Wednesday, April 20, 2022

"Bonnets of all sorts very neat"

 The title of this post comes from an ad in the Pennsylvania Chronicle, July 3, 1769.  I've decided that I needed a few bonnets.  I have 2, one of which I made from a pattern.  This particular bonnet seems to be the style everyone makes with a half circular brim.   You can see it in the photo below.  This bonnet is made from green ribbed changeable taffeta.  It's the most common style and the most popular bonnet pattern is this style which is probably why everyone seems to have this style.


My other bonnet is one that I purchased from Kitty Calash.  This is an oversized bonnet--white silk taffeta with the brim lined in red silk.  I really love this one


I turned to Sue Felshin's Bonnet research.   If you haven't looked at Sue's research before, you really should.  She has comprehensive pages on Bonnets, short cloaks, caps, 18th century lace--just to name a few.

Bonnets have 2 parts:  a soft crown, or caul and a stiff brim.  There are a number of brim shapes frequently seen in period images.  Here are a few that I've been looking at:

Heyday! Is this my Daughter Anne! 1773

The pretty mantua maker 1772

Miss Tipapin Going for All Nine 1779

Edward Penny and a Sick Soldier 1765

Pot Fair Cambridge 1777

An Old Macaroni Miss-Led 1772

The Rival Milliners 1772

A Lady in Waiting--no date but looks to be around 1780.


The following 3 details are what I'm looking at copying:

Brim that wraps around face (without the creases in front) and a smallish caul.


Medium sized brim that has a curved bite out of the seam edge.  This takes away that visor look that my green bonnet has.  Medium caul.

Smaller brim with taller caul for late 70s tall hair.  I also like the one in the Miss Tipapin image above.

Colors:

I looked at a number of ads, a few of which I've included here.  Black and white were the colors most commonly listed.  There were also references to "bonnets of all colors."  I found crimson listed as a color in a number of ads and pink and blue listed in a few.   I wanted to make a crimson bonnet to wear with my block print 60s gown and a black bonnet for the late 70s so I chose brown as the third color since I had a nice remnant of some brown taffeta.

Boston Gazette May 1767


Boston Newsletter Nov. 1765

Boston Newsletter July 1770

Connecticut Courant May 1769

Providence Gazette May 1768

Royal Gazette May 1778


Step 1:  Draft the brims

I used extra heavy craft weight Pellon to draft my brims.  I like this material because I can hold it in place on my head and it has enough body to not flop!

I started with my small brims.  I cut a half circle like the brim on my green bonnet and then started reshaping it by cutting away at the straight edge--making it curved--and making the brims narrower or longer or both.  Basically I played around with the shapes until they looked like I wanted.  

The other brim is almost shaped like a Regency/Victorian brim.  I had a straw bonnet blank I had made from a thrifted straw hat that had the kind of brim I was looking at so I draped my pellon over this brim and cut it a bit wider.


You can see the comparison of the straw bonnet with the finished brim:

Here are my finished brim patterns, not including seam allowance.

Step 2:  Construct the brims

18th century brims were typically stiffened with buckram, chip, or pasteboard.  I've seen period ads selling pasteboard for bonnet brims.  I chose not to use pasteboard because storage can be an issue.  If the pasteboard gets creased then you cannot fix it. I went with double layer millinery buckram.  This stuff is extremely stiff and if it gets creased, it can be ironed or steamed back into shape.  Whenever I use this material, I stitch millinery wire along the edge of the buckram.  After the brim buckram was prepared, I placed it on the silk and traced around it with chalk.  Two pieces of the silk was then cut out with a 1/2 - 5/8 inch seam allowance.


The seam allowance was folded over the outer curved edge of the buckram.  The other piece of silk had the seam allowance turned under.  It was placed on the wrong side of the brim and pinned in place. The brims are ready for stitching.


The brim facing was stitched in place using an appliqué stitch.

The inner seam allowance was basted together.  Finished brims:


Step 3:  Draft the cauls

This is when I referred to the cap patterns that I drafted.  The crimson bonnet is to have a smallish caul with an even pouf so I thought I'd start out with a circle that has one flat edge for the draw string.  I cut that shape out of pattern tracing cloth, gathered the edge on the machine and pinned it to the brim.  It wasn't right so I made it taller and repeated the gathering and pinning process.  Brim #3 looks the way I want it to look (lower right).  I ripped out the gathering stitches and kept the third pattern.  I also cut another one that was 2 inches taller.  You can see the evolution of that caul here:


The brim for the black bonnet is to be tall for late 70s hair so I started with the caul I used for a late 70s cap and made it 2 inches wider and taller. I gathered and pinned it to the black brim and it was just right. You can see the two cauls here (folded in half):


Step 4:  Construct the cauls

The caul for the brown bonnet was cut an inch shorter and narrower than the caul on the left in the pic above.  Here are the finished brims with their corresponding caul.  The black caul is underlined with cotton netting to give it a little support.  The bottom hems on the cauls are folded up twice and pressed.  I'll unfold one fold and make an eyelet in the center back of each.


