Ye Olde Easter Bonnet DIY

Here in England it is an Easter tradition to make Easter bonnets. Now, I know Easter was several months ago but the blog was on hiatus due to the move. However, when Princess ZaZa's nursery school held their bonnet contest I did make one and even remembered to take photos of the process. Since my serger is currently awaiting replacement needles, I thought now was a good time to publish this post. So hold on to your bonnets and lets make one!

Now usually school contests are paper hats and so on. But when ZaZa and I where googling design ideas she saw some of the vintage bonnets and promptly decide paper hats were not for her. We ordered a cheap straw hat from Amazon.co.uk and raided my craft supply hoard for the trimmings. Princess ZaZa has been very into yellow the past few months. So almost everything she chose was yellow in some way.

I cut the bottom third of the brim off, as well as, about an inch and a half from the crown to help shape it into a bonnet. I then soaked it in hot water in the (very clean) kitchen sink for about ten minutes. Using several bowls, I shaped the bonnet. I used three bowls to do the shaping; one that could fit inside the crown, another to elevate the cown bowl high enough so the the brim would not bow outwards and another much larger bowl that pushed the brim downwards into a bonnet shape.

Shaping the bonnet.

I let it drip dry for an hour or two then heated the oven to roughly 90° then turned it off and placed the hat with bowls in to dry overnight. If ya'll decide to sew on everything that you can like I did, then I would suggest getting several really good metal thimbles and some wickedly sharp needles. I constantly was stabbing myself dispite the fact that I was using a thimble. Every sewing project has to have some sort of blood sacrafice, am I right?!

Pinning satin bias tape to uncut edge of the brim

After attaching the bias tape to the original brim I gathered a scrap piece of organza to the brim and sewed in place. Followed by the ribbons around the crown and then the rest of the bias tape on the raw edge, being sure that the fabric inside the crown allowed enough room for The Princesses head to fit in.

Gathering and attaching the organza. I left the factory edge on and attached so about half an inch over hung the edge.

Checking placement of the ribbon that is to decorate the crown.

Bais tape finished

Rhinestones were then sewed on not only to add sparkle but to hold the ribbons in place better. Princess ZaZa is after all, a princess in everyway and demands everything she owns to sparkle in some way or fashion. The chin straps were soon adhered as well.

Figuring out rhinestone placement.

Sparkle and straps done.

ZaZa found some little white roses and iridescent sequin tape in on of my ribbon boxes, so those were added.

Rose spacing test.

Sequins and roses affixed it was time to try it on! Looks ADORABLE! But not done.... Nope still needs something...

Pretty darn cute!

Side view.

How about some flowers and bows?! The bows were sewn on, but the flowers got hot glued on. I know I broke on of my most dearly held creeds, "Why glue when you can sew?!!", but by this point I was tired, my fingers were raw from being stabbed with a needle, and I was just ready for the darned thing to be done. The plus of hot gluing them on though is that I can pull them off if ever I feel like it and the hat will still be cute!

Finished hat!

~Knotted