15th Century Fringe Hat (aka The Squid Hat)

Recently I have become enamored of late 15th century German clothing (aka The Housebook Dress). So I made myself a brand new dress and discovered I needed a new hat to go with it.

When looking at images of the dress in German art, I discovered a plethora of hat styles. Among the many fabulous styles to go with this dress (the 15th century really has the best hats), there is one stand out as far and away the silliest. I present... the fringe hat:


Happily, there are many representations of this hat out there. Here are a few:

Master BXG "Young Woman"

Master of the Housebook "Lady with a
letter Coat of Arms"  1475-1500

Master ES "Lady with the Austrian Coat
of Arms" British Musuem 1450-67

This hat is fun and easy to make! It is also appropriate for men and women (at least 2 Durer self portraits show him in variations on this hat). This self portrait of Durer shows a striped variation:

Durer Self Portrait 1498

After having several people ask me how to make one... I made a quick tutorial. This hat took under half an hour, entirely hand sewn, so it makes a great last minute project. And you look so stylish in it! Thanks to my fabulous friend Lorien for making the first of these and inspiring me to want one of my very own.

Cutting
To make the hat you will need a piece of wool, lightly or heavily fulled (I recommend lightly fulled as your fringe will drape better). The piece should be 30" long by your head measurement plus 1" for seam allowance.
For example: my head is 21.5", so my rectangle was 30" x 22.5"

Assembly
Take your piece of fabric and pin the long ends (30" sides) together and sew the seam of your choice to make a tube. The trick is to start and end the seam about 5" in from each end to allow for fringe (see diagram).

Now, cut the ends of the tube into thin strips to make fringe. How wide is up to you, but you will want to aim for half an inch to an inch depending on what you want.

Now, pull one end of the fringe down through the middle and match the fringe up on the other side (folding in half by pulling one side inside). Now, fold up the end away from the fringe a little to make a jaunty brim and voila! You have a hat.



You can easily adjust the length of the fringe by cutting it up further. If you used a fulled wool, you also don't need to worry about finishing that wool at all! Hooray.

Now for hair, just put your hair in two braids and pin them at the top of your head. Easy peasy.

Further Reading:

For many more visual sources, check out Eme's Compendium

My Pinterest devoted to late 15th century German
and one specifically on the Fringed Hat

Also try looking up "Housebook Dress" for fun dress diaries and inspiration.