I will have to backtrack a little here. Got ahead of my project narrative in the last post. These videos were made on 12/10, the Monday before the Saturday of the Faire, and this is just a short little one wherein I tackle the next worrisome but manageable bit, cutting the crown of the bonnet out of the fabric. In this video I repeat myself; and what’s more, cutting small pattern pieces in the car was really very easy, because of that sticky surface to hold the fabric in place. I am quite cheerful, and, of course, I have Toitily’s moral support.
This project has been really very encouraging. I think 2024 will be a year of hand sewing in the car. I have already found some new YouTube inspiration. There is a British lady, now living in France. There is another British lady, living in the north of England. I suppose you’d have to call it a fad. Some of us who take up “slow stitching” will persevere until incapacitated, but I expect there will be a limit to how long the ladies can keep an audience for their videos. We will have to see. At any rate, I have developed a witchy concept of a project, I may or may not post about. Should I every expand the reach of this blog, well, you don’t want to attract nutsies. We’ll see.
In this next, and it’s the last video I made, my mood is not so sanguine. It really went very well, but I make reference to tiredness and to trouble fitting the fabric. I’m getting worn out, yes, I am. Soon I would not be in a good mood, and I was so thoroughly involved in finishing before Saturday that there was no time or inclination to shoot more video. But this is only my first go-round as a video blogger, I’ll get better … or stay the same …that will be ok too.
There should have been a video for cutting and sewing the lining, but cutting and sewing the lining became a somewhat traumatic undertaking. I anticipated difficulty getting it to fit snugly in the bonnet – I am a great one for anticipating difficulty – but I wasn’t wrong this time. I had to give up all my standards for proper fitting and just tack the damned thing in there, and that sort of thing grieves me, deeply; it’s the sort of thing that will send me into a really foul temper, and for some time.
So, I am astonished to report an astonishing turnaround occurring the very next day. I could not video report that, as I was hand sewing in the dark of evening, but I was working very happily, in the car, in the dark, on the bonnet, while the rain pitter-pattered on the roof. That evening I got the pleated ruffle stitched, cleanly, to the back rim of the bonnet. I attached the bonnet ties with pleats of their own and the antique French red buttons I paid way too much for at the Quilt Show some months back. And I fashioned a really very handsome bow for the top right side of the bonnet that was nothing but tucked and wrapped and secured with my hair braid elastics … but you’d have to take it apart to see that.
It turned out real nice. I really should have shot something the next morning … but I didn’t. I took photos of the entire ensemble, and at the Dicken’s Faire, but not a one is unsuitable to be cropped for the blog: blurry, bad angles, too far away. Next time … next year … I’ll do a proper photo shoot.
An Old Knitty Lady 
One response to “The Bonnet – Part 3”
I loved the “it’s a bonnet” song, just need Toitily to join in! Very impressive seeing it all come together
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