elizabeth_mn

Phew! This project kind of ate my life for a while. I really want to get these notes down before I forget what I did.



( Many more photos and notes )

I am happy to report that I finished sewing everything on time.  I spent a leisurely afternoon yesterday sewing hooks & eyes and doing the other little handwork while F hung out with me, listening to music and coloring with crayons.

I dorked around a little with her hat yesterday, too, but it was looking stupid so I abandoned it.  She can wear her modern sun hat.

I do have one more thing to do (besides packing my picnic): sew a button on the World's Cutest Last-Minute Bib.  That is all.

I trimmed the bonnet.



(I also finally bought a fake head! Woo!)

The crown is wrapped in a wide bias strip of self-fabric, edged with tea-dyed cotton lace, gathered and folded and lightly tacked down. I was going for a casually draped look, and this is the best I could do. The ties are also self-bias.

( More pix )

This trimming has basically nothing to do with the inspiration image; I just wanted to make it pretty and this worked for me.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to make this.

  

I plan to trim with ruched self-fabric, blonde lace and matching blonde petersham.  Surely I can figure out some way to whip up some petersham flowers?  I also plan to make the ties out of self-fabric, not so much because I am cheap as because I couldn't find a coordinating ribbon and I didn't want to get too many colors into the mix.

The shape is not perfect, but this is definitely the best job I have ever done on one of these buckram-and-wire affairs.

 

I've spent most of my free time for the past two days cutting up manila file folders, taping them back together, and putting them on my head in an effort to make a serviceable hat pattern. I’ve been using my basic hatmaking book and many fashion plates as references, but I just cannot make the thing look right.

Here’s the hat in my inspiration painting. It has a high, turned-up brim with an odd shape and seems to be set back on the head.



I can’t say I am all that fond of it, but I think if the brim didn’t have that weird curve, I’d like it better, and it would still have a similar feel.

Here are two plates that are quite similar to the painting, brim-wise.

( some fashion plate hats )

Here are some that have a different shape, but still have the brim turned up in front.

( some more fashion plates )

Those last 3 don't quite match brim-wise, but they have lower crowns, which seem to match the painting better.

The problems are, again, Impressionism making things look all wacky, and not being able to see the back in the painting or any of the plates.  I am thinking of just calling the hat-drafting thing quits and buying a pattern. Specifically, the Truly Victorian French Bonnet. But 1885 is a little late for what I'm planning; the painting is dated 1883 and I'm thinking the style she's wearing is more 1881-2.

So I also looked for a readymade buckram frame to cover. I didn't find any that looked like I wanted, but I did find this straw hat for sale, which has a brim that doesn't go all the way around in back, a detail I might be able to incorporate into drafting my own hat (again).

I've also been planning F's hat. She is technically a bit young for these, being not quite 2 yet, but oh well.

( little girl hats )

I could try to find a tiny straw boater, but that seems unlikely. I think I could sew any of the other 3 in fabric by adapting a modern pattern I already have.