Elizabethan Bonnet

What do you do when you have half a metre of black velvet? You make a hat (of course)! I began this project with the initial idea to make a gable hood but it quickly became apparent that I wouldn't have enough fabric. While searching through my books for inspiration I found the patterns for the men's velvet bonnet in The Tudor Tailor and the bonnet worn by Don Garcia De Medici in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion no. 3. These hats were very fashionable across Europe during the latter half of the 16th century and can be seen in many portraits.

The bonnet worn by Don Garcia De Medici for his burial,
a pattern for the hat appears in J. Arnold's Patterns of Fashion no.3
The once black velvet has faded to brown 

Robert Dudley, 1575 by an unknown artist.
He is wearing a hat in this style, studded with jewels

I decided to use the pattern from the Tudor Tailor whilst using a double layer of velvet for the hat brim like the bonnet from Patterns of Fashion.

I began by cutting out the Brim, hatband and crown of the bonnet in velvet and lining fabric. The outside edge of the brim was the stitched together on the machine, the seam allowance clipped down and the brim turned right way out. tacking stitches were then added around the inside edge of the brim to mark the stitch line and hold the two layers together,

Stitching around the outer edge of the brim

Turned right-way out and tack along the inside stitch line.

The bonnet crown and lining were tacked together and gathered. The velvet hatband piece as then stitched to the crown and the brim added.

Crown and lining tacked together

Crown gathered and attached to hatband

The hat brim attached to the hat band

Following this the hat band lining was hand stitched over the raw inside edges (once the seam allowance had been cut down) and the bonnet was complete. The bonnet is available to buy on my Etsy

The completed bonnet