I love hats. Hats are great. I've recently started keeping a gallery of hats I've made. Check back often -- this page is on the docket for some long overdue updates. I'm also working on a super secret project. Shhh.... To help support this site (and myself), I'm going to start selling hats online soon.

• Types of Period Hat
• Examples and Methods

A wide variety of hats and headdresses were popular during the elizabethan era. Women often wore two types of headdress at once - a caul or coif, to cover the hair, and an actual hat or french hood over that. Men mostly just wore a single hat, though some scholars and older gentlemen seem to have worn something very much like a woman's plain coif underneath their hats. Types of hats and headdresses include:

• The caul - this could be made of fabric, or a knotted mesh of cord, and was generally a roundish item that covered the back of a lady's hair when it was worn in a bun. It could be tightly fitted to the bun, almost like a yamulke worn at the back of the head, or it could be looser like a pouch that might reach down to the shoulders. These were made, of course, of the best stuff the woman could afford, and were often decorated with gold and pearls (or composed simply of gold cords knotted with pearls at the intersections). Often, these were worn under a hat, especially outdoors.
• The coif - a simple little head covering, this item looked a bit like a baby bonnet that covered only the head (if you are familiar with the black and white version of Dicken's A Christmas Carol, Scrooge wears a little nightcap that is very much in the style of a coif). It often tied under the chin. The well to do might have coifs decorated with silk embroideries. Again, these were often worn in combination with a hat.
• The flat cap - some variation of this hat style could be found in almost any social class. These are basically a circular hat with a circular brim. It does not stand up much on its own. (Actually, it's often quite floppy.) There are two examples in my photo gallery, the 1580's male merchant class costume and the 1580's female noble costume. The cap is either pleated into the brim, or it is cut at a top circle, and a bottom torus, then sewn together. This later method results in a cap that lies much more smoothly. Sometimes, with the later method, it appears that the pieces were cut as ovals instead of true circles, so that the cap would more closely conform to the head.
• The french or spanish toque - this is a variation of the flat cap, however, instead of being flat, it is poofy. It is also usually made with a smaller diameter than the flat cap, so it sits more pertly on the head. From the portraits I have looked at, it appears that the cap is pleated into the brim for this method. Either they were made of a stiff enough material that the pleats were enough to keep the crown of the hat poofy, or else they were lined with stiffer stuff or stuffed. These were frequently worn at an angle.
• The italien bonnet - yet another variation on the flat cap. This time, the top of the hat is cartridge pleated into the brim, with several lines of stitch holding the pleats in the crown to the diameter of the inside of the brim. I just finished one of these out of velvet, lined with shantung (ok, ok, fake shantung), and the crown stands quite nicely without additional stiffening.
• The tall hat - this was the elizabethan version of the top hat. It would have been made over a frame, though I do not know if that was wire and buckram like you would see in contemporary millinery or of some other stuff. The fabric of the crown was either pleated down the sides to the brim, or else the sides were made as one long rectangle and the top of the crown as a round, and they were sewn together. Often, especially in pictures of women's tall hats, you see that the brim curves up at the sides and down at the center of the forehead.
• The french hood - this perennial favorite of the 1500's was generally a short, jewel encrusted crescent shape that stuck up at a backwards angle from the center of the head, attached to a front piece that framed the face and often covered the ears. It had a tube or veil hanging from the back of the crescent, to somewhat down the back. This was a woman's hat only.
• The attifet - this was an odd little hat that framed the face with a heart-shape, dipping down at the middle of the forehead and flaring out at the temples. It was often worn with a long sheer veil.

For excellent pictures of these and other types of hat, made by a woman who is, frankly, one of the idols of my humble existence, see Lynn McMasters' hat page.

