Civil war era dress - Bonnet

Okei. Next challenge - bonnet. I think at first I was seriously considering buying it as despite my luck with tricon hat foor Robe a'la francaise, hats are scary.. Hats sound like very complex things and I have no honest idea how to make. And the last hat - I mean, I actually had the base. This time there would be nothing.

But again, I decided to brace the challenge, google around and then I found a blog post how someone made bonnet out of cereal box. Apparently the creativity was the key.

I started with newspaper and trying to make myself the patter (as I was running out of time and if I had ordered a pattern it would not have reached me on time). Then cutting it out and trying the "paper" bonnet. I found a very small pattern out of internet and I used the "square method" to enlarge it.

Then, I had artificial leather that I thought to be heavy enough to support my main fabric. I was totally wrong. I spent some more time in google and I learned that originally those were made using wire. Luckily I had wire in my basement that I once used to make chainmail. It was strong and I used tuck tape to "tape it" in place. The result was quite sloppy but at least the bonnet was holding its shape.

 I then added some extra wired to the "middle" part of the hat to help those parts also in shape.

Then, it was back for sewing, that I felt more comfortable. I used the main fabric for the outer layer of bonnet and then the lining for inner layer. I got pregathered laced and added a layer of it into the lining and two lines of the black ribbon I used everywhere on the outer layer to match the style.

And as you can see, I added a black rose and velvet ribbon.

The tricky part, I would say, was putting the fabric over the frame. As I had that white pre-gathered lace at the end, I had the only option that the "opening" will be at the back end. Sewing the "circle" into the place was another nightmare and in the end, it took a lot of sewing by hand to fit it there. Also, I then basted the edges by hand to make sure it would not start moving. A lot of hours. Trying to get the needle through that thick artificial leather and tape was a nightmare.

Result:

 

 As you can see, the back is not perfect here. It took some time playing with the fire to get rid of that fold. But overall - I made a bonnet.

(But I never thought how to wear it.. when I actually got to the larp and put the dress on with proper hairstyle, the bonnet was falling off my head all the time. I tried hair clips to hold it but no.. so, in the end, I just put the bonnet over my bun but I was not sure it was meant to be worn like that)

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Civil war era dress - undergarments

As this dress was made not for the re-enactment but for larp, the "correctness" was not so vital. I think proper undergarments are important for the dress to have right "shape", so I still try to make them but I am not so worried how they look and usually I am quite sloppy when I make them. They have to be easy as the main costume will take most of my effort anyway.

So, for this dress the undergarments I needed were the pannier, petticoat, shirt and corset.

For the a knee length shirt I had  piece of really fine cotton and nice cotton lace for the sides. It was sloppy without a pattern shirt I made. Took hour at maximum.

 

I opted the easy choice with corset - I ordered one very cheap pure white corset online. I was looking at more authentic ones but I had put already so much money into this project that I was just trying to do rest of it as cheap as possible. I was ready to receive some horrible "made in china" corset but to my surprise, it was really nice. The fabric was not as reflective as I thought. It wasn't cotton but it was matte.

For the pannier, also, a cheap way around. I have that kind of very simple and quite cheap modern wedding dress pannier that I bought like 10 years ago and never really used. It has been sitting in the closet but it was perfect. It is little bit too weak as the main fabric for the dress is very heavy but it was fine. It hold the dress perfectly and saved me the trouble of making the pannier.

As the pannier had three rings that were very visible without petticoat, I decided to make extra large petticoat. So It has a lot of ruffles, lot of fluffiness. I got really nice black cotton fabric for amazing price for it. Again - main effort went to working with the edges.. but I could use this petticoat with other dresses and I think it was time well invested.

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Civil war era dress - skirt

So, the next step in the project was the skirt. Compared to the jacket, this was easy. Easy but just time consuming. Just make the pleads. It took a day.

Then, as I had those skirt and jacket separately, I needed something that would be able to hold all this massive fabric that made the skirt. I tried to make "more neat" looking waistband but it could just not hold it.. so I went with this massive ugly solution but as it will be under the jacket, it will be fine.

Then the ruffles. I first had got myself some lace as on the sleeves and I thought I could use it. I tried. Main problem: it was totally wrong color. I got myself a silk color (as it was best I could find) and I did a try with a small piece of lace. Yes, I got it to better shade that would match the lace on the sleeves better. I think I had like 9-10 meters of that lace. I just started to calculate how much silk color I would need and how much time it would take and how much would it all cost.. so, in the end, I dropped the idea of using lace and went to cheap fabric store and got really nice and really light fabric that cost like 4 euros per meter and I could get so many ruffles out of it. I was just mad that I had spent something like 40 euros on that lace :S I still have the lace.. I could use it with some other projects but.. I was just mad as I had the fabric idea at first but then I thought it would take so much time to work the edges..

Anyway.. so it took my I think at least a day to deal with the ruffles.. most of it being zik-zaking over the edges with very small step. But the result with that kind of very light fabric is always amazing. Then I added two lines of black ribbon over the ruffles and opted out of making another line of ruffles. I think the one is fine. Totally happy with the result:

Skirt done.. At least I had the dress.. now everything else was up to me how much time I can put into this costume before I have to wear it.
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