In the old days you didn't have to go to New York to get a trendy hat or purse, you just had to go to St. David's.

And now a new exhibition at Carter House shows some of those hats, woven by St. David's Islanders out of palmetto and screw palm leaves.

Carter House always had a few hats on display, but in recent months the collection has grown with loans from residents and also the St. George's Historical Society.

Ronnie Chameau, of the St. David's Historical Society, said: "In the 1700s hats made by St. David's resident Martha Carter Hayward were so popular they were shipped to London especially for Queen Anne and her friends.

"Mrs. Hayward's obituary in a 1791 newspaper shows that she died at 114 years old. She wove hats right up until her death and never wore glasses."

Mrs. Chameau is trying to keep the old craft alive by doing it herself, and also teaching others. She will be teaching classes for children and adults at Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation at the end of November.

"The bags were made with screw palm because the leaves were stronger," said Mrs. Chameau. "The hats are woven with palmetto, to get a more intricate weave."

The exhibit includes hats for dollies, farmers and ladies of leisure and also book marks, fans, dolls, produce bags, hand bags, photos and spectacles (which you would probably need to do this kind of work), among other things.

The oldest hat in the collection is more than 100-years-old.

Many of the hats were woven by St. David's resident, Pansy Fox who died in the 1960s.

"She lived on Chapel of Ease Road," said Mrs. Chameau. "She was a Brangman and married a Rankin. One of her sons use to have the Knick Knack Shop on Reid Street.

"She just wove for people in the neighbourhood and HA & E Smiths department store sold a few."

Mrs. Chameau said people would commission Mrs. Fox to make them a hat. Mrs. Fox would send a message with her granddaughter, Jeannie Olander when it was ready. Mrs. Olander is now President of the St. George's Historical Society.

Although a straw hat may seem like a simple affair to those out of the know, a good one was actually time consuming to make.

"Some people say to me 'Ronnie, you should make these hats and sell them'," said Mrs. Chameau. "Well, it takes several months to do one hat. You have to sit and weave all of that, and then you stitch your hat."

Mrs. Chameau said she knew Mrs. Fox very well. "She was a lovely lady. She lived on top of the hill, just across from the Old Chapel of Ease Sunday School. Her first husband, a Rankin, died, and she married Maury Fox."

Mrs. Fox use to sell hand-woven bookmarks and placemats because they were quicker to make than handbags.

Another St. David's weaver was Edith Hayward, possibly a descendant of Martha Carter Hayward.

"She used to weave in the 1940s and 1950s and she was legally blind," said Mrs. Chameau. "She wove from feel."

Mrs. Chameau didn't know how the craft started in Bermuda. She thought it may have come over with enslaved people who then taught it to other local residents.

She said that pieces in the exhibit show a lot of skill and experience, with some of the detail being very intricate and including rosettes and frilly bits.

But some of the palmetto weaving on display took a more practical turn. Palmetto weaving was also used to make baskets to carry produce, such as onions, from the fields.

"Palmetto leaves are very strong and last for years so it made strong baskets," said Mrs. Chameau.

She said she liked traditional weaving because it is relaxing.

"You start from a leaf and then all of the sudden you have a basket or a hat or a bag," said Mrs. Chameau. "I find that really satisfying."

Mrs. Cheameau said the old-time weavers would have had rough hands.

"I always use the fan palm with the children, because it is easier on the hands," said Mrs. Chameau. "The palmetto is very hard on the hands.

"With the screw palm leaves, you have to remove the sticky prongs on the end. You have to cut them off."

She said she often rubs the leaves on a sharp surface to soften them.

"I usually weave the palmetto when it is half-green so I don't have to wet it," she said.

There are different weaves used for hats and bags, some of them inspired by other crafts such as fishpot making and netting.

"People in the Caribbean wove fish pots," she said. "Not a lot of Bermudians did that. But the weave on some of the baskets was just the same thing done on the fish pots in the islands, only smaller. When you do it really tiny it comes out very nicely."

Other weaves include spiral braid, twin curl braid, zig-zag and herringbone.

In addition to the hat exhibit, Carter House also has various artifacts from St. David's such as a real boat called The Amazon Queen made in St. Davids over a hundred years ago, plus portraits of old St. David's Islanders and many other artifacts.

The curator of CarterHouse is Delores Harrison who has many stories about the area.

The straw hat and bag exhibit is on indefinitely.

Carter House is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. . It is also open sometimes on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

To find out more call the museum at 292-1387.

For more information about Mrs. Chameau's course at Kaleidoscope telephone 236-5963 or email kaleidocopeartsfoundation@logic.bm .