1830s Cap
I decided to go with the silk organza for the cap, and I made up most of it yesterday afternoon. I took the basic shape of the 1780s cap from the American Duchess book, and compared it with a couple cap shapes in the Workwoman's Guide from 1838. None of them were big enough, so I enlarged it until it was 22" tall, and I think 21" across. In hindsight, I should have added at least a couple inches more to the width, since it seems taller than it is wide, but so were all the cap diagrams I looked at as reference.
I used two straight pieces, 24"x2.5" for the band, and turned in the long edges so that they were about 1.5" wide. I sandwiched the gathered part of the crown and the gathered part of the ruffle between the two band pieces along each side of the band. The ruffle is about 60" long, 4.5" wide at the widest point, tapering out to about 3.5" or so at the ends. I turned in a hem, and added vintage lace along the turned in edge.
Everything is machine-sewn except for attaching the ruffle and turning up the ribbon channel for the nape of the neck. I'm heading to Joanns in a little bit to pick up ribbon for that channel, plus decorative ribbon for the ties under the chin and for the top of the cap.
Here's a few pictures so far:
I used two straight pieces, 24"x2.5" for the band, and turned in the long edges so that they were about 1.5" wide. I sandwiched the gathered part of the crown and the gathered part of the ruffle between the two band pieces along each side of the band. The ruffle is about 60" long, 4.5" wide at the widest point, tapering out to about 3.5" or so at the ends. I turned in a hem, and added vintage lace along the turned in edge.
Everything is machine-sewn except for attaching the ruffle and turning up the ribbon channel for the nape of the neck. I'm heading to Joanns in a little bit to pick up ribbon for that channel, plus decorative ribbon for the ties under the chin and for the top of the cap.
Here's a few pictures so far: