Until now I wore a linnen scarf, wrapped around my head, with my medieval outfits. But as it’s a large roll, I can’t wear a head covering (like a straw hat or hood) over it when it’s sunny or cold. Therefore I made a so called ‘Birgitta’s cap’ and a thin veil.
The St. Birgitta’s cap was worn by various classes for a long period and is frequently seen in medieval images. And it is something that stays put rather well!
The base consists of two linen squares with a rounded corner:
Note to self: next time only hem the rounded edge. Because a band will be added along both the bottom and the front later, which serves as a finishing.
It wasn’t strictly necessary to add decorative stitching in the middle, but I thought it would be nice to add that too, instead of just sewing both halves together. Hopefully it holds up reasonably well; I don’t know what they used for that back then. Probably silk. But that’s really too fancy for me as a musician. So I used wool yarn.
Next, pleat the bottom edges. Make sure to pleat enough, otherwise you won’t be able to pull both parts together at the back of your neck, and your Birgitta cap won’t sit snugly enough around your head.
Then you cut a long strip of fabric, fold it in half, and stitch it around the edge (front and pleated bottom). By hand, of course.
By sewing the long ends of the band together, you form a long loop that you can then wrap around your head to keep everything in place.
Tadaa:
Actually, I should have pleated the cap even more, because it is still a bit loose.
I also made a veil. That’s nothing more than a semicircle of linen (mine has a radius of 60cm) hemmed on all sides (yes, again by hand).
It isn’t entirely historically correct, because this is super-translucent linen. When I look at manuscript illustrations, most veils were made of thicker, non-translucent fabric. Only wealthy people had translucent veils, and as a musician, I am naturally not one of them. But I didn’t have any good linen left in stock; it drapes much more beautifully this way, and it is airier for warm days. So I’m rather happy with this one!
The veil is pinned to the St. Birgitta’s cap. The cap provides a really good underlayer for pinning things to it!
Instead of a veil, I can also wear my open hood over the cap when it gets colder. Yay for options!
(Afterthought: After having washed the cap several times, I noticed that the wool has shrunk somewhat and pulls everything tighter together. So next time I should either pre-wash the wool yarn or use a different material.)