Examples and Methods

The Italien Bonnet

This first example is one I finished the night before starting this section. It is made like an italien bonnet, but the brim is bent like that of a tall hat. The inner circumference of the brim is about 20" (7"diameter). This measurement is taken from the italien cap studied in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion Vol. I. The brim is 1.5" wide. The crown was made from a 14" diameter circle. The velvet for the brim was sewn together at the outside, then fitted over a circle of plastic canvas for stiffness. (Anything else would be more period, but plastic canvas is cheap and stands up to a lot of abuse.) There are three coils of 18 gauge wire running along the outside edge of the brim, so that it can be shaped as it has been. Once the brim fabric was fitted over the plastic canvas and wire, I whipstitched the top piece of velvet down to the plastic canvas, then I rolled and whipstitched the bottom piece of velvet to the top piece. For the crown, I sewed the red shantung lining to the velvet so that I had a fully sealed edge, then I ran four parallel lines of heavy jeans thread around the edge for the pleating. This goes without saying, but make sure that the stitches in each row line up, or you will have very messy pleats. I used jeans thread partially because I thought the heavy goldish lines of thread would look nice with the velvet, until I had more time to decorate the hat. I then marked the quarters of both the hat and brim, and pinned them together (outer edge of crown to inner edge of brim). I pulled down the outermost line of pleating stitches, to fit the crown to the brim, and whipstitched each pleat down to the brim on the inside. The feather is actually a really cheap, somewhat ratty looking ostrich plume that I curled, and a bundle of peacock drabs that are bound together at the bottom with jeans thread. I curled the tips of the peacock feathers too. The curling really makes the ostrich plume look much fuller, and I think it adds a nice effect to the peacock drabs as well. The ostrich plume is actually a more maroon color, but I am apparently the most inept camera operator in the known universe and I couldn't get photoshop to turn out a red instead of a pink without really screwing up the color of the peacock drabs. Please use your imagination to correct the color. Thanks.

Tall Hats

(Pictures and pattern forthcoming)

Making a proper tall hat can be kind of a pain. I mean, not only do you have to worry about the construction issues, but you also have to use your imagination a fair bit while trying it on. The problem is that, unless you're wearing your full costume, a proper tall hat will look disproportionately large.

Traditionally, a tall hat should be made over a wired buckram form. As I think tall hats are a pain in the patoot to make, however, I prefer to go with the significantly more indestructible option of plastic canvas. (Roughly anything is more period, but you just cannot destroy plastic canvas.) In the Winter and Savoy book of Elizabethan Costuming, they recommend making the brim first, then forming the crown. My advice is to do precisely the opposite. The reason is simple - the tall hat tended to curve down sharply at the front, and to some smaller degree at the back. This curve was created by the way the bottom of the crown (the sticky-up part of the hat) was cut - it looks sort of like a mutant sine wave when it's lying flat. Now we're back to basic geometry again - that curvy edge is longer than a perfectly flat edge would be. The effect is that the brim that you thought would fit your head and hat perfectly doesn't. It's positively discouraging. Make the crown first, then fit the crown to the brim.

To make the crown, I first took two 6" tall (you can cut it down later) strips of plastic canvas (maybe 15" long - whatever the standard length of sheets of plastic canvas is) and stitched them together at one end. You want to stitch them so that they form about a 150 degree angle (that's a very big, flat V for the angle impaired). Now, stand in front of a mirror and wrap the V around your head so that the point is front and center. This is the crown of the hat. Because the front ends of the pieces of plastic canvas meet at and angle, the back ends will have to too. What you are trying to do right now is determining the basic size of the hat, as well as the front and back angles of the crown. Play around a little until you are satisfied with both of these. Now, holding the canvas firmly by the back join, carefully remove it from your head and stitch it in place. Try it on again to make sure you got it right. (Remember that you need to leave a little ease to account for the space taken up by the fabric covering of the hat, and also that if you are a woman, you will probably wearing your hair up and in a caul at the back of your head, and you'll need more space for that too, depending on how much hair you have.) Trim the canvas at the front and back joins so that you do not have bits protruding beyond the edges of the crown. The next bit of shaping comes at the sides - you will want to add a gentle curve to them (an inch up at the highest point is sufficient, imho, especially if you're not entirely sure what you're doing - I certainly wasn't!). The high point of the curve should be at the center side line, or just to the rear of it. Just make sure it is the same on both sides of the hat. Once you are satisfied with the look of the bottom of the crown, you need to straighten out the top - the easiest way to do this is to set the crown upside down on a table, see where it can be rocked back and forth, and cut down the high bits. I advise cutting off very small amounts of the high bits, lest you end up with a 2" tall tall hat.

Now you are ready to make the brim. This part is easy. Whip stitch a piece of uncut plastic canvas (centered) to the bottom of the brim so it is tightly secured all the way round. You will need to make sure that there are at least 2" of canvas sticking out past the crown on all sides, and that they crown is formed in an even oval when you do this. Now, *carefully* cut out the center part (where your head goes) as close to the whip stitching as possible. (This is a very good time to make your stitches as narrow as possible.) Put it on your head. Trim the brim down, evenly, to the desired width. Do not forget that you will be curling up the side edges later.

