A quick, period-appropriate, easy-to-wear head covering

I’m putting together a Low Countries set of garments, mid to late 1500s. So I wandered happily through the internet and found posts from some great SCA seamstresses/tailors, many of which were a bit daunting or at least involved for a real beginner like me. Like all the time I spent reading up on oorijzer (ear irons). Really. Like here.

Fortunately, besides delving into the mysteries of Low Countries ladies’ headgear architecture, Karinne of the Clothing the Low Countries blog mentioned a “tie up coif” in her 2013 projects post  which included a link to the original blog post and PDF pattern and instructions. Turns out this is period-appropriate for all sorts of European ladies going back into the 15th Century. Yay, a pattern - and it was simple (!!!).

I made a test coif out of my trusty bedsheet remnants. It looked goofy (sage green cotton?) but basically worked. One issue: I have really short hair. The tie-on coif should cover all the hair, so I bought a hairband - elastic fabric with two sticky stripes on the inside - which keeps the hair off my neck and in the cap. 

Then I chanced on a super-cheap linen square in a thrift store with a nice edge detail. It’s probably linen/cotton, but I liked it. And I was waiting on Fabrics-Store to put the white lightweight linen on sale. Impatiently.

I chopped up the square more like Sevenstarwheels’ alternate pattern layout in her blog post, not the one in her PDF pattern, because it put my square’s nice edge to better use. Something like this: 

Of course, I immediately needed to learn how to sew a rolled hem, which I had never done before. Back to the internet! I hand-sewed the rolled edge, and it was not that tough to do. I sewed the rest on the sewing machine.

I think it turned out nicely.