much the brim slanted outwards at the front. The problem with the centre back caused difficulties later on. If I were to make it again I would try to tame the front a little and pay more attention to the back.

This is the shape I settled on in the end. After this I traced out my pattern onto the buckram and bound all the edges in bias binding.

Pinning it before all the bias binding was sewn on to get an idea of what it would look like.

The backing for the silk

My tutor advised me to back my silk with something lest the buckram's pattern show through the thin fabric, I did just this. She also told me that any glue might stain the fabric so I didn't use any, hence the bias binding, as an anchor.

I sewed each layer on separately using running stitches so it took about three times longer than it might otherwise have done but it meant that I avoided entirely the risk of getting glue all over my fabric.

 Here you can see how I've whip stitched the centre back together on the brim. The same method was used on the sideband. For both of these I had to adjust the ends which meant unpicking everything, trimming the buckram down and then sewing everything back in place again. A pain but completely necessary. After I'd sewn the ends of the sideband together (only sewing through the fabric) I slip stitched the tip in, again only sewing through the fabric.
The tabs you can see on the brim were part of the buckram pattern, I cut one of them slightly two deep and it showed a little before I put all the trimmings on.

You can just about see here where I running stitched the brim onto the sideband. This took a bit of messing to get in, because I suddenly changed the angle of the centre back seam. It ended up distorting the sideband a bit but you can't notice it because I piled all my big trimmings onto that spot.

Then it was time to line the brim. I was initially unsure about pleating it but I'm glad I went for it in the end. I started off doing tiny pleats, these are what you can see in the photo above and the photo just below this text. I got most of the way around and then realised that they were too dense and the shear amount of fabric was making the bonnet too heavy. On the left in the photo below you can see where I tried widening them to get an idea of what they might look like.

I then unpinned all of it and re-pinned the pleats in place again, only wider. I ditched the centre front pleat that changed their direction as well. To do the pleating I just laid my fabric inside the brim and started folding it. I've a deep seated fear of anything mathematical so picking up the fabric and hoping tends to be my preferred method.

Here you can see where I tacked the pleats around the top and bottom, I also trimmed off the excess fabric. At this point I totally forgot to take anymore photos for a while so there will be a bit of a jump. Once I'd tacked the pleats I folded the top under and slip stitched the lining to the folded over seam allowance from the silk brim fabric, that left me with a flappy brim lining that I could still get my hands underneath to be able to sew the trimmings on. 

The ribbon was kind of haphazardly stitched on with tiiiny running stitches. The little cockade thing took me about two and a half hours to make, probably because I was trying to watch 'Banished' at the same time....

The large pheasant feathers were sewn on before I stitched down the ribbon on that side. I went through the shaft of the feather then out to either side a few times on each one. The smaller feathers  I stuffed in behind the ribbon as an afterthought since it looked a little sparse. Later on I would have to unpick the ribbon on that side in order to sew the berries and wheat down.

I don't have any photos from when I was sewing the berries on because it was dark out and it's a very fiddly business. Essentially, they came in bundles of twelve so I wire stitched (really just a button hole/blanket stitch) them together, trimmed down the stems/stalks to the length I needed and then positioned them on the bonnet, sewing over them with a double thread until they didn't move. 

Once I had the trimmings sewn on I put in the petersham headribbon, anchoring it in a few places via tiny prick stitches through the velvet ribbon, which you can't see at all.

Preparing the lining. The idea behind this is; measure from the centre of the tip down the longest edge of your sideband, that gives you your width. Then measure the circumference and that gives you the length. Once you've done that you fold over one edge and gather it. 

Once I had it all pinned in I then had to go back and sew the seam at a really extreme angle to make it fit properly. After that though, it was finished!! 

And here is one picture that shows the true colour of the silk. It's much more vibrant than the ones above would have you believing. 

And then here's one on my head.

From before the feathers, wheat and berries went on

And here's the usual breakdown of elements that I do; the base is brown buckram, edges finished with bias binding. The tip, sideband and brim are covered with rust coloured silk, the silk is backed with pure cotton. The bonnet it lined with navy blue faux shot silk taffeta with a navy blue cotton petersham headribbon. It is trimmed with navy blue velvet ribbon, one paste button, (roughly) nine pheasant feathers, three stalks of wheat and sixty fake berries. It is sewn entirely by hand and took quite a long time to make although I can't say exactly how long because I worked on it on and off for a month.

That's it for now, I've got more hat plans for the summer so I'm sure I'll be updating with some more giant headwear in the near-ish future, for now though I've no idea what my next post will be about... We shall see!