I have wanted to make one of these crazy calashes for as long as I can remember! They just exude romance and complexity and extravagance and hey . . . I love a good challenge! Well, the diagram in "Fitting and Proper" has been sitting on my workbench for months as I worked on another project from the book and I finally just decided to grab a spare day between projects, find a silk I loved and go for it!
I had just over a yard of cranberry red silk left from the 1790s redingote I made back in March for the Lafayette Fundraising Gala in NYC, and knew it would be perfect for the calash! First, because I LOVE THIS FABRIC and COLOR! Secondly, because the calash could actually be worn with the jacket at some point if I ever got my hair up into one of those fabulously high hairdos!
Although original calashes were structured with reed caning in their channels, I opted again to go with something I already had on hand: paper reed (fiber rush). I had originally purchased paper reed with grand plans to create some of those FABULOUS museum-style paper wigs.
However, with so many projects already in the works, I decided to save myself the learning curve and repurpose the twine for my Calash frame instead of buying reed. This not only worked beautifully but also allowed me to stick to my goal of using fabric and notions I already had on hand before indulging in any new fabric purchases.
Now here's the most important thing to understand in the making of this calash: I MADE THIS IN ONE DAY! Start to finish from conception to completion. It was a quick project between commissions (and parenting and life and etc etc). So I decided I wanted to make a calash, chose the fabric, chose the basic finished look and went to town! It's a simple project if you want it to be, with absolutely stunning results! If you want to put more time and thought into it, your calash can be even more glorious!
So . . . let's get into the details of making the calash.
FIRST, THE INSPIRATION: The calash first came into being when the hairdos of the 18th century became enormously high. It's fun to look at old fashion plates and cartoons which obviously enjoyed poking fun at the ridiculous lengths to which the calash (as well as the hair beneath) would get. Of course, these were exaggerations, but in some cases, they may not have been far off. I wanted something a bit more subtle but still elegant in it's final creation and settled on the bottom two images as my final inspiration.
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| Popular depiction of 18th Century Calash showing the high hairstyle and the cap being worn underneath. |
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| Caricature of a Ginormous 18th Century Calash |
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| Red silk calash |
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| Green silk calash with ruffles in front and brown lining |
SECOND, THE PATTERN: I just used the scaled version found in
Fitting & Proper again because I had it on hand. Essentially, this bonnet is one giant rectangle of cloth gathered along the channels. I did decide I wanted my calash to be larger than the one in the book (which was more modest as these were garments primarily from the ordinary citizens of Pennsylvania). So I made my rectangle larger and then basically eye-balled the length of reed for the front of the bonnet for the size I wanted. I kept the back proportions close to the original - adding only an inch or two.
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| Diagram from "Fitting & Proper" |
THIRD, THE CONSTRUCTION: As I mentioned before, this is basically a large rectangle of fabric in which narrow channels are sewn, through which reed is inserted and the fabric is gathered or rouched along. The gathering is the trickiest part (especially for arthritic fingers) because it is just . . . tedious. It's a lot of scrunching. Gathering, pushing the reed along, gathering, pushing the reed along, etc. I'm guessing here if I'd used smooth, actual reed and not paper, it might have moved through the fabric a bit easier - I will try reed on future calashes and report back.
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| Sewing the channels. |
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| The finished channels before inserting the reed. |
To line or not to line: The example from which the book's pattern was made did not include a lining except for the very back piece. Some historical examples include linings and some do not, so that would be up to you. I wanted mine to be light and airy (especially because I was using the paper reed and afraid too much weight in the bonnet itself would not be supported by the paper) so I opted not to use lining.
The back piece of the bonnet is what creates the structure to which the long rectangle will be attached. I don't feel like the instructions in the book really explained this well so I just winged it. I made another long strip of fabric and gathered both edges with running stitches. I then puled the running stiches gathering them to fit (in sort of a horseshoe/loop shape) around the flat back part of the bonnet. I stay-stitched the outer edges down to keep them in place. Then as neatly as possible spread the gathering in the center and stay-stiched it down as well.
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| The gathered strip of fabric stay-stiched to back portion of the bonnet. |
Because my gathered strip didn't quite meet in the middle, I needed to make a "cover" (remember I was working with just a bit of leftover fabric so I was making do with what I had). I made a teardrop shape that would cover the raw edges of the gathered strip in the center, stay-stiched the seam allowance, cut the seam allowance along the curve, and pressed the seam allowance to the inside.
The teardrop shape ended up being much larger than I needed, so I just adjusted as I went along, hand-sewing it to the back of the bonnet to covered the raw edges of the gathered strip in the middle.
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The finished back of the bonnet and the top of the bonnet before inserting the reed.
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INSERT THE REED BEFORE YOU ATTACH THE BACK PIECE OF THE BONNET! That is my advice but you may have a better/different method.
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| The back pinned to the forepart of the calash. |
Attaching the back of the bonnet to the forepart of the bonnet really must be done by hand. Be prepared to look like you've been attacked by a cat from all the pins poking and scaping you. Or I supposed you could be better prepared and wear long pants and use a thimble. =) This is again one of the more tedious parts of the whole process, but if you enjoy hand-sewing it can be very soothing too.
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| Prior to gathering the stiches between the reed channels. |
Remember that there is a row of gathering stiches between each row of reed boning. I eyeballed mine and did it by machine (because I was in a mad rush to do this in one day between bus pick up and drop off). But this is a great opportunity to really show off some beautiful handwork if you are proud of yours!
FINISHING THE NECKLINE: The trickiest part may be finishing the neckline (is this the third or fourth thing I've said is the trickiest part after I said this is an easy project? =) I didn't get good pictures of it, but basically, I gathered all the free edges of the reed at the bottom of the neck edge so they were about a half in apart (tucking the fabric between each reed). You'll want to push the reed up inside the channel a bit so you don't try to sew over the reed. Stay-stitch (or pin) this "tucked" neckline down so that it keeps its shape. This is what you will attach the neck drape to. There's a pattern piece for it in the book but again I had to sort of eyeball the tucks at the neck edge to make it fit nicely from center back to front edge. (Of course, the neck drape has a narrow edge hem all around the edges except for where it attaches to the neck).
Now . . . you may want to cover the raw edges of the neck on the inside with some sort of binding, self-fabric, or overcast stitching. I zig-zagged mine and called it a day because it really is not seen. But I can easily cover it with a soft binding in the future if I wanted to.
The finishing touches are to add a self-fabric bow to the center back, self-fabric ties to the front and . . . a very long ribbon loop about eye height that will hang down almost to your waist and that will allow you to hold the calash open and up over your head (because it is so heavy).
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| Neck drape and bow back. |
This project was so much fun and honestly not as challenging as I first expected it to be! I will definitely give it another try with real reed caning instead of the paper reed and see how that changes the process (I suspect it should be easier).
If you've made one before, plan to, or have thoughts on this whole project please let me know in the comments below!
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