Caps and Coifs: Exploring Embroidered Headwear in the Tudor and Jacobean Periods

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, everyone wore a cap or coif, indoors and out, all the time. These head coverings could be unadorned or gorgeously embellished, and that embroidery said a lot about the person who was wearing it.

We will examine the fashion for these particular types of headcoverings, discuss how the variety of needlework used, and who was wearing what through extant pieces and visual documentation. In addition to a visually rich lecture, we will be including instructions on stitching two redwork silk spot motifs of a butterfly and a bird from a 17th century woman's coif.

Kits with instructions and supplies for the both the Butterfly and the Bird are each sold separately on our Etsy site so workshop participants can choose to stitch along or simply enjoy the lecture and instruction.