How to make a Regency bonnet from a cereal box.

Do you need to make an 18th century hat before tomorrow with only the things around your house because you procrastinated? No? Well, I did. So I thought I'd share my discovery with the world, since, although I googled it, I got nuthing for making a Regency bonnet out of a cereal box. Funny, huh? Eat your heart out, Jane Austen.

Ok, here was my inspiration. This hat costs, $115, FYI. Obviously, mine isn't quite as nice since it is made of paper and cardboard, but it was also free. Free is good.

This picture is from http://timelytresses.com/page12.html. I also found http://www.songsmyth.com/costumecreation.html to be helpful.




The first thing I decided to was to make a complete rough draft of my hat out of construction paper so that I could use that as a pattern. Since I only had one empty cereal box with which to create my masterpiece, I figured I'd better know what I was doing before I cut it up.

So I taped two pieces of construction paper together for the brim. Then I cut a very wide scoop shape, and also a small arc at the bottom.


I placed that on my head and was pleased that I had the rough outline of the brim. To get it to hold its shape, I attached a strip of construction paper across the back. You can see one side attached in the picture above, and both sides attached in the picture below. In the old days, hats were designed to be worn with certain hairstyles. This one fits nicely over a bun, which also helps the hat stay on your head. The strip fits under the bun, and the bun pokes out of the arc. Confused? Sorry. I'm trying my best!

So I was finished with my brim design and had to focus on the crown. This time I cut a piece of construction paper in half and taped it together lengthwise. I folded about an inch and a half of the paper down to form the top of the crown.
I put my brim on and played around with the right fit for the crown. When I found a tightness I liked, I stapled the crown into a cylinder shape. The hardest part was getting the top of the crown (which is ultimately the back of the hat) to cooperate and fold over while allowing the crown to stay circular. I cut slits about an inch and a half deep from the top at about 2 inch intervals and this is what I ended up with. This will ultimately be the back of the hat, but of course you will be much neater about it when you do the real thing.




Then I taped the crown and the brim together to see what the rough version of the hat looked like. It was at this point that I thought I might actually pull it off.

Here is the finished product. To make it, I simply traced my pattern pieces onto my cereal box for the brim and a piece of pink cardstock for the crown and followed the same pattern as above, but much more neatly and carefully. Then I covered the cereal box with scrapbooking paper, securing it using a gluestick. I recommend using the inside of the box as the bottom of the hat and covering the side with the writing on it, because you actually see under the hat quite a bit when it is on.

I jopined the crown and the brim with staples at the back and some tape on the inside of the front. To cover that, I glued a strip of paper around the bottom of the crown. I dressed it up with a pretty scarf and stapled some ribbon to the sides to tie it on. Voila!

This is my best "Oh, Mr. Darcy!" pose.