Showing posts with label 13th century. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 13th century. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Cap of St. Birgitta

Welcome to my new Project/Dress diary blog. A major goal for myself this year is to practice documenting my SCA projects, so I figured this could be an excellent tool.

I have wanted a better coif for awhile, something to keep me 'proper' in my dress, and to keep my hair clean and out of the way. I also am planning on cutting my hair shorter this summer, so having implements ready to disguise that fact was a no brainer.

The lovely Idonia was working on a few of these caps while I was over at her house and I was inspired to create one as well. She has done some fairly extensive research on the cap, there is one extant cap of this style, known as the Cap o St. Birgitta. There is a fairly extensive article on it in Medieval Clothing & Textiles IV, edited by Robin Nethington. These caps are also well represented in period art. I must admit that I did little to no research of my own on this project, rather borrowing from Idonia's expertise and methods, however I feel that it's a fairly accurate portrayal.


Mine is 3.5 weight linen, hand sewn with poly thread. The blackwork is a simple chain stitch done in silk.