Elizabethan Forehead Cloth for A Friend's Birthday

I normally love giving projects away, but I confess that this one was a bit of a wrench. It was the last project that Bitey and I 'worked on' together, and I finished sewing it after she had gone.

It was designed to go with an Elizabethan monochrome coif I embroidered many years ago. The design was very slightly different to that on the original coif because I no longer had the pattern for the original piece, only an enlarged design based on it that I had planned to decorate a partlet with.

My post about the original coif can be found here: http://broidermebethan.blogspot.com/2013/05/new-world-elizabethan-coif.html
Here are some photos of the original piece-

The forehead cloth was sewn with black DMC floss on linen base fabric with a mix of double running stitch and stem stitch. 

 Designing the pattern

 The design traced out with Frixion marker

I left it unlined to reduce bulk and heat, and omitted the spangles so that it sat flatter and closer to the forehead and had nice, clean lines without the edges of spangles sticking out on odd angles.

A strip of the base linen was bound to the un-hemmed edges and used as the cords to tie it on.

Machine zig-zagging the edges of the embroidered piece for extra durability.

Ruling out the binding strips/ties.

Binding/ties pinned on and ready to be hand sewn.

The finished piece.

The not-so-neat back!

My dummy head is quite small so the forehead cloth looks a little big on her.

 

A gift for a friend made with the help of a friend.

Coif for a Man

I know that it probably looks like I have had a super-productive week, but in reality it has just been one of those weeks where a lot of smaller projects that I have been working on for weeks have been finished off.

Nevertheless, I am riding high on a wave of personal satisfaction to get a few things off the 'To Do' pile. I think it is probably a law of Nature, or physics (or maybe just Murphy's Law!) that at least as many requests for items/assistance come in as finished items go out, but at least I am never bored. (Or likely to be, in any conceivable lifetime!)

Here is another coif for a man. It is designed as a court-type article, rather than an arming coif (which I believe usually has a gusset in the middle. Given my fear and loathing of gussets, I have not yet attempted one of those.)

This coif is constructed in the same way as the light blue one I posted about earlier. The pattern was cut out of two pieces of cotton linen blend fabric. The edges were zig-zagged to prevent fraying and then the seam up the back was sewn up. I opened the seam out and stab stitched it down on both pieces to reduce bulk. The pieces were then sewn together (inside out) leaving a small gap for turning. Triangles were clipped into the seam allowance to ensure the fabric sat smoothly when turned.

Once the coif was turned right side out, I used a blunt wooden knitting needle to push the seams out. Then I whip stitched over all the edges.

Finally, I sewed a piece of bias binding along the bottom edge. Another was applied to the top, and the long hanging ends were doubled over to make the ties. I added a small line of running stitch in black embroidery thread just to fancy it up.

Since I enjoy hand sewing - and make less mistakes with hand sewing than machine sewing - I added the bias strips by hand.

Elizabethan Coif Pattern

Here is one of my Elizabethan coif patterns. It is a larger one, designed to be worn over unpadded hair, not behind padded rolls. I have a large head, so I would describe this pattern as large to extra large. The long ruler is about 60 cm long, and the smaller about 30 cm.

The motifs are all taken from extant examples in Patterns of Fashion and also period pattern books like A Scholehouse for the Needle. This is not a very shaped coif, that is, the flaps over the ear areas are not very pronounced. This is a purely personal thing, as very shaped coifs don't really suit my round face.

The top edge of the coif is sewn together about two thirds of the way along and the last third is gathered up into a little knotted bunch. This makes a 'pouf' to allow for your bun or hair taping. The bottom edge is sewn into a channel for a cord which is used to slightly gather the bottom edge and tie up and over the hair to secure the coif. If you are planning on making this type of coif, I would suggest tapering the sides in so that the gathering channel is a bit less wide. Just how far you go will depend on where your bun or hair tapes sit. I misjudged on this pattern and the ties are too far forward which means that the coif doesn't sit properly over my hair. I would recommend making a test pattern up in waste fabric to test out different variations that will suit your face. It really can make the difference between a flattering and unflattering coif, especially if you are planning to wear it alone rather than under a flat cap or hat.

The pattern cut out and ready to be spangled

The coif made up

The embroidered coif that I am currently working on is smaller because I plan to wear it behind padded hair rolls and also because I have been gradually modifying my coif pattern to make it sit better and flatter my face more.

