At the end of November, 2023, I started the Victorian bonnet my sister was to wear to the Dicken’s Faire that year. The inspiration for this project, for the idea that I could actually construct such a thing from scratch, came from YouTube. I used to think that Twitter would be the demise of human civilization (I don’t anymore, because it’s new owner, ol’ Elon, seems to be destroying Twitter, now “X”, all by himself, with no help from civilization), but that YouTube was a powerful counter measure: chiefly because posters to YouTube must be able to elaborate on a thought for more than 128 characters, and because a regular citizen can be taught to do damn near anything by their fellow citizens on YouTube. That is pretty damned cool.

Several ladies, and one or two fellas, have posted the particulars of hat construction.

And while the loss of community — of social cohesion — embodied in the degradation of brick and mortar retail is a thing worthy to be worried over: where is a person to get millinery wire and buckram but on the internet? These are specialized materials, no longer in common use. Joann’s claims to carry buckram in their online store, but they don’t actually, not historically useful buckram anyway. You have to check out Timely Tresses. They were a tad slow to ship, but it was the Christmas season, and they are doing a thriving business … they will make you a bonnet, but are unable to take custom orders for the time being.

But in the meantime, here is the next day’s update, in a box of it’s own, not a column box, and we’ll see how that looks:

I know there is a video taking feature on phones … a stabilizer function. I will now go see if my phone has such a thing. I may have to upgrade !! Ah, always to new toy to be had.