Choosing the Right Bonnet

Consider your age, locality, and your personal attention to fashion in choosing a bonnet.  Younger and most especially well to do women wore the latest fashions .  Styles in fashion plates preceded the wide acceptance of new styles for months of even years.  Women in major cities, such as New York and Philadelphia, adopted  trends more quickly than other parts of the country.  Consult local history museums for pictures of women in your area when choosing items for a new impression.

Period bonnets were most often buckram covered  silk with a silk facing and a crinoline lining.  Burwell School in Hillsborough, NC has written documentation of Linen bonnets and we have a cotton bonnet in our collection.  Consider the socio-economic level of your impression in choosing fabrics and trimmings.

Purchasing a Bonnet or Kit

A bonnet kit or pattern is a less expensive alternative to a custom bonnet.  If you are an experienced seamstress or crafter, millinery is a very rewarding art.  However, millinery can be frustrating if you are inexperienced.  The best way to save money on a bonnet, if you do not have millinery experience, is to purchase a premade form with the coinciding pattern.  The patterns give detailed instructions on covering methods that will allow you to create an affordable bonnet.

Trims and Ties

Finding period appropriate trimmings can sometimes be a difficult task. 

• Original ribbons were most often made of silk.  For midcentury bonnets, ties were usually four to six inches in width.  It is very difficult to find wide modern ribbons or silk velvet ribbons in any width.  To achieve the look of the period, we offer the best wide ribbons available to us. 

• We take care to offer millinery flowers made of high quality materials with no visible plastics.

• Ostrich feathers were the most common feathers used on nineteenth century bonnets.  There is very little documentation of other types of feathers on bonnets until the 1870's when peacock feathers came into vogue.