A New Year's Soft Crown Bonnet

Since I don't have access to most of my sewing supplies for now, I decided to work on something quick and fun for the holidays.  That quick, fun thing ended up being a soft-crown spoon bonnet that popped up on ebay a couple days ago, right after I picked up a remnant that was the exact same color.

From tbtfan on ebay

It seemed to be a later-war, or immediately post-war bonnet, since it lacked a bavolet.  I've seen soft crown bonnets in the 1850s all the way through the late 60's when full bonnets went out of fashion altogether.  I tried to adhere to the original when making mine (although the seller didn't help me out much by mounting the bonnet correctly on the mannequin head), but I changed a few features to make it more adaptable; I replaced the gathered decoration at the neck with a bavolet and made the brim larger and more noticeably spoon-shaped.  I've found that a higher bonnet flatters my face more.

This is the closest to the actual color of the silk

It's not identical, but I like how mine turned out - I've never been sold on the soft crown style but I love the gentle curve of the shirred crown.  It looks very neoclassical.  I also love the five puffs up the side, it's a simple but striking trim!

I added a bonnet veil for an extra spooky-scary affect

For the brim I used Past Reflections's spoon bonnet pattern, which I swear by.  I then cut 5 pieces of millinery wire, using my gray bonnet as a template for how long they needed to be to comfortably reach from the base of the brim to the nape of the neck.  I cut out a piece of fabric, hand-sewed five small channels in it, inserted the wire, basted the piece on to the frame, gathered a strip of fabric and mounted it over the crown, added a bavolet (which should have been lined with net, but all I had on me was silk organza), lined it and trimmed it.  Honestly the most time-consuming part was hemming the ribbon, and it was on a selvage anyways.

All it needs is flowers, a profusion under the brim and a big cluster of velvet ones on the top (the ones I had on there are actually a hairpiece/pin that I pinned on temporarily.)  Since I'm leaving for vacation soon I didn't have the time or energy to order some, and I won't have any events to wear it to in the near future anyways.

Every hat that I make I get more confidence in my millenarial abilities, so I look forward to making a lot of them in the future!