Regency Sheer Straw Bonnets

So, I wanted to focus on something in our shop that’s not being widely made right now and we, at the Virgil’s Hats & Fine Goods, are proud to say we debuted these lovelies at the Jane Austen Festival at Locust Grove this year!

Here we are modeling the (L-R) Trimmed, Chocolate colored, and wheat colored bonnets.

When choosing a hat for warmer weather, it’s hard to decide between something “pretty” versus “functional” with the choices that most living historians have.  With what’s generally available at most sutlers- Warm weather presents us with the only options of  a “chip straw” hat/bonnet or a silk covered hat/bonnet. Silk doesn’t breath, and chip straw is more fit for a lower-class impression- which isn’t always what we’re going for.

ENTER THE SHEER STRAW/HORSEHAIR BONNET:

You’ve seen a few movies with these types of bonnets present in them and you might have thought “That’s too pretty to be historically accurate” or “surely they wouldn’t have had something that decorative” but you would be wrong! There are numerous textual examples of woven horsehair or straw bonnets being used and taxed in the early United States from the 1780’s-on.

Excerpt from “A Collection of all the Statutes Now in Force, Relating to the Revenues and Officers of Great Britain and the Plantations” Vol 2, Pg 4, 1780.

AND there are quite a few extant pieces in various museums along with a few references to them made in fashion plates. (see images below)  This is a style that has many terms and can often be confusing-  “capote” “leghorn” “coal scuttle” “poke bonnet” are all terms I’ve seen associated with this shape:  generally narrow all the way through and slightly elongated to the back. This was a very popular shape in headwear (caps, hats, bonnets) as well as hairstyles from 1797-1808. These styles are said to have emerged because of the early 19th century “discovery” of new ancient Greek and Roman artifacts- and fashion emulates whatever is exciting!

Our Bonnets in comparison to the Litchfield bonnet

Detail of Woven Horsehair and Straw Bonnet, Ca 1805-1820, Litchfield Historical Society

Comparison of our sheer bonnets to the extant piece,
Woven Horsehair and Straw Bonnet, Ca 1805-1820, Litchfield Historical Society

“…balloon bonnet of wicker…” July 1796, Heidelhoff, The Gallery of Fashion. Image from Bunka Fashion College

A sheer bonnet offers a delicate and light option for those who want a more refined look while still having some sun protection with your headwear.What’s also great about a sheer bonnet is you can line it with interesting colors- or leave it unlined- depending on your taste!

Joanna, my business partner, is a wizard at millinery and made these beautiful pieces now for sale in our shop suitable for 1790s thru 1820s! We modeled them at JAF2016 and are now available for purchase. These are made with antique/vintage straws that are extremely hard to find. We hope you like them as much as we do!

(We will have more bonnet shapes, like the tall poke bonnets and maybe even 1860s spoon bonnets made out of these gorgeous straw & horsehairs available in our shop in the near future!… keep checking the shop for new listings)

The Hairdressers at the Sign of the Mortar and Pestle take on JAF 2016

Happy Fall (well almost winter now), everyone! We’ve managed to have beautiful weather for the last few weeks and I’m finally in a groove where I can start posting more regularly. Hooray!

R-L: Ms. Williams getting her hair curled by me and Ms. Stephanie having her hair curled by Joanna!

Of my many adventures this past summer, I especially wanted to highlight our time at the Jane Austen Festival this past July. We were stationed with LBCC Cosmetics and set up a historical hair styling experience for those who would like to pamper themselves for the day and/or get ready for the ball and learn about historical hairstyling.

Here’s a sweet little view of our wee workshop complete with our turbans there in the back!

The LBCC tent was wonderfully situated so we could have our guests actually listen to the presentations given at the big tent while getting their hair done. We were also near Dames A La Mode, La Bohemian Belle, and 96 District Fabrics, which is a great place to be!

What was so wonderful about this project is that we were able to use historical hair products from LBCC Historical (namely the pomatums, oils, & powders) as well as historical tools to achieve a perfect look- and our guests didn’t have to worry about a thing; they just enjoyed not doing their own hair.

