Crowning Glory

After two years my hair is now past my waist. Due to this, I felt it was time I put some effort into finishing making my caps and hair pieces for different impressions to make the most of my hair, when dressing late 1850s to early 1860s.

I have wanted a new evening hair piece for a while now. I love my yellow and black lace evening cap, but it is nice to have a change sometimes. This new one is copied from pictures in various magazines. I used millinery wire, a hair comb, green tape, wax orange blossoms, small pink flowers and green velvet leaves. I think that it is really pretty and compliments many hairstyles.

 Back

Front with back in mirror. 

I also finally made a nice lace cap. I also used various images from fashion magazines including Peterson's and Godey's to create this design. I thankfully had some vintage tiny white flowers left over from my wedding bonnet and some light green ribbon from trimming a bonnet a few years ago. The lace was recycled from Jessie's daughter's first wedding dress, which we had pulled apart a few months ago (the dress was a bustle gown made with a tulle overdress with embroidered net lace). I designed it using three sections of gathered lace with the bottom ruffle gathered onto an oval section of plain tulle.  

Sorry I have no photos of me wearing it. It really is nice on and very fancy.

Finally, I have continued with my knitting in making a working class cap by using the Godey's Sortie Cap pattern. I found this very easy to knit as the directions are simple. I used 4 ply wool that was left over from making my garters. There are a lot of people that have made this pattern, some of their suggestions I found very confusing (such as knit an extra setting row... which doesn't work as you drop every second stitch as the end and adding an extra row makes no difference). I would suggest just following the pattern. It seems small when you start, but when the stitches are dropped it gets a lot wider. The completed cap fits perfectly and stays on without claps, even in the wind. I did make one change in placing a ribbon through the front as it was rolling a little (as can be seen in the drawn image, but I didn't like that much).

 Sorry about my creepy mannequin, I am not sure why I painted them this way.