Place

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Date

1927 - 1928

DIMENSIONS in centimetres

15 x 16.5

Materials & techniques

Cotton; Crocheted

Credit

Gift of Grace Heyding

ID

Textile Museum of Canada T2013.4.1

Sonja Shelly (née Thiessen) made this tiny bonnet for her youngest daughter, Grace, born in August 1927. At that time, Shelly was part of the Mennonite community of Saskatoon where her family settled after emigrating from Kronsthal, Russia, in 1913. When she was 18, she married Abram Shellenberg (Shelly), also a Mennonite from Russia. In 1925 they moved to Saskatoon with their growing family.
 
As a young girl in Kronsthal, Shelly took needlework classes at school. As the mother of the family in her new homeland, she spent a lot of time knitting, sewing, and embroidering for her family, as well as painting and doing crafts. Energetic and handy, “she did anything and everything” – as her granddaughter Carol Page-Heyding recalls. From the 1960s to the end of her life, she lived in Calgary and was an active member of the local Craft Guild for many years.