Lady Sarah's French Hood

Making a French Hood is deceptively simple, once you get past the fact that everyone does it differently. As far as we know, there are no extant French Hoods from the 16th century, so ultimately it's a free-for-all as far as construction is concerned. After wracking the brains of many of my fellow costumers, I began to formulate my own theory of how a French Hood might have been made.

Construction Diagrams:

Click image for larger version.

This is a simple schematic of the French Hood, broken down into three main parts. At the top is the cresent or coronet piece which I made from buckram, wired the edges with 18 gauge wire and covered with black velvetine. The middle drawing is the hood band, or the white part you see sticking out from beneath the coronet. It is also a buckram form, wired around all edges and is covered with first a linen covering and then a white silk satin. It curves back from the cheekbones toward the back of the head and is fastened with 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon behind the head. The hood, or veil piece is of black velvetine and is pleated to the hood band, NOT the coronet. A popular method is to attach the veil to the back of the coronet, and while there's nothing to say that wasn't done, I feel it was more likely to have been attached to the hood band or coif simply because it provides better stability. The hood itself resembles something similar to the head covering that nuns still wear today. The coronet was couched onto the hood band just to avoid fussiness.

Embelishment:

After covering the coronet with the velvetine, I wired a strand of barrel shaped gold beads that I found at my local fabric store and whip stitched them to the top edge of the coronet. These fully resemble the billiments used in the 16th century. Beneath the billiments, I couched faux pearls to the top edge and around the front egde of the coronet. I could have gone overboard with the pearls and embellishment, but I decided to stop where I was because I didn't want to over do it. My persona is well-to-do gentry, but she's not rich enough to afford complete austentation (maybe someday, though, when my real life self can afford it).

A view of the hood showing embellishment.

Final Thoughts:

There's a few things I'll be doing differently next time, but overall there were no huge hurdles to overcome (other than covering the hood band which didn't want to lie smoothly at the front edge). The one thing in particular that I want to pay attention to next time is the length of the coronet. I probably should have made it come down farther over my ears, but I was so intent on getting the right shape and angle, I didn't notice until it was too late that I made it too short across the top of my head. For a good idea of how a proper hood should fit (not to mention really nice craftsmanship) visit Lynn McMaster's French Hood Page.

Also extremely helpful in the creation of this hood was Ninya Mikhalia's page on constructing a French Hood.

9-21-01