Once you have a working plastic canvas mockup, you'll want to take it apart. (First: Mark the left center side and front and back center on both the top and bottom of the crown, the inside of the brim, and the edge of the top, so that you know how to put the whole thing back together again later.) You will use the plastic canvas mockup as a pattern for the fabric. Neaten out the back join of the crown, then take it apart. Neaten the front join, but leave it sewn. You will need to cut two of the brim in the same fabric, and two each of the crown and top. DO NOT FORGET YOUR SEAM ALLOWANCE. (For these, you can use different fabrics for the outside and the lining if you want.) You will also want to cut three pieces of thin batting - one for the brim, one for the crown, and one for the top. Trim 1/2 inch off the outside edge of the batting for the top and the brim(just along the outside), and 1/2 inch off the bottom of the batting for the crown. The batting is more for camouflage than anything - it will not only hide the mesh of the plastic canvas on thin fabrics, but also the bulk of the seams at the edge.

Whip stitch a piece of millinery wire to the outer edge of the brim. If, like me, you do not routinely keep millinery wire about the house, wire hangers work just dandy if you cut off the hook bit and straighten them out.

Now, spray glue and position the batting - the top (outside) of the top, the outside of the crown (flush with the top), and the bottom side of the brim. You will also want to spray glue down the material to the batting/canvas for all the pieces, leaving about half inch unglued at each and every edge. This will help keep everything in place while you are sewing. (Yes, for those of you who have picked up on this, you will be sewing the whole thing by hand. You'll get a much tighter covering that way. Relax, it's just a hat.)

Now, it goes together something like this: Stitch the outside edge of the brim. You'll want to fold the top piece of fabric to the bottom, and fold the bottom in on itself, so that the bulk of the seam is replacing the half inch of batting that you trimmed away earlier. Clever, huh? Sew tightly, so that the fabric is stretched taut, but not so tightly that you pull all the fabric (including the inside edge seam allowance) to the outside. Fold lining fabric along the top edge of the crown to the right side *behind* the facing fabric. Blind stitch it to the outer fabric so that the lining stays smooth, and the stitches do not show. Do not stitch within one inch of either side of the back edge of the crown, or you will never get it back into an oval shape. Reshape the crown into a standing oval. Whip stitch lining to lining where the edges overlap to hold it together, then stitch a neat seam into the center back of the outside material to further hold it (seam bulk folded to either side of the inside of the seam, so that it does not show). Fold the lining of the top to the outside, under the outer fabric. Fold the top of the outer crown fabric down over this, then fold the outer fabric of the top in on itself and sew firmly, so that the bulk of the seam is again where the fabric isn't. Keep your stitches neat, even, and inconspicuous. Line up the crown/top and the brim. Fold up the seam allowance for the top of the brim so that it lies along the crown, under the outer crown fabric. You may need to clip the curve. Fold the outer crown fabric in on itself, as before, and stitch. I will warn you in advance that this is the tricky bit. The good news is that it will be covered by a hat band, so it's not so important that the stitching be perfect so much as that it be sturdy. Now, the last seam is to get the bottom piece of the brim tacked up to the inside lining. The easiest way to do this is to get it bound with gross grained ribbon. Sew the ribbon to the lower brim piece, so that the edge of the ribbon is just to the inside of the inner edge of where the crown joins the brim, and the ribbon faces out (so that the ribbon is covering the seam bulk when it is flipped up and tacked to the lining). Now, surprise surprise, you need to turn the ribbon up, so that the seam bulk is covered, and tack the ribbon to the inside lining. You will need to clip the curve of the brim fabric as you go. Don't clip all the way to the crown join; just enough for it to lie correctly.

Piece of cake, right? I made mine out of felted wool. I would not recommend this. I spend the next day nursing swollen knuckles and wondering if it was possible to get arthritis overnight. I liked the hat significantly better after my hands recovered. Using a thinner fabric that is easier to sew through might help. Also, taking frequent breaks when your fingers start to feel strained would be recommended. I happen to have a stubbornly stupid streak, and if I decide a hat is a one day project, then so help me, I'll get it done in a day and regret it for the next few.