Step 5: Attach cauls to brims

Typically the curved edge of the caul is gathered to fit the brim.  The desired finished shape of the bonnet will determine how the gathers are distributed.  The desired shape of the red bonnet is round which will require the gathers to be evenly distributed.  First I stitched running stitches round the curved edge and pull the gathers up tight, making sure they lay parallel as if making stroked gathers.  

The gathered edge was pinned to the brim.  I stitched it in place with a backstitch, making sure the stitches were snug up against the edge of the buckram/pasteboard.

Binding the seam isn't necessary but I prefer to do so.  I cut my binding on the crossgrain to conserve fabric--something they would've done in the 18th century.  I cut a strip the length of the seam plus 1 or 2 inches and 2 inches wide.  I pressed the strip in half lengthwise then folded the raw edges in to meet in the middle to make a finished binding of 1/2 inch wide.  I trimmed the bonnet seam allowance a bit then pinned the binding in place.  You can choose to either whip stitch each side of the binding in place or simply use a running stitch through all the layers which is what I did since the binding isn't seen.

I chose to pleat the brim of the brown bonnet.  I started with a 1 inch (approx.) wide box pleat in the center and made knife pleats radiating away from it.  I don't measure pleats.  The first 6 pleats on each side were deeper to concentrate more fullness to the front even though the pleats look even all the way around.

You can see how the pleats look.  The seam was then bound as above.

The black bonnet was gathered and the gathering was concentrated in the front to make the bonnet more tall than wide.

Step 6:  Trim bonnets

I've seen images of bonnets trimmed with self fabric as well as contrasting ribbon.  I went with contrasting ribbon for these.  I used double face silk satin ribbon on the red and brown bonnets.  I used narrow ribbon  on the red bonnet and made a large bow with wider ribbon which I stitched to the side of the bonnet.


The brown bonnet is trimmed with 2 inch wide silk satin ribbon in puffs.


The black bonnet is trimmed like that in these two images:  The Pretty Mantua Maker and An Old Macaroni Miss-Led:

 







This bonnet needed a bit of support to make it stand up so I cut a piece of medium weight buckram the length of the brim and about three inches tall in the center, angling it to 1 inch tall at the ends.  I stitched it inside the bonnet along the seam.



I made ribbon loops along the front at the seam and added two pieces of ribbon to hang on one side.   I cut a strip of black taffeta 2 1/2 inches wide, pinked the edges with scalloping sheers to make the width 1 1/2 inches wide then painted the wrong side of the scalloped edge with fray check using a small artist's brush. The trim was then box pleated around the brim edge and prick stitched in place.




Here are the finished bonnets as worn.  My hair isn't proper so I did the best I could!




I'm really pleased with all of them!  I've drafted the patterns and will use them in a future workshop.  It's nice to have a variety of bonnets that work for different decades and social classes!


Sunday, April 3, 2022

1786 Gown of Figured Stuff with Balloon Hat

I've wanted a fashionable wool gown and I planned this one several years ago.  I even cut the bodice out but life got in the way.  Anyway, this gown is and Italian gown made of figured wool stuff.  My other wool gowns are working sort gowns from the mid 1770s or earlier. Here are my textiles:


I've noted references to figured stuffs and birdseye stuffs in ads.

Baltimore 1788

New York 1786

I used my normal Italian gown pattern that I draped to the lining of my L&S gown --the process of which can be found in this post.   You can see a summer Italian gown in this post.  The gown and petticoat were completed except the sleeves and hems.

I wanted this gown to have a long sleeve with a button cuff similar to that on a cutaway gown in the new edition of Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 1.



This sleeve has an interesting pattern piece.  It's one piece and splits at the elbow which probably accounts for the "bump" at the elbow in the sleeve fabric.  Here is what the pattern piece looks like.

I wasn't sure if I'd like this so I looked at the 2 piece sleeve pattern that I have in a pdf pattern I've had in my collection.  I did some flat measuring to make sure the sleeve would be full enough for my arms and I redrafted the shoulder line so it would fit the armscye in my gown.  I made a muslin of the sleeve and it was too loose below the elbow and the elbow curve wasn't in the right place so I stitched new seam lines with black thread (I used natural muslin for the fitting muslin.).   I got it to fit the way I liked and the black thread enabled me to lay pattern tracing cloth over the sleeve and trace the seam lines of the pattern.  I added a seam allowance and cut my new sleeve pattern.

The upper sleeve seam was stitched right sides together with 4 layers (2 lining and 2 fashion fabric) then the pieces were flipped right side out to do the lower seam from the outside with a spaced back stitch.  I turned up the hem, turned in the edges t the open cuff and stitched that in place.   I pinned the cuff closed to see if I could get my hand through it without unbuttoning it and I could so I decided to stitch closed buttonholes and sew the buttons on top.  I thought it would look neater--much like is done on the pocket flaps on men's coats.  Buttons were wood button moulds covered with fabric.