I draw my patterns out on tracing paper or lunch paper which I then tape to a window. Then I tape the linen or base fabric over the pattern and use the window as a big light box to transfer the patterns.

Shaped Lilac Coif

Here is another one of my early attempts at an Elizabethan shaped coif. It is embroidered in DMC cotton floss on a cotton base fabric. The embroidery is predominantly stem stitch. The spangles are silver gilt, attached with four threads. Sewing spangles on with three stitches is more common, but there are extant examples of Elizabethan embroiderers securing spangles with four stitches. I suppose that, like me, they wanted their work to stand up to lots of washing and use.

The design is my own, but the motifs are all taken from period model books and extant embroidery examples from the sixteenth century. There is a line of commercially made cotton bobbin lace around the front of the coif, ornamented by small pearls. The coif is lined to prevent hair oils from affecting the embroidery.

More detailed information about Elizabethan coifs can be found in my earlier post on the red striped coif.

Thank you to Heather for the lucet cords.

Red Monochrome Shaped Coif

Today's picture is another shaped coif, this time with a red monochrome design. The base fabric is a cotton/linen blend, and the design was worked in stem stitch in DMC cotton floss. The design is one of my favourites, and one that crops up again and again in sixteenth century pattern books, including Modelbuch Aller Art.

I worked a simple needle lace around the front edge of the coif. Thankyou to Heather for the hand made lucet cords.

My previous post on my Elizabethan red striped coif has much more information about Elizabethan coif use, decoration and construction. 

Blue vine shaped coif

Today's picture is of one of my very early attempts at a coif. It is a shaped coif (rather than gathered) and is made of a base fabric of cotton. It is embroidered with a simple design in DMC floss. The design is worked in stem stitch, and there is a line of running stitch through the lace.

I adapted the design from several similar designs in Modelbuch Aller Art. It is hand sewn with purchased cotton bobbin lace around the face area. Lucet cord ties were hand made by Heather. I have found shaped coifs to be very comfortable to wear over short hair that can't be hair taped.

Speckled Holly Leaf Coif

Today's post is on a coif that I started a really long time ago and only finished in about 2010. I had grown disenchanted with the project because the pattern was not cut in an accurate way. For a long time I debated about whether I should continue the embroidery or whether it was a waste of time to finish the garment if it was not accurate.

The finished coif

In the end, I modified the pattern to make it more accurate for the sixteenth century and decided to finish the garment. The piece was good practice in speckling stitch, which was popular with Elizabethan embroiderers for adding depth and texture to monochrome embroidery. I found it quite a tedious and time consuming stitch also, but I liked the end result.

Here you can see the original coif pattern modified to make it more accurate for a sixteenth century English style coif. Note the join down the middle of the garment. I have never seen an extant coif with a join, but that was the only way to modify this coif from it's original 'Jorvik hood' style shape into a more appropriate shape.

There are many examples of floreate patterns in extant English monchrome and ploychrome embroidery from the sixteenth century - the Elizabethans loved them! I particularly wanted a holly pattern and was inspired by patterns from 'A Scholehouse for the Needle' and the images below.

The spiky leaves from this Elizabethan man's nightcap in the V&A Museum (c1600-1629/Museum # 814-1891) reminded me of holly leaves  although I suspect they are supposed to be thistle leaves.

A really excellent collection of images of extant coifs can be found at the Blackwork Guild 'Blackwork Headwear' page - http://www.theblackworkguild.com/COSTUMES-MEMBERS%202.html

Stylised holly design in silk and gilt from a sixteenth century English coif in the V&A Museum collection

The finished coif worn by a model with very short hair. It does fit better over a bun or hair taping.

Spangles were attached with three stitches, and the centre seam was decorated with chain stitch. All the embroidery was done in DMC cotton thread with two strands of black. Cotton floss and fabric were used for this project instead of silk and linen to save money. The spangles are silver metal. 

Centre top seam decorated with chain stitch.

The centre top seam was decorated with chain stitch and the edges with a slanting whip stitch. In period, an Elizabethan braid stitch would most likely have been chosen for the top centre seam, but when I tried it, it just didn't fit with the embroidery. If I started this project again, I would make the embroidery design more crowded and full. When I drew this design out, I was less familiar with Elizabethan style than I am now, and I think I was looking at the design with a modern eye. It needs a lot more spangles and have less bare areas.

