Sunbonnets

In continuation with my theme all about downtown Waco, I wanted to share with you some activities that are not as well known in the general community as a whole. There are so many things to do in our city within blocks from our store that you can plan a trip to visit us and truly make a day of it. One such activity to do is enjoy an exhibit going on within the historic Fort House. The Fort House was built right here in downtown Waco around 1868 and is literally located only one block behind our store on S. 4th Street. They are open every Saturday and Sunday and give very interesting tours for only $3.00 from 2:00 - 5:00 pm. This house is owned and operated by the Historic Waco Foundation who preserves four more historic homes all in downtown Waco. You can tour them all!

"Historic Waco Foundation persistently reminds succeeding generations of how the city came to be what it is today".

Walk past these ionic columns, which are original to the house, and through the front doors to the Fort House to take a step back in time and view the Sunbonnet Exhibit. It will only be up for one more weekend so go see it while you still have the chance. The next exhibit will be all about Aprons. The following photos are just a sampling of what you will see!

This bonnet wad dated 1835 by the fashion curator of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

Notice the Stitching and the tatting on this bonnet all made by hand.

This Bonnet was probably used in a wedding and the black one in the background was worn during a period of mourning.

This fine embroidery looks as though it was done on a machine, but amazingly all done by hand.

Another close-up of hundreds of hand stitches

This bonnet belonged to Claire Masters Grandmother, the exhibit designer. It is probably made from cotton feed sack or flower sack material.

If you decide to see this exhibit before it closes, hopefully you will get a tour by Claire Masters herself. What a character ... She was a wonderful host to me and so knowledgeable.

You'll have to go see the rest of this historic home for yourself. I leave you with a photo of the play house (shown on the left) and what will soon be the Cooks Quarters (the next project shown on the right).