Sunday 27 May 2018

HSM challenge 5 - a 14th century night cap

The May Historial Sew Monthly challenge was set as "Specific to a Time [of Day or Year]". This was a challenge I really had no inspiration for, and I'm also stressed about finishing my 16th century gown for an event next weekend. I had more or less given up, because all of my (limited) searches for 16th century nightcaps or nightgowns ended up with these beautiful embroidered pieces, not something I would have time for.

Then I found this blog post from Eva Andersson where she made a 14th century night cap. She has provided photos that shows nightcaps in her blog, so I'm not going to copy them here. The general thing seemed to be a round cap with a brim in contrasting colour. 

I decided to use some of my red wool, the same that I used for my gollar, and a cotton-linen blend fabric that I use for scraps and small projects.



I started with cutting out two half ovals in the cotton-linen and sewing them together. I flattened the top of the cap, to make it more fitted to the head.

I used the lining as a pattern for cutting out the wool, but made the wool cap shorter. I used my sewing machine for both the wool and the lining layer.

I pressed up the edge of the lining.

Then I slipstitched the folded edge of the lining to the wool.

Tadaa, a finished night cap.
A good thing with having a fairly loose lining is of course that I can take it off and wash it, if it gets dirty. I'm planning on bringing the nightcap to an event next weekend, but at the moment the temperatures in Sweden are ridiculously high, more like high summer than spring, so I'm not sure if I'm going to get a chance to use it. Of course this current heatwave can disappear and it's not uncommon for a frost night or so in June.

The Challenge: "Specific to a Time [of Day or Year]
Material: 0,1 m of red wool, 0,51m of linen blend
Pattern: My own with inspiration from Eva Andersson's research http://evashistoricalcostumes.blogspot.se/2018/04/a-14th-century-night-cap.html
Year: 14th century
Notions: TPoly sewing thread, linen thread for slipstitching
How historically accurate is it? 30%

Hours to complete: 30 min (it took me longer to write the blogpost than to sew)
First worn: Planned for Leksand's medieval market June 1-3
Total cost: All the materials were scraps from my stash

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