Making a Crenellated Clyndrical-Caul Headress

This project is the result of a train of thought that started with Cynthia Virtue’s suggestion, on the SCA-Garb list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SCA-Garb) that costumers use chenille “pipe cleaners” when working up headdress wiring patterns.

Then a whole bunch of things came together to produce this headdress. (Pictures in the Gallery)

1. Her Excellency, Alianora da Lysharet, Countess Golden Dragon, complained of the headaches she always gets when wearing the lovely, but heavy coronet made for her by HE Bartholomew of Wolftwaine
.
2. Alianora was making a beautiful 14th c. cotehardi.

3. I said I could make a lightweight but fabulous looking coronet that would suit the cotehardi, flatter her face and ‘knock their socks off’

4. She said “Then do it!”

5. I had to put up or shut up. I've never been known to shut up.

It must be noted at the outset that this headdress is not made in a period manner nor of period materials (mostly). It is only intended to fulfill only three criteria:
I. Pass the 10 foot rule
II. Be comfortable to wear
III. Look reasonably spectacular

MATERIALS:
White chenille “pipe cleaners”, Christmas tree “gold” bead garland, Christmas tree “pearl” bead garland
Thin Brass wire, Wired gold cording, Wired-edge narrow ribbon, Pearl trimming (on a cord. The cheap stuff you get in the floral section of Michaels or other craft store), 2 toilet paper tubes, 1 cheap fake braid matching hair color of lady (in this case, blond), fabric to cover the cauls. (I used a fabric with a beige rayon warp and gold lurex weft that produces a subdued golden shimmer.)

THE CAULS:
1. I covered the toilet paper tubes with the fabric – whip-stitched into place.
2. I whip-stitched the narrow ribbon over the tubes in a lattice pattern.
3. I centered the pearl trim over one direction of the narrow ribbon and whip stitched it into place to form a spiral pattern.
4 The fake braids are three inch lengths of cheap dynel switch, braided and tied into a little bundles that are sewed inside the tubes so as to show only about half an inch at the bottom. (They don’t show well in these first photos)
5. For the sake of lightness, the top of each tube has a small piece of the covering fabric tucked into it. For a shorter lady I might have made a second set of ‘braid bundles’ to stick out the top.

THE CORONET
6. The coronet base must be made after the cauls are completed since the base has to fit around the head and the two cauls.
7. When I was playing with the chenille pipe cleaners, I noticed that when they were wrapped around two rows of beads in an angled pattern, they produced the effect of velvet cord wrapped around beads, but the chenilles had the advantage of holding their shape.
8. I wrapped gold Christmas-tree garland with chenilles until I had a piece of the necessary length. This piece was then formed into a circle. I also made two shorter pieces to go around the bottom of the cauls.
9 After whip-stitching the bottom pieces into place, I sewed the cauls into place in the large circle. At this point, the headdress looked quite lovely and would be suitable for a lady who is not a royal peer.
10. Next came the embattlements. I made a kind of jig for forming the wire by sticking pins in a cutting board to make 1” crenellations out of gold cord with a wire core. (I made little tabs on each down turned section to use to attach the coronet to its base.
11. The pearl garland was attached to the crenellated gold cord by whipping it in place with gold thread.
12. Then I wound more of the pearl trim around the garland between each bead.
13. I sewed the crenellation piece to the chenille band and then whipstitched a piece of bias tape to the inside of the band to keep the little tabs from chafing Alianora’s forehead.
14. Last of all I wired the twelve little jewels into the open spaces inside the merlons with fine brass wire.

THE JEWELS.
15. To the ends of a 1” long piece of folded bias tape, I stitched two strands of garnet beads. Taking a 6 inch long piece of fine brass wire, I wound around the tape and between the beads to form a pattern like this 8/8/8/8/
16. Taking another piece of fine wire, I ran it up inside a small drilled freshwater pearl, through a garnet bead “raspberry” through another pearl, through a seed bead, back down through the pearl, ‘raspberry’ and pearl. I left a 4 inch long tail on each end of the wire which I used to attach the little spire to the bead band by winding the two tails between the garnet beads in the 8/8/8/8 pattern. (This sounds much harder than it really was)
17. Then I wired each little jewel into the appropriate space.
18. That’s all folks!

Approximate cost: $20.00

Chenille pipecleaners $2.00, Gold garland $1.00 bought at after Xmas sale, Pearl garland $1.00 bought at after Xmas sale , Wired gold cord $2.00 clearance bin at Michael’s, Wire edged ribbon $2.00 clearance bin at Michael’s), Pearl trim $6.00 Michael’s again – took almost 2 packages, Wire and thread negligible – I already had these items, Fabric scraps negligible, Toilet paper rolls negligible
Fake hair $4.00 Enough was left over to be used for some other project, Garnet/pearl spires $4.00 leftovers from previous projects.