And then I made a bonnet

I'm planning a wee bit of 1810s reenacting at the Old Manse with one of my friends from high school - another case of "Nancy drags her non-reenactor friends into reenacting", which of course means that I'm in charge of all the costumes! Let's be real, I wouldn't have it any other way. But of course, instead of starting right in on a nice transitional stay for her to wear, I was like, this needs new bonnets! And to be fair I haven't got any good 1810s bonnets for summer. I have a wool one but that's only appropriate for December weather. So the first bonnet is all done now (the second one is that black one that was on my worktable, and will stay there till I've finished the transitional stay! We won't even be outside really...)
I took loads of pictures - LOADS of pictures - during construction so here's a kind of tutorial type thing.
I was aiming for something kind of like the center bonnet in this fashion plate (the blue and white one - everything I own is blue and white).

source: pinterest

yeahhh that's the one

Because I'm cheapycheap and don't have a lot of "real" hatmaking supplies, I decided to make this one out of an old 18th century bergere which was constructed from cardboard! Like cereal box cardboard. It's better than posterboard, that much can be said for it. I had the bergere brim lying about because I remade it out of buckram with wire.
So I cut that brim in half, and laid the halves ugly sides together.

The cardboard had been covered with fabric by means of glue, so there were weird scraggly bits on the "back". So those got sandwiched in the middle.
Then I "pinned" the halves together around the outside brim edge with binder clips. I started with one in the middle and then bent the whole thing against my work surface to clip the rest.

That way the outside layer is a teeeny bit bigger than the inside layer, which makes the bonnet brim more inclined to hold it's curved shape. It can't really lay flat because then it does this:

A bit hard to explain, but it's good magic, I promise.
So then I got out some thread (in a random teal color b/c who cares not me) and stitched the brim(s) together around the outside edge. I mostly went through the fabric parts and also a little the edge of the cardboard. I mostly avoided the cardboard because cardboard isn't really a party to sew through.
Then it was time for the crown. I needed to shape the back of the brim so the crown attachment would sit in the right place on my head. I forget exactly how I did this; I think I basically just set it on my head and guessed. I drew on a new crown line and cut it with tin snips - I was hiding from the heat in the basement, where the hardcore tools are, and anyway it would have been a nightmare to cut even with sharp paper scissors (of which we have 0).

Now, the plan was to make the crown out of the back of this old cap I had, which was the same fabric as the brim covering (and anyway, what was this cap supposed to be? Certainly doesn't match any fashions I know of from the 1700-1900 periods). So I liberated the cap crown from its brim and binder clipped it to the brim, right sides together...

... and put the hat on for a moments test, and ascertained that, oh yeah, part of the reason I never use this cap is that its TOO SMALL.
Not a lot too small, either, just an infuriating couple inches. So I went upstairs into the gross oven world and retrieved a bit of more fabric.

Not the same color, really, but I figured, there'll be trim on the borders between the fabrics and anyway there's a tradition of costumers/reenactors having brims and crowns that don't match so I can't be breaking tooo many rules.
So I cut a new crown like 3 inches bigger than the other one and clipped it to the brim, and sewed it down. Because, as mentioned, cardboard is not a party to sew through, it required some convincing with my awl. But I got the crown sewn from one side to the other and then I went back the other way again (which is sort of cheater's saddle stitch) to squish down the freehand gathering that was necessary to get the pieces attached.

So then I gathered the backside of the crown down, and bound it with some of the fabric from the brim of the Unfortunate Too-Small Cap. I measured it against my head a number of times while doing this, and wound up with a very snug fit - perhaps a bit more snug than is really ideal, given the presence of hair and possibly day caps meant to fit under it and then emerge unscathed. For the most part given the sort of reenacting I do the bonnet will probably be on all the time or hanging out as decor all the time, so maybe it isn't an issue that'll come up, but I'm still a little annoyed about it (especially since I ALWAYS DO THIS. I never remember to account for the underthings...). But, voila, bonnet!

Then there was the matter of trimmings. I didn't actually take any pictures of this. It was a bit trial and error and a lot sewing bits of trim to other bits of trim. I though there would be flowers on it, but in the end there weren't any. And I managed to avoid having to sew through the cardboard at all when applying the trim!

I'm sooooooo pleased with it! I think it really looks very like my inspiration, but not too much. So pretty~!