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Later on, I’ll do a post more in depth about achieving an historically accurate Regency hairstyle, including the tools we use to get the perfect look!

Joanna and I luckily had just enough time to get ready for the ball…and were about 45 min late. We still had a lovely time and so enjoyed seeing all of our guests enjoying themselves and looking utterly perfect! We managed to get a group photo with some of them- namely from the Regency Society of Virginia!

It’s a little dark, but the ladies looked so beautiful!

We were so glad to get a pic together!

Joanna and her lovely tissue silk & lace gown.

My hair was done up with hair pieces encrusted in pearls.

My gown was a silk/cotton blend sheer check fabric. More info on that later.

Dancing!

 

We had so much fun and plan on doing it again next year! I’ll keep you posted on when appointments open up!

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Virgil’s Hats & Fine Goods

As per my facebook page, some of you may know about this already but I’m still happy to shout it from the rooftops:

Photo taken at the 2016 Jane Austen Festival. Photo by Janet Abell.

I now have an Etsy Store!!!! The shop is called Virgil’s Hats & Fine Goods… after my beloved wee pal, Virgil.

Look at those eyelashes!

To give some background on what’s been going on the past few months: In February, I left my position at Habitat for Humanity of Southeast Ohio to pursue 2 new exciting opportunities… and go on my honeymoon. The first opportunity was to partner with my lovely friend, Joanna, to expand her custom theater millinery business and for us to start the subject of this post: Virgil’s Fine Goods.

What is Virgil’s Hats & Fine Goods, you say?

Virgil’s (for short) is a shop for living historians or historical fashion enthusiasts in pursuit of fine, handmade accoutrements.

What items does Virgil’s carry?

Currently, we have a number of 1800-1820’s ladies reproduction hats, bonnets, and turbans. A major focus of the store will be to provide well made, accurate (and affordable) men’s linen 18th & 19th century shirts and women’s linen shifts. We will, however, have many other items listed~ such as chemisettes, men’s beaver hats, horsehair bonnets, silk gauze caps, aprons, men’s shirts, leather, Felicity items, etc.

Hats & Caps & Bonnets, Oh my! Photo courtesy by Janet Abell

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Why did you start your own business?

Truthfully, owning my own business has always been the LAST thing I ever wanted to do. The idea of “doing my own thing” or “being the bossman” has never been a fun idea. I had worked numerous times doing custom work and I’m never happy doing it.

So why start one? Holy cow. After talking with a few close friends, I realized no one is providing the living historians with accurate, well made, linen men’s basics or women’s basics, at mid-range prices. I’m talking, 100% linen thread, 100% handkerchief linen, hand finished, 18th & 19th Century shirts or shifts. So, this is the direction Virgil’s be going in the future; smattered with hats, silk caps and other items we decide to make because it’s fun and we want to provide needed items of living history for those who don’t have the time or means.

Does Virgil’s Hats & Fine Goods have a storefront?

Not currently. The business is run from my new residence in Dayton, Ohio but will operate through Etsy for the time being. Listings on the Etsy site will be updated regularly with new items as they are made. We plan to set up at only a few events during the summer, like we did at the Jane Austen Festival in Louisville KY.

We had a fabulous time at the Jane Austen Festival. Joanna and I set up as hairdressers for the weekend while we debuted our little shop. Here’s a pic from that event. I will be posting more about it soon!

Joanna and I as the “Hairdressers at the Sign of the Mortar & Pestle” Photo courtesy of Stephanie Cote

I hope you’ll check out my shop to see the different things I have to offer. New stuff will be added weekly, so keep checking back!

Do you have any questions about the shop? Feel free to comment below!

 

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An 1860’s Bonnet: Part 1

A verrry long time ago I started tearing apart a straw bonnet that didn’t have the right shape, got frustrated, and didn’t think about bonnets again until the beginning of this year. While gearing up for Gettysburg, I simply needed a bonnet. I’ve never really made a bonnet before but of course I decided to make my first a hard one.

