Centuries-Sewing

Tag: Gabled Hood

The Queen’s Servants Pointed Hood, or my Induction into a Secret Gnome Society.

Since getting The Queen’s Servant’s I’ve been coveting the pointed hood with a sort of fiendish glee, it also might be an under layer to the strange headdress in Holbein the Younger’s drawing.

A month ago I scaled up the pattern and made a mock-up. It was huge, it devoured my head. I have a normal size head, but the hat made it look like a peanut.

Not the look I want. Just no.

Thinking perhaps I scaled it up wrong I set about slashing the pattern and scaling it down to no avail. I took in the mock-up 3 or 4 times before toss it in the corner.

It was Franken-hood. I don’t have any photos of the monstrosity.

Tonight I decided to try it again, I took 3 or 4 measurements and scaled the pattern up to my head depth and jaw level.

The red line shows where I pinned along the seam line.

It wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t happy with the shape in the back, it didn’t look cute, it looked like I had a copernican attached to my bun.

The green line shows what needs to be tweaked.

Much cuter. But something niggled at the back of my mind. Why was the scaled up pattern from the book so big? I went back and looked at the scale ratio and reread the instructions, then I noticed the little line drawing on the side. The round hood had the front folded back. This wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the book, and it is hard to see from the photos when everything is black velvet on black velvet.

So I scaled up the original pattern again.

Another round of pinning and I have this when I fold back the front edge and let it form the frontlet.

The yellow line shows the depth of the fold.

Much much better. The simple version in the book doesn’t look like it is worn with a separate frontlet, so I am going to use the frontlet pattern as a facing for the turn back portion of the hood.

August 8, 2012
Grey Henrician/Tudor “Mockado” Gown and Gable Hood finished

A Grey "Mockado" Gown

About three or four years ago I was gifted 6 yards of grey uncut corduroy for Christmas. I had intended to use it for a Spanish gown but the fabric lurked on my shelf untouched. After the Tudor Tailor came out I started to eye the yardage with a bit more interest When I finally took it down off the shelf it had a bit of damage to it, along the center where it was folded there was a line.

That scrapped my plans on the Spanish Gown, and the fabric sat on my shelf as the fold line haunted me. It wasn’t that noticeable but I knew it was there. Then I came across Holbein’s drawing again and some navy blue wool had come into my possession. I thought aha! I shall make the drawing in the blue wool! But the blue wool was rather nice, and I needed to test my latest pattern block and make a mock-up to make sure the neckline was high enough, oh and there was that overlapping part in the front. One thing led to another and the grey fabric got taken down again, to become a test dress for the blue wool.

This led to a great deal of research on the use of mockado, or mock velvet in period, gable hoods, funeral brasses and many late nights looking at inventory records.

I did not expect to like this dress, but in the end it came together and it feels “right” when it is on. There are a few things I might do differently, set the gores a touch higher, gives the cuffs some interlining so they have a bit more body.

The gabled hood is version 3, made from thin buckram fused together, edged with wire and then mulled with thin quilt batting before being covered with linen. The back box, veils, and lappets are also linen. I have no idea if linen was actually used for these parts. I had some silk in mind for them but the linen was a true black, where the silk was more of a pale charcoal. Eventually I will make a new box and veil and lappet from velvet or a darker silk.

August 27, 2011
Gabled Hood: work in progress

Buckram, wire, fluff, linen and lots of hand sewing. It is not done yet, but getting there!

August 5, 2011