Padded cap

Summary:

Enough of sheepskin

Padded cap

Philipppp 04 Nov 2007 10:25

Since there's another market coming up and I'll again be spending more money than I have, I was thinking of what else I need and thought about a padded cap, but I have no idea really about pattern, how much "extra" material I need to allow for stuffing etc.
The Wiki gives some description of stuffing (http://wychwood.wikidot.com/kit-padding), but I'm still not sure about shape, amount of material required and so on.
Does anyone either have any good links handy showing a possible pattern? Or explain how they did it?
Regarding the material of the actual cap, I guess I use linen? Or thin wool perhaps? What stuffing would you recommend for this purpose?

Re: Padded cap

Manny 05 Nov 2007 18:39

Right…
the amount of extra material you need depends on how you plan to pad the cap. As a rule of them tubes which start out 2cm wide (without the padding) will shrink by 10% when stuffed, tubes 4cm wide will shrink 20%. If the tube varies in width then so will the shrinkage obviously, so this can make some designs a bit tricky.
The pattern my cap uses is a medieval coif pattern - I thought I'd put up a padded cap thing on the wiki with the pattern on it but possibly not.
Alternatively you could use a more typically dark age hat as a pattern - you'd figure out how to do the tubes - probably circling round the hat would be easest for the contraction problem. From experience the best thing to do is construct each panel of the cap, stuff it, and then sew them together.
For the material you'll want a linen - doesn't actually need to be very heavy, though that's up to you. Linen thread is really needed because the stitching'll be under some strain.
For the stuffing cotton wool is proving quite good (should be able to get it from boots), wool works, but it turns into felt eventually. Synthetic stuffing is a bit waterproof & hot to be pleasant.
My original cap works well enough that spangenhelms stay on without the need for the strap, though it doesn't fit all of them.
I'll probably bring my padded cap down for TORM - we can talk about it more then