I got bit by the drawn-bonnet-bug after seeing a grad student/friend of mine make an absolutely lovely reproduction of a bonnet she found tucked away in the hat boxes at the theater department. Her reproduction was stunning. She used a silver shot taffeta and wire frame.

From seeing her process, I became really intrigued with making one, but first I had to see whether or not a drawn bonnet would be appropriate for the American Civil War years (1860-1865). In my research (and people, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) it seems that the drawn bonnet style was definitely more popular before the 1860s, and isn’t as widespread up through 1865. That was kind of a bummer, but I dug a little deeper. I searched through fashion plates, seeing one occasionally, and would randomly come across a cute bonnet from museum sites only to find out that it’s a child’s bonnet or some other such nonsense.

Look how precious! But it’s a child’s bonnet 😦

A little bit about Civil War Era Bonnets:  Bonnet styles progress like any other type of fashion, some years they’re in, some years they’re out, some years they’re round, some years they’re not. Specifically, from 1860-65 the “spoon bonnet” became popular. The “spoon” refers to the profile view of the bonnet looking like a spoon, having a gentle curved and slightly pronounced brim at the top; and from the front view it has an egg like shape, much like a spoon. Also, during these years, the caul of the bonnet was somewhat shallow and had a pretty steep grade from brim to crown. 

After having so much trouble finding an okay bonnet with the correct shape and being a drawn bonnet (that I like and want to reproduce) I was forced to use Pinterest. LE GASP! Now, I will say this with a disclaimer:
PINTEREST IS NOT A FULLPROOF SEARCH TOOL AND NOT EVERYTHING ON PINTEREST IS WHAT IT SAYS IT IS. ANYTHING YOU SEE ON PINTEREST COULD BE A FRAUD AND IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO RESEARCH SAID PHOTO TO VERIFY IT’S AUTHENTICITY.
So, in essence, everything on Pinterest must be taken with a grain of salt. Pinterest can be a great search tool as there are so many photos linked with great websites. Unfortunately it is not always the case. I encourage any person who finds an intriguing photo from Pinterest to find out its original source and give said source due credit. End Rant.

*swoon*

The bonnet I found is from Time Traveler’s Antiques. It is a drawn bonnet, which isn’t altogether shocking, but the shape of it is definitely of the 1860s. You can see in the photo how high the top of the brim is, it is not round like most of the drawn bonnets from the 1850s, definitely spoon shaped. Now, the caul of the bonnet doesn’t have a very steep grade, but the trimmings are concentrated at the top of the head, which also point to the 1860s.

So, this is the bonnet I am to recreate, just with a different color scheme. The next post shall be about the construction!

A new 1860’s bodice!

 This year I will be attending the big 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg with our local historical society, and for such an occasion, I need some new pieces of clothing!

It looks okay, but not great.

The first piece I’m making is a new bodice for my grey “nun” dress. So, background on that is, that puppy was my first one. And though I’m proud of what I accomplished and learned through that process, the bodice is really kind of crappy. It’s unlined, as I wanted it to be a sheer, the edges are all widgey, I didn’t actually pattern out the sleeves, the closure doesn’t line up just right, etc. So, I thought it was time to retire that bad boy and crank out a newer, prettier bodice…hopefully in time for my Civil War Fashions lecture coming up!

As with most things I do, I needed to research. Sleeve styles are always a concern for me, and since I’m doing a similar thing to what women of the time did (as in, making new bodices for existing dresses to keep up with fashions, kind of a frugal way of getting new clothing) I wanted this bodice to be of a nice new style dating from late 1862-early 1863. This means we’re dealing with the emergence of the stand collar and sleeves are beginning to narrow a bit.

I landed on this beautiful piece:

1860’s Afternoon Dress, American Metropolitan Museum of Art

As always, I seem to choose pictures from the Metropolitan. This one just so happened to be perfect. My fabric is of similar color (though it is a plain sheer cotton, not a lovely printed silk)

The piping, decorative tabs and buttons, are all covered in a lovely purply-mauvy silk, and paired with that grey. *swoon* I happened to find some from that will be nice off of ebay, and it came in yesterday!

The purple is little lighter than I would have liked, but it’ll work all the same

Now onto sewing!