Many substances besides straw are worked into plaits and braids for bonnets.
It serves for the thatching of roofs, for a papermaking material, for ornamenting small surfaces as a "strawmosaic," for plaiting into door and table mats, mattresses, &c., and for weaving and plaiting into light baskets, artificial flowers, &c. These applications, however, are insignificant in comparison with the place occupied by straw as a raw material for the straw bonnets and hats worn by both sexes.
The plaits are sewed partly by hand and in a special sewing-machine, and the hats or bonnets are finished by stiffening with gelatin size and blocking into shape with the aid of heat and powerful pressure, according to the dictates of fashion.
This is compared with an alternative approach using diamond abrasives bound onto flexible carriers attached to the bonnets.
The men and boys were given black woolen hats and the women and girls coarse straw bonnets " .