Because I have the largest head in North America, it's difficult to find a hat that fits. And because I'm a crafty gal and would rather frankenstein some bits together than create something painstakingly complete and historically accurate, I recently decided to make a Regency bonnet from a flowerpot.
The inspiration was a Shipwreck Ball, three months from now. While at my local Mega Thrift, I found a flowerpot basket with shells glued to the side in a lovely floral pattern. "What ho!," thought I. It is, of course, too small to actually fit upon my head as is, but has tremendous potential to become a bonnet which will fit. Fortunately, Regency-era headgear needed to cover a large amount of hair in an updo, so they had some pretty large and funky shapes to their hats.
First step at home was to unpick the stitches which held the plastic liner in place. Then I brushed out the loose dirt and gave it a gentle scrubbing with soap, water, and a nail brush. I put a large can inside the pot while it dried to hold its shape. Once it dried, I cut it apart where the rim flared out.
Next I used the rim piece as a template to cut a pattern for the buckram which would extend the rim out far enough to cover my XXXXL head. I traced it onto a brown paper shopping bag, because I'm cheap and they're plentiful (and on hand). Originally I cut an arc, but then realized that I needed to push the sides of the rim up higher, in order to get the rim to stand up away from my face. I added corners to the front of the arc, and then cut it out of buckram. You'll notice in the photo below where I added the corners (they're in a different shade of brown).
Before sewing the buckram to the basket, I ran a bit of Fray-check around the cut edges of the basket. I don't expect it to fray, but I figured it wouldn't hurt and might prevent potential problems. I seamed the buckram up the back, then sewed the buckram to the inside of the flowerpot.
Coming soon: covering the buckram.
