Hood

 I am nowhere near to account for everything I sew this year... I mean last year. 2025 that is, though they were in the summary GIF.

Like this medeival hood. Just about a week (maybe a week and a half, but not more than two) weeks before Xmas, I was contacted by someone I didn't know, that she would like to give her boyfriend a medeival chaperone, would I sew it for her... Since a friend of mine suggested she should come to me, and it seemed simple enough, I said yes. 

But how wrong I was.

Though I like to believe, I can sew a lot of things, and medeival stuff should not be the exception, that period is not my specialty, so I started to look up patterns and videos, while shooting messages to reenactor friends who know more about the medeival times than I do.

Which provided me with more questions than answers...

Hey, do you know that a "real" chaperone is actually a medeival hood put on sideways? (There are headwear that is only a glorified hat, but that is a later/aristocratic development on the type). 

Do you have fabric? Do you want it handsewn? What color would you like to have it? 

Do you know if we start to hunt for fabric NOW, we might get something, but for the price, you want to pay for the whole thing? 

(Don't start with a reenactor, S/he will bug you with questions and overcomplicate things). 

Turns out I had a piece of gorgeous Italian, blue wool left over, from a (guess what), medeival dress I made some years ago for someone I've met at the Historical Craft Fair. I never actually posted about that dress... But here is a pic from the fabric and the dress on a hanger):

Anyhow, I had a bit less than a meter and a half left over from this, and it really wouldn't be enough for anything else. The girl happily agreed to the blue color, and in the meanwhile she remembered, she actually wanted a hood, that can be worn sideways. Much like this? I asked. Yess! (and no, she does not need to have it handsewn, it was for fun, not full HA reenactment)

Hurray, I could narrow down the possibilities.

Yes, there hoods are pretty simple... unless, you want it lined. AND dagged (to have those little dangly bits at the bottom).

Then I though, why not use this opportunity to learn and practice, how to make them.

The videos of Opus Eleni were really helpful, and then I decided that partly as a thank you, partly to save time, I bought her pattern to use.

So, of course, me being me, went all out on fancy. for lining I got a piece of lovely wool/silk fabric (from I Love Textil, where the original fabric came from also, though I bought that years ago).

Choose the dagging with middle difficulty, but then deciding to stitch it around by hand, because machine stitch just would not be the same.

As we say, if we'll have a goose, let it be a fat one, so I added handmade textile buttons, and little hoops for buttonholes too.

All in all, though it was a last minute task, and that meant at Xmas eve I was sewing the dress I needed for an event on the 28th of december, I enjoyed it. I was always curious about this piece of clothing, I learned something. I thing the little dags are cute, and the piece turned out well.