St Birgitta's Cap
(2016)
Introduction
Any easy way to make an outfit look complete is accessories, even though its something that can often be forgotten. Looking through artwork head coverings are a very common accessory for women. Whether simple or elaborate, rich or poor, there is often something there. One thing a lot of this has in common is a simple baselayer, either to stand on its own, or to be used to pin on veils or more elaborate coverings. As a rarity, there is an extant example of a cap just like this, believed to have been Saint Birgitta's of Sweden. It is currently kept as a relic in the Birgittine Convent in Uden, The Netherlands, and is dated to the 13th-16th centuries. The original is a cap made of linen, with an interlaced herringbone join for decoration, and fragments of straps. It provides a good example of how a cap like this would have been made. Since this is such an essential and useful accessory, spanning a wide range of times and places, I wanted to turn my attention to making a replica of this piece.
Materials
White linen
Linen embroidery thread
silk sewing thread
The fabric of the original piece was a 32 thread per cm z spun linen. I am not sure if that thread count is warp and weft, or just one of those... The fabric that I used was a fairly even weave fine linen with about a 44cm^2 thread count. The embroidery was done with a thicker, loosely spun linen. I perhaps should have chosen a more delicate thread for this project. Everything was hand sewn with a thin silk sewing thread, that was waxed as needed with beeswax.
Design and Construction
Since for once there is actually an extant cap, design wasn't a challenge. There is an article about the cap written in Medieval Clothing and Textiles 4, which provides a good amount of helpful information. The cap is essentially 2 linen rectangles, with a top edge curved, joined together with embroidery and a band, with the back gathered. A well done diagram of this can be seen to the left. When I made this, I unfortunately did not remember to take progress pictures. I dove in head first and just never stopped. I apologize for this lack of forethought. As such, the drawn picture will have to be the guide.
To begin, the two main head pieces were cut out, and the central curve was hemmed with a double turn that was whipstitched down. These are stitch options used in period (Museum of London 157; Malcom-Davies 50; Arnold 65+). From here, I basted the two halves onto a long, narrow strip of thin cardboard, about 1" wide. This was done to try and keep the spacing for the insertion needle lace even. The extant example had a spacing of 0.8 to 1.3cm wide. Even with the cardboard guide, my embroidery came out to be more like 1-1.5cm wide. I had trouble finding good pictures of the embroidery. The description was just that it was interlaced herringbone with threads interwoven within. I chose to do 2 sets of evenly spaced double interlaced herringbone as a base for the embroidery. This gave me several "crosses" to weave around. From there, I wove the linen over and under every thread on one edge, then the other, and finally ran a thread up the middle of the embroidery. I actually managed to find a rather good drawing for the beginning few steps of this, shown below. From where that drawing stops, I then repeated the last step on the other side, then ran a thread up the center, gathering he middle "X"s. The actual pattern this design came from was too dense to do with the thread I was using.
This embroidery did not seem overly stable in the beginning or end of the section. The front would have the head band to stabilize it, but there was nothing like that at the back. I decided to reinforce it with a buttonhole bar, and buttonhole stitches (Malcom-Davies, p51). A similar reinforcement was found on a shirt in Stockholm (Arnold 75). This helped to make the back open sturdier and less likely to tear out.
Once the needlelace embroidery was done, a section at the bottom edge of the cap was pleated using a temporary guide thread. This was a small section, and done by eye. Each of the 13 pleats per side is around 1.5cm total, to match the size used in extant pleatwork. In the Lengberg finds, pleats averaged 1.4cm, or 0.55” (Nutz, p84). I bound the edge of the cap with a headband according to the article “How to Pleat a Shirt in the 15th Century” by Beatrice Nutz. In the article, it is stated that "the trimming strip is equally broad on both sides, first one edge is folded in, and then sewn onto the pleats with a running stitch, the fold fastened with whip stitches, then folded over the edge of the pleats and the border then folded in once more and sewn to onto the other side of the pleats again with whip stitches". I made sure to sew through every pleat with my whip stitches.
The final width of my band was about 2cm. Since this band continues past the edges of the cap to help secure it to the head, for the remaining strip, the raw edges are simply folded in (and ironed), then the two folds are whipstitched together. The band is sewn into a continuous loop, sized to fit my head. If you look closely, there is actually a twist in the band when it is not worn, so that it can be flat against the head when tied on.
Finally, to match the extant example, I added a white on white embroidery to the head band. This embroidery was done according to the drawings shown to the right. While very simple, it really does help to complete the look.
Final Results
As of this writing, I have had this cap for several years. It has survived many wearings and washings, and has held up quite well. The linen thread used for the interlaced embroidery did tighten up with washing making the pattern a little harder to see, but I still like the look of it. Were I to do this again, I think I would do a slightly different interlaced pattern, as well as using a finer linen thread. Otherwise I am sure I will keep wearing this for years to come.
Works Cited/References
Arnold, Janet. Patterns of Fashion 4: The Cut and Construction of Linen Shirts, smocks, neckwear, headwear, and accessories for men and women c1540-1660, Macmillan, 2008
Dahl, Camilla Luise & Sturtewagen, Isis. “The Cap of St. Birgitta. “ Netherton, Robin & Gale Owen-Crocker, ed. Medieval Clothing and Textiles vol. IV, pp. 99-142. Boydell Press: 2008
Malcolm-Davies, Jane and Mikhaila, Ninya The Tudor Tailor: Reconstructing 16th Century Dress Costume and Fashion Press, 2006
Museum of London, Texitiles and Clothing: Medieval finds from Excavations in London Board of Governors of the Museum of London, 1992
Nutz, Beatrice. “How to Pleat a Shirt in the 15th Century” Archeological Textiles Review Issue 54, 2012 p79-91