Hello lovelies,

during the last sale from Black Snail patterns, I bought myself the e-pattern of a romantic era bonnet. Usually I really can't manage to do my own pattern for hats and bonnets. I have tried to sew my own romantic era bonnet but failed miserably.
I printed the pattern at work and glued the sides together at home, then cut out the pieces I needed.

The fabrics I used were pink satin, white felt, white cotton and buckram.


The first few steps were clear to me and I followed them with a bit of artistic freedom. It was pretty much just cutting out everything as the pattern stated and then sew them together. I started with the buckram base and afterwards added all the fabrics on top.

The pattern clearly stated to use reeds for that but I didn't have some yet and went ahead with hat wire. 


I use thick thread for sewing with buckram as it is much sturdier and not as easy to rip as the thin cotton threads used for sewing.
My stitches looked super uneven but as it was just the base for the hat I wanted to finished them quickly withouth much rafiness. 

The base was done over the span of two days and was a fun project. The not-so funny part would follow with the felt and satin layers. 


I pinned the felt onto the brim but it was too thick because after pinning them to the brim it just collapsed. It was then I found out, that the brim also needed reed to stiffen it.
Due to the corona outbreak I had to wait until the shop around the corner, which sells reeds, opened up again. I bought the 2,5mm reed and it worked perfectly, I would not have thought that the brim would have such a good support with just one row of the reeds.



I pinned the felt onto the hat a second time and it worked so much better with the reeds. But then the next problem arose, was the hat too thick with a felt on both sides? I thought it did.



I wore the bonnet during different stages of the process and although the form was alright in this pictures, it is clearly visible that the felt hangs from the hat, but not in a good way. Maybe I should have glued the felt directly onto the hat. But I didn't. Big mistake.



But how to attach the outer material? I was not fond of the ribbon method used in the instruction, as my fabric was super flimsy and fraid so easily. Ugh. At first I really tried to follow the instructions but it just didn't work. Afterwards I just did whatever I thought was ok.

This was how the instructions said this should look like. The top would have been bound with a ribbon but I didn't like it. And there was no way I could do a nice looking ribbon with my fabric.
Therefore I cut all the satin pink outer pieces again and added a seam allowance of 2cm. I cut into the fabric and sewed it onto the felt. In hindsight I should have cut away the excess of the seam allowance as it was visible.

 The hat part was folded over the round top part and the brim was folded onto the hat part. It did work but doesn't feel right.


 Now that the outer fabric is fixed, how to insert the innter fabric? I tried different ways but the best way for me was to sew a running stitch over the outer part of the brim and pulled. The outer part would have then closed over the inside and would have made it easier to sew.



I didn't like the raw inside and decided I had to cover it up too. But without felt, just with the satin and cotton fabric. No idea why the pattern failed me but I had a lot left of the side hat parts and just folded them inside. I had run out of patience and just wanted to finish the hat as soon as possible. 



But what about the back part? I had cut too much and there was no way I could fix it.
I sewed on a row of frills but it still did not hide much.



And the hat was done. Finally. I just covered up the bad part with a ribbon and it didn't look too bad.
The only part that I am definitely unhappy with is the weird sagging of the front brim.

 


What do you think? Weird sagging brim or just my imagination?

All the best,

Auris Lothol