I gathered the central seam in an approximation of the same technique that I used on the Red Stripey Coif (posted previously). It doesn't look quite right due to the adjusted shape of the coif. The main embroidery stitches used were stem and speckling stitches, and a funny little knot I use in lieu of french knots. (It is close to a colonial knot.)

The finished coif is lined with a light cotton lining to protect the embroidery from hair oils etc. The lucet cords were hand made by Heather - thank you Heather! Also thanks to Alisondre who helped with some of the speckling stitches.

Article on Red Striped Coif

This is an article that I wrote to accompany a coif I made in 2009.

Background

After cutting my waist-length hair short in November 2008, I realised that I needed to reassess my hair coverings for SCA events. I normally wear sixteenth century Italian and Elizabethan style clothing and I found that I didn’t have enough hair for my normal cauls to fit securely.

On Christmas Day 2008, I received my much hoped for copy of Janet Arnold’s Patterns of Fashion 4 (POF4) and subsequently spent many enjoyable hours poring over the detailed colour plates of extant items. I realised that an Elizabethan coif might be the solution to my headwear problem and decided to create one as much in keeping with period techniques as possible. Previously I have made several shaped coifs because I wanted to minimise bulk at the crown and back of the head. Having cut off my long, thick hair, bulk is no longer an issue, so I decided to make one with pleats at the back of the head.

Pattern, Materials and Techniques

Making the pattern for the garment was a case of trial and error. I played around with paper patterns in the approximate shape of the unjoined extant coifs reproduced below. There is some variety in the shape of extant coifs, probably due to personal preference on the part of the wearer. I don’t like having headwear obscure my peripheral vision, so the ear ‘flaps’ on my coif are quite small.

Having settled on the style of coif, choosing an embroidery design was the next challenge. I was very taken with the linen coif embroidered with red, green, black and ivory silks shown in POF4 on Plate 51, but took my main inspiration from Plate 50 (below).  The original has lines of flowing foliate stems and flowers worked in black silk, separated with enclosed areas of silver gilt spangles. I have never tried to completely reproduce an extant piece of embroidery, preferring instead to change small details to make a piece completely ‘my own’ and allow my own creativity to shine through.

The extant piece that first inspired me to make a coif; I loved the colours and may attempt something like this in the future. (Plate 51, POF4; Linen coif embroidered in silk from around 1600 from the Museum of Costume and Textiles, Nottingham.)

My embroidery design and layout is largely inspired by this extant coif (POF, Plate 50) in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow that dates from around 1610.

Although most of the examples I have used date from around 1600, coifs were in use at least a decade earlier than that. The picture by William Peake the Elder, 1590 (below) shows Lady Catherine Constable wearing a linen coif and forehead cloth (POF4, Plate 51A), and a variety of plates in ‘the Tudor Tailor’ show similar garments. Plate 6, A portrait of an Unknown Woman 1568 (p. 10) shows a lady wearing a distinctly coif like garment. Coifs could be worn under another item of headwear, or used to cover the hair on informal occasions, such as when inside the house.

For this project, I decided to change the design from flowers to pomegranates, keeping the original scheme of geometric lines separating the coif into segments. The pomegranate motifs from the Warwick Museum’s men’s shirt inspired this choice, although I altered the shape and style of the fruit somewhat.

I chose a red monochrome colour scheme rather than black because I have several red Elizabethan style garments in various stages of construction. Red monochrome embroidery was popular in both Italy and England in the sixteenth century, with many extant examples still in existence. Red-worked smocks, shirts, chemises and coifs from England and Italy are all shown in POF4 and can be found in most museums that have clothing collections. A variety of embroidery styles is shown on these garments, but geometric and freestyle monochrome and polychrome styles are both found. A lovely red worked Italian camicia from the sixteenth century can be found in Moda a Firenze on p. 124. It and the large number of Italian and English red-worked garments in POF4 indicate the trans-continental appeal of this colour combination.

I used cotton floss rather than silk purely due to financial restrictions, but I was really happy to find a piece of unbleached pure linen in a remnant basket, and I used this for the coif itself. (Extant coifs are worked on linen but I usually can’t afford linen.)

