Zopfe - The Final Frontier
As you may remember, I had decided awhile back to tackle a project to recreate false braids ala the 16th C in Germany. These items, known as ' Zopfe' in Nürnberg, were frequent items in the dress indices of the period of study covered by Jutta Zander-Seidel's research in the " Textiler Hausrat".
I actually started with an attempt at a reconstruction back in 2010, only to put it aside in favor of other projects. I got as far as making and stuffing a number of mock-up 'tubes' for the basic braid forms, but no farther. Then, this past June I decided to resurrect the project as something to work on while I was at an event for my birthday. I grabbed the stuffed forms (muslin sausages with synthetic batting for fill - hey! - they were mock ups!) and some left over silk from flag making and got to work.
The resulting items would NOT work in my hair (which is thin and was only just past my shoulders at the time). But they did OK in a friends much more copious locks:
*psst* vanagnessayem That is my version of your hat I am wearing there...
So, the size was bad. Going back to the 'Textiler Hausrat' image of the gentleman holding what Mrs. Zander-Seidel believes to be Zopfe, it was clear that my scale was *way* off. So I started over.
Materials-wise, I decided to skip making and stuffing muslin casings all together. Having re-read the information on the items that were purchased to make-up these items in the period, I assembled the following:
1) Waste silk fabric in a few colors (and OMG the colors you can get away with!);
2) Wool and soy (silk substitute) roving for stuffing;
3) Embroidery floss to match the cover fabric in order to make the 'tassel ends';
4) Needle and thread;
Tools, materials and work space (with iced coffee - because it was the SUMMER and HOT)
Wool and Soy roving (and yes, I agree this isn't the way the wool would have been in the period, but it made my life a lot easier and I wasn't using these craft supplies anytime soon....)
I started out by cutting the silk covering fabric into strips a bit more than 3" wide and a bit more than a yard long (eyeballed via the image of the Zopfemakeri mentioned above). I then used my rotary pinker to pink all edges of these strips because this type of silk tends to unravel like mad:
Next I placed the roving on the strips - a bit in from the end - and folded over the pinked edges, getting them to overlap a bit down the middle of the roving. I did my best to make the 'skins' of these little sausages as tight around their cores as I could while I sewed. You want to leave a little bit of give in them though - this will allow you to better manipulate the finished false braids:
In the end, I found very little difference between the Wool and Soy rovings as far as ease of use of 'loft'. In which case, I would recommend wool for those making these for historical reenactment (it is the material most commonly mentioned as stuffing).
The final tubes were finished at each end with some embroider floss tassels (about 3" long per end) based on the Zopfemakeri image again. I assume that these were used to pin the braids to the hair, to each other, or to any number of ribbons/pearled bands that you see in the images of the period.
I made several 'pairs' of braids, as they are mentioned as pairs in the indices. I have theories about how they were grouped for final use in the hair (two 'braids' + regular hair = three strand braid *or* two sets of braids, used with one 'braid' down each side of the head = two braids (one from each set) + regular hair = three strand braids.
Three strand braids do seem to be pretty common from the art reference of the period.
The final results - cleverly done up by claughter713 for me at the Gala for CoCo 2011 (necklace borrowed from the lovely mmcnealy)
With harmanhay in the Gala making my famous 'Blue Steel' face
From the back (forgive the horrible job I made of blowing this image up for the detail)
The pins were made up for me years ago by a reenactment friend.
Honestly, I couldn't be happier with the results! I now have some amazing (and period!) Punk Rock hair accessories to have fun with for feasts. I look forward to finding reasons and opportunities to wear them in 2012! ;)
I actually started with an attempt at a reconstruction back in 2010, only to put it aside in favor of other projects. I got as far as making and stuffing a number of mock-up 'tubes' for the basic braid forms, but no farther. Then, this past June I decided to resurrect the project as something to work on while I was at an event for my birthday. I grabbed the stuffed forms (muslin sausages with synthetic batting for fill - hey! - they were mock ups!) and some left over silk from flag making and got to work.
The resulting items would NOT work in my hair (which is thin and was only just past my shoulders at the time). But they did OK in a friends much more copious locks:
*psst* vanagnessayem That is my version of your hat I am wearing there...
So, the size was bad. Going back to the 'Textiler Hausrat' image of the gentleman holding what Mrs. Zander-Seidel believes to be Zopfe, it was clear that my scale was *way* off. So I started over.
Materials-wise, I decided to skip making and stuffing muslin casings all together. Having re-read the information on the items that were purchased to make-up these items in the period, I assembled the following:
1) Waste silk fabric in a few colors (and OMG the colors you can get away with!);
2) Wool and soy (silk substitute) roving for stuffing;
3) Embroidery floss to match the cover fabric in order to make the 'tassel ends';
4) Needle and thread;
Tools, materials and work space (with iced coffee - because it was the SUMMER and HOT)
Wool and Soy roving (and yes, I agree this isn't the way the wool would have been in the period, but it made my life a lot easier and I wasn't using these craft supplies anytime soon....)
I started out by cutting the silk covering fabric into strips a bit more than 3" wide and a bit more than a yard long (eyeballed via the image of the Zopfemakeri mentioned above). I then used my rotary pinker to pink all edges of these strips because this type of silk tends to unravel like mad:
Next I placed the roving on the strips - a bit in from the end - and folded over the pinked edges, getting them to overlap a bit down the middle of the roving. I did my best to make the 'skins' of these little sausages as tight around their cores as I could while I sewed. You want to leave a little bit of give in them though - this will allow you to better manipulate the finished false braids:
In the end, I found very little difference between the Wool and Soy rovings as far as ease of use of 'loft'. In which case, I would recommend wool for those making these for historical reenactment (it is the material most commonly mentioned as stuffing).
The final tubes were finished at each end with some embroider floss tassels (about 3" long per end) based on the Zopfemakeri image again. I assume that these were used to pin the braids to the hair, to each other, or to any number of ribbons/pearled bands that you see in the images of the period.
I made several 'pairs' of braids, as they are mentioned as pairs in the indices. I have theories about how they were grouped for final use in the hair (two 'braids' + regular hair = three strand braid *or* two sets of braids, used with one 'braid' down each side of the head = two braids (one from each set) + regular hair = three strand braids.
Three strand braids do seem to be pretty common from the art reference of the period.
The final results - cleverly done up by claughter713 for me at the Gala for CoCo 2011 (necklace borrowed from the lovely mmcnealy)
With harmanhay in the Gala making my famous 'Blue Steel' face
From the back (forgive the horrible job I made of blowing this image up for the detail)
The pins were made up for me years ago by a reenactment friend.
Honestly, I couldn't be happier with the results! I now have some amazing (and period!) Punk Rock hair accessories to have fun with for feasts. I look forward to finding reasons and opportunities to wear them in 2012! ;)