My daughter and I are going on a field trip to Fort York in Toronto; and even more fun, we're going to be attending dressed in early 19th century style, complete with mob caps, long skirts and petticoats! I made us the dresses and whipped up some mob caps for us. But I was still without a proper bonnet, and I read that it would have been unseemly for a married woman such as I to appear out of doors with nothing covering my head but a mob cap!
So, a bonnet seemed necessary. I got a "bee" in my proverbial "bonnet," and decided to make one myself. I couldn't find any free patterns online for the style of bonnet I wished to make; so I thought I'd just go ahead and put one out there myself. (I'll apologize now for the photos. It was just me, myself, and I, to hold the camera; and so I didn't have a camera man until the very end, when my husband helped me photograph the finished product . . . and also my pointy, shiny nose.)
Instead of going out and spending tons on some sort of rigid specialty sewing materials for the brim and a lot of extra cloth, I decided that a cheap bamboo place mat and an old pillow sham would fill the bill instead. And, as it turned out, they did!
