Headwear...for Spring!

As if I don't have anything else to do. Seriously.

So I've been wanting to make myself a straw bonnet or hat for like...uhm...2 years, but never found the right bonnet to fit me with my long-ish face and height. Thankfully, Pam Robles came to the rescue and provided me with a lovely low-brim bonnet blank that I've traced to make up a straw version. (The bonnet blank will soon become a covered bonnet.)

I've made one straw bonnet already, but I machine stitched the whole thing and really didn't have a base or frame to go on, so even though it turned out well, I knew deep in my heart that I'd done it all wrong. To have sewn it by hand would have taken forever, and I cheated. I'm bad.

What makes this straw headwear project extra fun is that I'm going to also try to make a straw "Watering Place" hat. These are not represented at reenactments, simply because reenactments are considered either on the battlefield, or in "town" (where the Civilian reenactors camp). There aren't many "watering places" or garden parties at reenactments. But I loved the shape of it and wanted to at least try it for the sake of trying.

You know. In case I happened upon a "watering place".

The straw I'm going to use is the copper Milan straw from Judith M Millinery. She has great supplies for this kind of thing.