izodiea | "A close straw bonnet of the best material and shape, trimmed with white..." (Reply)

I started this Regency Bonnet a few days ago, and was hoping to get it to a "wearable" condition in time for the Mad hatter Tea (I was going to mount my ears temporarily to it) Alas that did not happen, and I am kind of glad because I think the little cap was cuter, and less distracting from the ears than the bonnet would have been.

I Have been following this tutorial Here: http://regencysa.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=sundries&action=display&thread=431 And it has been working really well with a few style adjustments! (Make sure you scroll all the way down to get the full tutorial, she does two different hats)

I started by going to a Michael's and buying a $2 straw hat as the tutorial Suggested. (I also checked out Lacis, it was $16 for almost exactly the same hat, it was not even nicer straw...)
I dismantled the hat until I liked the shape and brim width.

Next I stitched Bias binding (Left over from my stays) to one side of the brim only. I left the other side un-stitched, but folded it over and pinned it in place.

Next I took a rectangular peice of this Silk/Cotton voile I have (http://www.renaissancefabrics.net/cgi-bin/showAll.cgi?id=286) and pleated it to the underside of the brim, switching direction of the pleats at the center. Once it was all pinned in place, I trimmed the voile and slipped it under the un-stitched bias edge. I Still left it un-stitched at this point as well.

Next I took my one Yard piece of vintage Horsehair trim ($10 at Lacis) and manipulated it until it lay smoothly around the edge and pinned it in place. (The horsehair has one thread around the edge that you can pull to make it curve-made this so much easier!)

Then finally I stitched it all down at once! Using a straight needle, I went back and forth through the straw catching the horsehair and bias; sandwiching the straw and voile. I'm not really sure if this is historically accurate, or even a regular millinery practice, but I liked that it allowed me to see how everything looked together before it was stitched down. I Did one separate line of stitching catching the horsehair (That with a curved needle) and the brim was done!

I plopped in on one of my Styrofoam heads and steamed it quite a bit to hopefully help it keep it's shape better (My room smelled of wet straw for most of the day after that :/ ) I also marked and pinned a grosgrain headband that I am going to mount the fabric bag/cap onto.

The cap I am probably going to make out of the left over bits of Dotted Voile I have flat-lined to something for opacity. I am also considering matching cloth ties, in place of ribbon.

So far the trims have been the most expensive part of this hat (Probably about $30 all together) but I probably won't use all of it, which is good? The final cost of the bonnet will probably be around $20-30 materials, which doesn't seem to bad. YAY Birthday Money, making silly hats possible!