Gable Hood
This hood is the product of roughly a year of research. I became fascinated by this style after researching Tudor clothing and finally deciding that I needed to have proper headgear for the outfits I was trying to re-create. Besides, why would anyone want to make something simple?
What follows is most of what I turned in as documentation when I entered this project in Calontir’s Queen’s Prize Tourney in February of 2005.
This hood is typically worn in England from roughly 1515 to 1540 by women of the upper gentry and nobility. It appears to have developed out of a more traditional hood with a structured front (Images 1, 2) into the stylized and more heavily structured and decorated version of the later decades (Image 3). These hoods were only, as far as my research shows, worn in England, and were supplanted later by the French Hood.
These types of hoods would have been worn with the typical high Tudor dress style (images 6 and 7). These dresses are generally dark in color. Some exceptions include the Jane Seymour (image 3) and Elizabeth of York (image 1) portraits. They consist of a bodice and skirt and have the stereotypical Tudor belled sleeves. A corset and farthingale would have possibly been worn towards the end of the hood’s popularity.
Because this was my first attempt at making this style of hood and only my third attempt at millinery at all, and because of financial concerns, I have chosen not to go with the more expensive materials that would have been used in the hat.
The base of the hood was constructed from plastic needlepoint canvas rather than from buckram, as should be done. It was cut in five pieces (back, upper right, lower right, upper left, and lower left). The three visible in the first image below are the back, upper right, and lower right. These were then whipstitched together along the edges to form the box.
Wire was then whipstitched to the front portion to give it the support and malleability that the hood needs to hold the proper shape. In the Museum of London, two wire frames have been labeled as Gable hood frames. I was unable to acquire a photograph of one of these. There are two sketches of the frames on the internet however, that show that one is of heavier wire and only runs over the top of the hood twice, and the other is a finer gauge and runs across the top three times (Tudor Gable, 2). I chose to use the three-layer one and 22-guage floral wire rather than the copper in the original because I do not wish to have green stains on the fabric from the oxidation process.
The lining of the hood was then cut and sewn together. It is cotton rather than the proper linen. I slip-stitched the outer and inner lining together along the edges of the hood.
The veils and cover fabric is cotton velveteen, purchased instead of the silk velvet that would probably have been used. The top portion and the veils were cut as a single piece, slip-stitched to the outer lining of the hood. The rough pattern looks like this:
The veils were then stitched closed. As there are no extant versions of these hoods, I do not know that this was done, but it seemed to add more stability to them than attaching them separately would. The back portion was then added. It is a strip of velveteen as well, wrapped around the back ½” of the hood and extending to meet in the middle, then folded to give it the appearance that it has, and a wooden button was covered in velveteen and stitched to the center back. This can be seen in the Holbein back view (Image 4). This sketch also shows the two veils hanging down in the back.
The next step was attaching the brocade lappets in the front. These were generally beige or brown geometric or stylized brocade, probably made from silk for the upper classes. After a couple of months looking for an appropriate color and pattern, I found one that was the proper color and design, but is polyester according to the burn test I did. However, since the color and pattern matched, and it seemed unlikely that I would be able to find one in silk, I went ahead with it. I cut the strip 4 ½” wide, folded it in half, turned the edges under, and whipstitched the whole thing together and then to the hood. The ends are long enough to be folded and pinned up as is seen in many of the portraits (Images 3 and 5).
The final elements were the stuffed strips across the front of the hood. These add stability to the hood by keeping it on the head better, and they appear to aid in keeping the front in the proper shape, as well. Greenberg’s article suggests that this is a full headband rather than two strips of fabric, but it does not appear to me in the Holbein backsketch (image 4) that there is room for a stuffed roll of this size in the back of the hood. Again, this should be done in silk rather than the pinstriped unknown fabric I managed to find.
I have, since the pictures were taken, added gold-colored trim to the front edge and may later add glass pearls, though the Holbein sketch of Elizabeth Dauncey (image 5) does not show any of this detail.
Wearing the hood
Putting the hood on after all is said and done can be a bit of a trick if you do not know what to do with your hair.
When I made the hood, I had hair down to my hips. When I wanted to wear this hood, I braided my hair and pinned it into a fairly flat bun. Over the bun I wore a coif (as would have been done in period, to protect the more expensive hood from oil and dirt in the hair), and the hood pops on over that.
Now, however, I have a very short haircut. The way to cheat, if this is the case, is to pull your hair back somehow. I find that a stretchy comb works admirably for this, since my hair is too short for even a small ponytail. I pin a braid of fake hair over that, and then put on the coif and hood as above.
My version of the gable hood is fairly easy to wear. If it fits closely enough to the head, it does not require any extra fastenings and the bun helps it stay in place.
Images
Image 1: Elizabeth of York, artist unknown. Painted c. 1500.
Image 2: Brass Rubbling of John Newman and his family, c. 1517.
Image 3: Jane Seymour, Hans Holbein the Younger, 1536.
Image 4: Backsketch, Hans Holbein the Younger, 1540.
Image 5: Elizabeth Dauncey, Hans Holbien the Younger, 1426.
Image 6: Mary Guildford, Hans Holbein the Younger, 1527.
Image 7: Mary Bolyen, Unknown Artist, 1520.
Works Cited
Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology. The Department of Antiquities: Monumental Brasses. (Updated 18 Sep 2001; cited 26 Jan 2005). http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/ash/departments/antiquities/brass/.
Greenberg, Hope. “Tudor Gable Headdress Illustrated: Step by Step Directions”. 26 Jan 2005. http://www.uvm.edu/~hag/sca/tudor/gableinst.html.
---. “Tudor dress: Portfolio of Images”. 26 Jan 2005. http://www.uvm.edu/~hag/sca/tudor/.
Mary Boleyn: Biography, Portrait, Primary Sources. 27 Jan 2005. http://englishhistory.net/tudor/citizens/boleyn.html.
Web Gallery of Art. 26 Jan 2005. http://www.wga.hu/index1.html.
