This bonnet is extraordinarily light. It's built on a frame of willow, net and wire. Willow was a 2-layer alternative to buckram that could be molded in the hand without a block.
Here you can see the gathered silk tulle that filled the open area between the brim and the top of the head. It is mounted on a folded strip of crinoline. It is a near certainty there were lots of flowers filling the area in front of the tulle. Flowers were often removed from a bonnet no longer being worn and moved to another bonnet.
The silk cover is attached in 3 separate pieces; the tip (back), the crown and the brim. Each area has been made up in a different manner. The tip covering is laid on plain. The crown area is gathered to make tiny channels then flipped over so the channels are on the under side. The back of the brim section is drawn on a cane while the center has the same underside gathers as the crown and the foremost is simply gathered about 3/4" from the edge. There is evidence that the milliner had intended to make either a channel for a cane or another underside gathered row because there are 2 rows of tiny stitch holes just in front of the gathering line. The ties are 3" wide silk taffeta.
The curtain of this bonnet is missing.
Several elements are visible here. Centermost is the ruching of silk tulle attached to a band of crinoline. This is used to fill the open brim area behind any flowers and to grab the hair to help keep the bonnet in place. The net and wire of the brim section are shown as is the crinoline headliner that also covers the wire at the join between crown and brim. The brim facing was done in 2 sections.
On this bonnet, the lighter brim support wires are made up of one length of wire, bent in elbows to form the front-to-back supports. You can see one of the elbow bends in the photo. The wire is attached alternately to the outer edge wire and the crown edge wire. The material at the bottom of the photo is the willow crown of the bonnet.