Sleeves were stitched in the gown.



Once the gown was hemmed I started on my hat.

The 1780s are a fun time in fashion.  Vincenzo Lunardi's balloon launch in 1784 translated to some new fashion crazes.

While researching Lunardi or balloon hats, I came across this funny story from London which was reprinted in a number of American newspapers.


Balloon images were printed on many souvenir items such as fans and broadsides but it was the balloon hat that really took off (no pun intended)!

My dear friend Ruth pointed me to this lovely family portrait of the Payne family in 1787 from the Philadelphia Museum of Art where you can see women of different ages in their balloon hats. 

Here is a fashion plate of two straw balloon hats:

Since these are European images, I thought I'd do a little search in millinery ads in the U.S. to see if balloon hats had caught on here and indeed they had as can be seen in this ad from Boston/Providence:


My first thought was to make my hat like the one in the left fashion plate above with a straw brim.  I decided I wanted it completely covered with silk.  I started with a thrift store straw hat that had a large brim--measuring around 20" in diameter.


I removed about the top 2 inches of the crown and left it open.  This is easy to do by snipping the stitches that hold the straw braid in place.

Then I needed to figure out how large to make my center pouf.  I started with a 33 inch circle of cotton net, holding it in place on the hat.  It seemed just way too large so I cut it to 29 inches then

I settled on a 24 inch circle.  I cut 2 layers of cotton net for a little support and one layer of pink taffeta.  I layered the circles and ran gathering stitches about an inch in from the edge.  I made sure to mark the circle at the 1/4 marks and I did the same on the hat brim.  I pulled the gathering stitches up to the size that looked right to me.  You don't want them against the base of the crown.  Rather, my gathering stitches, when the pouf is placed on the hat, were about 3 inches from the edge of the brim.  I pinned the pouf in place and measured to make sure that it was placed an equidistance from the edge all around. Using a millinery needle and strong thread, I stitched the pouf to the straw brim.

I placed the hat on my silk and traced around it with a chalk marker to create my brim circles.  I cut the circle about an inch past the mark and cut another one from the brim lining silk.  For the outer brim I cut the center of the circle out, slashed it all the way around and put it over the pouf onto the brim.  Then I turned the slashed edges under and pinned in place.

I pressed under the outer edge of the lining circle and trimmed the allowance to 1/2 inch.


I whip stitched the inner edge of the brim piece to the hat, tucked the outer edge around the straw base and  used wonder clips to secure the it in place.

I added the lining piece and clipped it in place with the upper brim piece. 

After whip stitching the lining in place, I slashed the center open and pinned it to the inside of the crown.


I basted the slashed points to the hat band.  In the absence of a hat band, I would baste it to the straw  crown.

To make the crown lining, I measured the circumference of the crown on the inside and added 1 inch for seam allowances.  I decided on how wide I wanted the finished lining band to be, deciding on around 5 inches.  A strip of linen was cut 6 inches wide by 24.5 inches based on my crown measurement.  The short ends were seamed, leaving about 1.5 inches open.  A casing was made on the long edge with the open seam, folding in about 1/8 inch then another 1/4-3/8 inch.  That was stitched in place with a running stitch then a length of 1/8 inch wide cotton tape was threaded through the casing.  The other long edge was pressed under 1/2 inch.

The lining was pinned in the crown then whip stitched in place.

The hat is finished except for the trim.  I would love to have taffeta ribbon.  I need something crisp.  I've decided to cut ribbon from some satin striped silk organza that I have.


Here is the finished hat.  I will retrim it at some point.  I'd like a more substantial ribbon as the fabric strips don't have finished edges and the bow loops don't fluff up enough.  I also need to make a better plume and I've ordered some larger white ostrich wing feathers.

To wear this gown and hat, I need to have proper 1780s hair which means big and wide!  I have severaal ways of doing this:  a curly version involving a hairpiece and a frizzled version involving a wig.

Handkerchiefs in this period were also quite large and often knotted or wrapped in the front.

At some point I will make a sheer ruffled apron and either a sheer ruffled half handkerchief or one with a ribbon striped border like those above.  Right now, I thought I'd go with tambour work accessories.  I have a large half handkerchief that I save for the mid 1780s and later.

Here's the gown and hat. In retrospect, I should've been more judicious in my pinning as there are wrinkles showing on one side of the bodice.  I only used 2 pins on that side and didn't pull it as tight to the body as I should've.  Live and learn!





I'm happy I finally finished this gown.  It's nice to have a winter mid/late 80s gown.  I'm also happy to have a 2 piece long sleeve pattern in my arsenal.  The balloon hat was fun to make too. It's not as versatile as a flat hat but it's so iconic for the mid/late 80s.  I'm sure I'll be able to find other things to wear it with!