Baby Bonnets

It’s been a lovely Saturday! It is warm, breezy and spring-like. David got off work early and came home early and we are going to go take a walk with the babies here pretty soon. Then fish for dinner. Yeck. But I promised David I’d make it since we compromised a few nights ago. He has a thing for fish. :)

Today I made the babies pinafores and bonnets. I used Elizabeth Stewart Clark’s 1-2-3 Pinafore instructions from her website. For the bonnet I browsed the Wisconsin Historical Society website and found a simple shape I liked. I was originally going to make corded bonnets, but lack the time. After I found the bonnet I wanted to copy from, I measured the head of my oldest child. Based on his measurements, a quick drawing of what I thought the pattern pieces should look like and some trial and error I drew out a pattern. I usually just draft right onto the fabric but it is inevitable that later I wish I had saved the pattern because I want to use it again. Why has it taken me almost ten years to learn that? I can be so thick-headed sometimes!

I used left over pink print for Davey’s sunbonnet and Judah’s bonnet was recycled from an old shirt of his papa’s. I put drawstrings in at the neck so they can be adjusted. They are a little big now so should last a while. I now need to starch the living daylights out of them if I don’t want them to be floppy. I might just quick quilt the layers of brim together on machine instead, though. I really am not big into starching. (I know I should be, but I just haven’t gotten to that point yet.)

Here is little David in his bonnet. Sorry for the blurry picture! He just won’t hold still! Surprisingly he seemed to actually like wearing it and I wanted to get a picture of how it looked on a head.

If any of you all are interested in making one like this, I scanned the pattern pieces. They are here:

Brim

Crown

Curtain

Just print full-size on a sheet of regular printer paper. :) Oh, and um, I don’t know if making the curtain piece wider in the middle is period correct or not. I just did that so as to shade the back of their necks better but not have really long curtain pieces over the shoulder/neck. You could just make a plain old rectangle too. :)

I’m off!
Sarah