This late sixteenth century Chalice Veil (V&A Collection as shown in Geddes et al, p. 12) is worked in red silk. The embroiderer has edged the piece in a similar way to the edging on the ‘face’ edges of my coif. Stitches used here include stem stitch, double running stitch (‘Holbein stitch’) and braid stitch.

I used stem stitch and open buttonhole/blanket stitch for the majority of the embroidery. I wanted to practice my open buttonhole/blanket stitch on this project because I am not very confident with the technique or tensioning of this type of stitch. For this reason I changed the diagonal segment edging style of the original from little triangles to lines of open buttonhole/blanket stitch, although I did keep the little triangles in the two vertical centre segments because of their aesthetic appeal.

This linen panel, known as ‘the Shepheard Buss’, dates to around 1600. Worked in black silks, lines of what look like blanket stitch are used to separate the different sections of the design. I have used this technique in the sections of the coif containing spangles. (V&A Museum, Geddes et al, p. 42.)

I have not been able to find any really detailed pictures of the original coif, so had to make educated guesses about what type of stitches the original embroiderer used. Braid, chain, stem, back and double Holbein stitches are all commonly used in Elizabethan embroidery, so I used stem stitch for the dividing segment lines and the pomegranate stems, with blanket/open buttonhole stitch for the fruit segments and leaves, and satin stitch for the circular points at the top and bottom of the fruits. The decorative triangles in the centre vertical columns are done in large double running stitches, although I suspect that the original embroiderer would have used two stitches to my one, judging from the trouble I had with the tension.

I used silver-gilt spangles of 4.0mm diameter from the Thread Studio, which appear to be slightly smaller than those used on the extant garment. Although pressed metal spangles or ‘ooes’ were used in period, I am not sure what these modern alternatives are made of. I suspect that they are a metal alloy blend as they are light, don’t seem to tarnish, don’t snap and don’t melt under the iron.  I have seen examples of spangles being sewn on with four stitches (see below), but the majority of garments seem to have spangles stitched with three so I used three. The extant garment appears to have spangles sewn on with one thread, but I used a doubled cotton thread because it is likely that my coif will be machine washed, and durability is very important to me. I knotted off the thread after each spangle was secured, but did not cut the thread so the back of the work would be tidier.

A sixteenth century polychrome coif (Synge, unknown page) unusually showing spangles sewn with four stitches instead of three!

For the same reason, I have a natural cotton lawn lining waiting to be whip stitched in before I wear the garment. Although I can find very little evidence of coifs and similar headwear being lined in period, I have decided to line mine to reduce the chance of hair oils/products from soiling the linen. (I have left the lining off so that the back side of the stitching is visible.)

I have never made a coif where the embroidery goes right to the edge before; on my previous efforts the embroidery has always stopped within a centimetre or two from the edges. I don’t want to get too stuck in my ways, so decided that I would copy the designer from Plate 54 of POF4 and draw my designs all the way to the edges.

This coif from c. 1610 in the Burrell Collection (Plate 54, POF4) and this coif from c.1600 in the V&A Museum (p. 44, Geddes et al.) demonstrate the technique of taking the embroidery design all the way to edge of the garment. The V&A Coif at the right also shows (faded) small diagonal decorative stitches around the edges of the coif that frame the face.

Although ink was often used in period to mark out embroidery designs, I am not confident enough about my draftsmanship to risk using ink, so I traced the design in modern water soluble ink. I taped my sketched design to a window and used the pane as a natural light box. The salamander design below, dating from around 1600, demonstrates how ink was used to mark out designs for the embroiderer to follow (V&A Collection, T.88-1925, Arnold {QEWU} p. 272).

In period, many embroiderers seemed to avoid knots and work their thread ends back into the embroidery. I have knotted my threads and then worked the thread ends back into the work, again for durability and security when the garment is machine washed.

This red and gold worked coif from about 1610 shares similar attributes to mine; the colours are similar, the design goes all the way to the edges and no edging lace is used, small spangles are used, and the embroiderer seems to have anchored their stitches in places with knots. (POF4, plates 53-A.) Compare with a back view of my coif, below.

