Next out of the Basket....

 Bonnet 1133.2020.25

I love this little bonnet~ my favorite of all the bonnets in the basket, even over the Hollie Point one.  The construction is nothing out of the ordinary~its the usual classic shape baby bonnet with round crown and little lace frill round the front and neck edges 

  What melts my heart about this bonnet, is the amount of hand work that has been put into it. Each stitch, placed with love and intent. The hours that went into making the lace around the edge...most likely purchased by the maker and not made by them....but, as I was not there, I could not say for sure.

 I love love love the embroidery on this sleeper. I call these sleepers...because from a ways back, one thinks, ah, just the usual utilitarian bonnet. But the closer one looks, the more marvels they behold. Chain stitch vines and fancy scrolling stripes, alternating with drawn thread work and those little eyelets~ sooo precious!

  With magnification one cannot appreciate the minute scale the embroidery is executed in, until there is something in the photo for scale.

  I would love to have eyes good enough to be able to sew this small without my magnifiers on....and as I am getting older, my magnifiers are not even working any more.  Do enlarge the pictures, I just had to leave them big so ya'll can see the stitches!

  Rows of minute drawn thread stitches between chain stitch scallops....from my years of studying early fashion, these patterns are hinting to me this is a very late 18th c to early 19th c bonnet. Baby things are very hard to date by the thing itself, unless it has some unique construction, or say, is made from a woven silk or printed material~ then that can be used to help date. Alot of times, if the item is in a set or grouping that has remained original, we will use clues from other items in the group to help date. There is one wonderful piece still to come out of the basket, that helps me to date this little bonnet to perhaps very early 19th c....

but until then...

The delicate lace crown~