15th century headwear with golden sprang

After making the Lengberg headwear and realizing it was to little I wanted to make a new one. A new one that was more inspired by Lengberg instead of trying to make a copy of it. I wanted to have sprang on it though, because it is something I enjoy making. 

The 15th century is not my time so I started to look at paintings on Pinterest, to get some more inspiration besides the Lengberg one. And I did find some that I liked.

This one is from the painting The birth of Mary from 1495-1505 Master of Mariapfarr; Mariapfarr, Austria, and the midwife is wearing headwear that look like the Lengberg cap. Instead of the white sprang of Lengberg it has a golden sprang piece in the middle. 

This one, The birth of the virgin, by Master of the Crucifixion Triptych, from the early 1490´s. She has a slightly larger sprang piece. Also in gold. 

And this one, that I didnt find the name of. The scene is also of the birth of Mary. And the clothing suggest 15th century. Here the sprang piece is a bit smaller but still in a darker colour. 

My knowledge in the 15th century is very limited but after looking at a coupIe of different paintings it seemse like this cap were used by midwifes. Was it only used by midwifes? Or has the painters used it because it was something the midwifes ofter wore and that would help identifying them in the paintings? It doesn't matter, is that the case I made a midwife cap!

The pattern for the Lengberg cap from the article Enigmatic beauty by Beatrix Nutz, Rachel Case and Carol James was a bit small so this time I made it bigger. But its the same patternbase. I thought it would be fun with another colour of the sprang and after seeing these painting I decided to make it in a goldish colour. The store called it actually pumpkin. The sprang is still made in linen though. I made an easy pattern, just plain interlinking, inspired by the first painting, The birth of Mary.

And this is the result.

 

At the front edge there is a fingerloop braid in white linen, as on the Lengberg cap. I find it practical to use a fingerloop brad for attaching the sprang in the front. The straps might be a little bit to long and next time I make one I think I will shorten them. But otherwise Im happy with it. 

The sprang piece is 35,5 cm long. I made this longer than the Lengberg too because it felted like the last version was sliding up in the back, this one will stay in place under the straps. The sprang is secured with a thread in the same colour and whip stitched at the edge. But I would not put this one in a washing machine...

 

The sprang weaving took four hours including warping, and sprang results in two pieces if you dont connect them in the middle, so two hours for this piece. And the rest of the cap and the fingerloop braid took 5 hours and 45 minutes. So, 7,45 hours in total. I dont do 15th century so this pieces will end up in my etsy-shop and hopefully I will get to see it on someone else at an event soon. 

https://www.etsy.com/se-en/listing/920208544/15th-century-headwear-with-golden-sprang?ref=shop_home_active_1