The edges of the garment were bound with natural cotton thread using a satin stitch before the garment was cut out with snips. I chose to use the snips because they were used in period, and I wanted to get a feel for the technique. I found them unwieldy, probably because I am used to modern scissors and because I was worried about making a mistake that would ruin the work. After the edges were cut, I hemmed them with natural cotton thread, and a casing was made along the lower edge for the lucet cord. The hand made cord was provided by my friend Heather Carter and was made on a wooden lucet. The side edges were ornamented with diagonal stitches. Of the coifs I have looked at, some were decorated on the edges, and some were not. Because I didn’t want to use lace on this coif, I chose to decorate the edges.

I joined the top seam with a small diagonal stitch in natural cotton, and then tried to replicate the cartridge pleats seen on the coif in Plate 52B of POF4. My pleat stitches must have been larger than those on the original because my coif has fewer pleats. Because of this, I managed to push the main part of the pleats down into the ‘hole’ created by the gathering to give a cleaner look to the area. When I copied the original in Plate 52 exactly, the result looked wrong, possibly because of the larger pleats. I secured the pleats with small stitches in natural cotton, then cut away the pleating guide stitches because they looked too big and a bit untidy. I then attempted to do the gathering cross just visible in pale green thread on Plate 52B (POF4). I used a triple securing stitch in embroidery floss, which I then buttonholed over for strength. I did the same on the smaller side arms. The extant piece seems to have a five armed knot, but the function is the same.

Plate 52B, POF4 shows a detailed picture of the top seam of a polychrome coif from around 1610, held in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Even though my pleats are larger, when I put it on, the pleats on the back of my coif do sit like this (POF4, Plate 52), detail previous page.

 Reflective Notes

The coif fits, and I am quite happy with the finished product, although there are several things I would do differently if I could do it again. I am not completely happy with the tension on the blanket stitched leaves and fruit segments, and I will be interested to see how they stand up to repeated washing. I was disappointed that the diagonal lines don’t match up at the top of the coif when sewn. I thought I had been very meticulous in designing the pattern; perhaps I moved the fabric when tracing out the design on the window.

 I have started a partlet with the same design in black cotton, and I have added seeding stitches inside the fruits on that project. I am glad I left the seeding off the coif- I like the clean lines. I may make a matching forehead cloth for the coif if I can match the linen fabric. Although I started researching in December 2008, I didn’t start work on the coif ‘til February 2009, so I happy to have finished it so quickly.

References

Arnold, J. 1988, Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d, W S Maney and Son Ltd, London.

Arnold, J; Tiramani, J; and Levey, S. 2008, Patterns of Fashion 4, Pan Macmillan Ltd, London.

Geddes, E and McNeill, M. 1976, Blackwork Embroidery, Dover Publications, New York.

Mikhaila, N and Malcom-Davies, J. 2006, The Tudor Tailor, B T Batsford Ltd, London.

Orsi Landini, R and  Niccoli, B. 2005,  La Moda a Firenze 1540-1580, Pagliai Polistampa, Florence.

Synge, L. 1982, Antique Needlework, Blandford Press, New York.

Bibliography

Like many needlework enthusiasts, I have a collection of books that I like to look through to get general inspiration for a project. Here are a few that I looked through before starting this one:

• Compleat Anachronist 115: Wrought with flowers of Black Silk, Prudence Catesby
• Compleat Anachronist 31: An introduction to Blackwork, Shoshonnah Jehanne ferch Emrys
• The Encyclopedia of Embroidery Techniques, Pauline Brown (1994, Simon and Schuster, Australia).
• Dress at the Court of King Henry VIII, Maria Hayward (2007, Maney Publishing, UK).

Credits

• I also utilised the resources at the addresses below for information on stitches used in period,  and these were suggested by THL Katerina da Brescia in her article “WIP – Tuscan Camicia of the 16^th Century” as published in the WCoB Newsletter, Twelfth Night 2008:

-Archive of Stitches from Extant Textiles - www.bayrose.org

-Sewing Stitches Used in Medieval Clothing- http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marccarlson/cloth/stitches.htm

• Thanks to Lady Jane of Stockton for her articles and on and motifs from the Warwick Museum’s men’s shirt as published in various WCoB newsletters and her hints on writing documentation as published in WCoB Newsletter, November Crown Tourney 2005 as ‘Research – Don’t Panic!’
• Thankyou to Heather  for the lucet cord.
• Thanks also to the Lady Ysmay de la Mor who first introduced me to stem stitch and the delights of freehand monochrome embroidery at a collegium many years ago.