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Sunday 5 June 2011

Green Corded Bonnet

Having made a cream spot corded bonnet which presented me with one or two little problems, like realising that a Victorian Lincolnshire sunbonnet and a Regency corded bonnet are constructed in different ways, I thought that this time I would get it right.  Wrong!


The back of a sunbonnet is made of a horseshoe-shaped piece of fabric, whereas the backs of the Regency bonnets all appear to be round, but with various designs from puffs to gathers.
The first mistake I made was to cord the crown fabric the same way I would for a sunbonnet, which left me with no alternative but to make a horseshoe-shaped back piece.  

Now I had to find a way to disguise this...but how?  Then I hit upon the idea of making a round corded piece to sew onto the back, but abandoned this because it looked so wrong.

Whilst browsing some books looking for ideas for something else, I noticed the use of puffed lengths of fabric used as trimmings on gowns and bonnets.  That was the very thing I was looking for!  

Here is the end result...what do you think?

 

6 comments:

  1. You've ceryainly done your homework!

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  2. Thanks Mr B...it's just learning little bits as I go along. Each time I do something 'not right', I can correct it next time, so eventually I will be able to look at the bonnets in the fashion plates, or photographs of actual items, and know exactly how to re-create them.

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  3. Looks great :) It's good if we feel we've made a mistake to be able to research the right way and learn new things along the way to boot! You will be a true expert before you know it!

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  4. Sandi, you are a true craftswoman. Excellent job!

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  5. I think it is wonderful, you are so clever, and obviously love playing around until you get it right :):)

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  6. Thanks for the positive, encouraging comments...I'm not sure I have got it quite how I want it with this new bonnet, but I'm learning!

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