4. Straw hats
Straw hats were worn by workers as protection from the sun. They appear to have been made of plaited straw stitched into shape, a technique still used today. A plain broad-brimmed shape is suitable.
Coif
and
pattern 5aThe coif was close-fitting, and made in linen with a seam over the crown and strings under the chin (Hose, Fig 1). In the 13th century it was widely worn, often under a hat or hood. It gradually fell out of use and by the 15th century is seen mainly on babies and toddlers, and on professional and older men.
b. Pattern shown on a rectangle of fabric, folded in half. The coif is made in two halves with a seam from front to back, and unlined.
Scale
up the pattern
and fit
it on the wearer
or
start with a toile.
For a toile
start with a
rectangle
of light
fabric, about
30 x 60
cm. Fold it
in half
crossways and
place the fold
over the head.
Outline the curved
seam line
with pins, from forehead
to
nape, fitting it closely to the head. Mark the corner b
position just below the ears and trim the face and
neck edges to shape.
From the toile make a paper pattern, as shown. Cut this twice from white or unbleached linen. Make up with run-and-fell seams and double hems. You can bind round the face and neck edges with narrow strips of the same linen, extending the binding strip to form the chin strings, or hem all round and sew the strings onto the corners (Methods, Figs 2, 6, 9).
10 cm
190
6a
20 cm
b 6.
Cloth
hats,
from
c.1450
Conical
'acorn' hat,
shown
made
in
one
piece
b. Squared off hat, shown made in separate panels
c. Shallow square cap, plain version and version with turned up brim. It is made from four separate panels. The crown of each panel must be a right angle, so the top is flat and the edges square.
For an unlined hat use heavy felt or firm cloth. For a lined hat use two layers of lighter weight cloth (Methods, p. 51; Pl 1).
Plan the pattern for all styles as a quarter of the finished hat, with the base line a quarter of the Head size. The base to point height is 20-25 cm for tall styles; less for the flatter square cap, c. Patterns for a and b can be planned as a repeat of the basic shape and cut in one piece, as shown in a.
For felt or firm cloth cut with minimal seam allowances, and oversew or stab-stitch the edges.
Any
of these caps
may have
a little stalk at
the crown, made of
a 2-3 cm square
of cloth
rolled tightly
on itself. Hem down
the outer edge
and stitch
one end
of the stalk firmly
at the
centre.
C
1/4 Head size
20 cm
191
Men's hoods
This section covers the hood, and its derivatives
- the bag-hat and the chaperon.
By 1200 the basic hood was already seen on shepherds and other outdoor workers. It was a pull-on, caped garment with a slightly extended peak at the back of the head (Figs la, c). By 1300 many men wore one (Pl 5) and for most of the 14th century a hood was a common part of a man's outfit. It was often worn as a cape, with the head section thrown back and pulled up as needed (Fig lb). The cape of a fashionable hood might have a dagged edge, with the peak extended into a long tail, the liripipe (Cotehardies, Figs 1, 2). Tight-fitting hoods had a short buttoned opening under the chin.
Around 1400 new ways of wearing the hood were found (Fig 1d), and it began to be worn as a hat (Fig 4). Other new styles emerged, including the bag-hat (Fig 5), see Gowns, Fig 2; Pl 18. A prominent example of the trans- formation was the chaperon (Fig 6; Pls 12, 19), which appeared about the 1420s. This is also
seen carried, slung over the shoulder by the liripipe, sometimes by a man already wearing a hat.
By the mid 15th century the hood is seen only occasionally, on shepherds or travellers. About this time the chaperon too went out of fashion and hats became usual, with a few bag-hats persisting towards the end of the century.
How you wear a hood is as important as its shape, so it is useful to practise, especially with the wrapped types.
Materials
Like other outer clothing, hoods were most often made of woollen cloth. Sheepskin (with the fur outside to shed the rain) would have been worn for outdoor work. Lining is optional but will add warmth and can provide contrast when the face edge is rolled back round the head. Smarter hoods were lined with fine fur. Some hoods have small cloth buttons (Methods, Fig 19-21), but many hoods have no fastenings.
Men's hoods
1a b