Easter Bonnet

I'm a bit behind on my posts as will become evident - forgive me!

The week before Easter, I took a week off from work to kick back a bit, relax and generally catch up with non-work life. The first day was fantastic, the weather was beautiful and I spent the entire day working in the garden. The next day was awful - raining and cold with no sign of a let up. Mid-morning the Resident Radiologist called me to say that he'd noticed a sign and DDs nursery that morning requiring parents to provide and Easter bonnet for two days time... In addition to this he wasn't sure what constituted an Easter bonnet...

I took a deep breath, gathered the crafty materials I had in the house, made a cup of tea and reflected that it wasn't a bad way to spend a revoltingly wet day off work!

Since time was short and DD is still too young to have (or at least to express) and opinion on what she wanted, I decided to make a near-replica (materials allowing) of a bonnet my mother made for me about 30 years ago.

Little rectangles of tissue paper were stacked, concertina'd and teased out into roses, with bright button centres peaking out,

A large piece of card was cut to form the brim, then covered with more tissue paper,

The crown was a bit of a problem. When my mum made this bonnet for me, she cut a circle of crepe paper and (I think) eased it into the head circle pleating it slightly and securing with staples. I didn't have crepe paper and the tissue paper was too delicate to use in the same way, so I improvised.

I cut lengths of cheap silver ribbon that had been tied round a bale of towels when I got them (I never throw this sort of stuff out) and fastened them loosely cross-wise accross the head hole to form a loose cage. I put a stitch through the centre point where all the ribbons crossed to stop them sliding about.

I then got out some good pink organza ribbon and wove it in and out of the silver ribbon 'spokes' to fill in the crown. I used some good blue organza ribbon to make the ties to hold the bonnet on and them secured the pink and blue ribbons in place with a stitch every time them crossed the silver spokes.

Finally I attached the roses to the brim with wire freezer ties.

DD wore her hat to nursery on the required day, looked really sweet in it and happened to win first prize in the bonnet parade. Proud mummy!

After easter, the stitches holding the good ribbon in place were unpicked and the ribbon reclaimed and carefully rewound for the next project (I deliberately didn't cut either of the good ribbons) and the roses have been reused as decoration on birthday presents, so all in all, it was a pretty green project in more ways than one.