Regency Bonnet Shenanigans

In which I transform an ugly hat and remnants of a chair cushion into passable* Regency headwear:

Said ugly hat

*Remains to be seen

The first order of business was to locate my seamripper so I could unpick the ugly hat and separate the straw brim from the crown.  (I recently moved, so this part took a while.)  When I was done I had this:  

Next I needed to find fabric from my stash to make the new bonnet crown and decorate the bonnet.  I had a vague idea of what I wanted the bonnet to look like, but I knew I wanted it to coordinate with my blue day dress and a possible future yellow Regency dress.  Therefore I settled on green for the base color.  After a brief hunt through my stash, I came up with a lovely pale green cotton (probably) that used to be the cover of a chair cushion:

I had originally disassembled it years ago in order to make a doll dress, which apparently was going to have a half-circle skirt.  I'm not sure what happened to the rest of the fabric, but if I ever find it maybe I can make a matching reticule or something.

I took no pictures of the actual bonnet-making process, but if you'd like to see it halfway done you can look at my previous post on the Regency Picnic I recently attended.  I hadn't sewn on the ruffle and ties yet, but it was wearable for the day.  Now here it is completed:

I am much happier with it now, and can't wait to wear it out and about!  Luckily, an opportunity to do so is forthcoming...  more on that later  ;)