Hip-length colourful silk Zöpfe (braids) were worn by German women of all classes throughout the 16th century, often with a Barett or Schlappe (hats) or with a Haarband (hairband) for unmarried women. This style of hat was also worn by men of most classes.
Elßlin Krummen won one of my hat prizes at Canterbury Faire, and requested a hat to go with her middle class German wardrobe. She has long enough hair to plait, so I suggested this fun combination, which she liked.
After some discussion about colours, she opted for red Zöpfe and Barett, the most common colour for both items. I had red silk in stash, but it took me some time to find a heavy, stiff well-fulled wool for the Barett. Recently I found some remnant red wool pool-table fabric – perfect for the job!
Research
The inspiration for this headwear comes from Jörg Breu’s painting of Augsburg Autumn. A woman stands with her back to the viewer, with her hair in plaits with red braid extensions down to her hips, and a red Dockenbarett (slashed Barett/hat). The related painting show other examples of the Dockenbarett.
The Dockenbarett is a common form of this style of hat, worn by both men in most classes, and women in the middle class. Some versions were knitted and then heavily fulled (felted), like the Tudor caps, and then slashed right through the knitting! They were also made from felted wool, along with many other styles of Barett.
These images of the Dockenbarett show quite a flat brim, with 8 large cuts into the underside. The examples from Autumn and Summer show quite a distinct rim around the brow. The Winter view of the top and back shows a flat crown, with the brim strips separate where they join the crown on top.
This will need a very stiff, well felted wool to hold the shape. I have some which I hope will do the job – sample testing will be needed…
The term Zöpfe refers to both real braids and false braids. In Textiler Hausrat (1991), Zander-Siedler notes that silk ribbons and false braid extensions were well known in the 16th century, depicted in artworks and often listed (in pairs) in clothing inventories. The paintings below show them worn by women of all ages, in a more formal setting.
Source: Wikimedia
They were made by a professional Zöpfmacher (braid-maker) and offered for sale at market stalls, as you can see in the Beeham woodcut below. In the mid 17th century, the Nürnberg Hausbuch lists Zöpfmacher amongst the working brothers.
The materials are usually described as silk of various types, stuffed with wool. Zöpfe came in many colours, with the most common being red, green and yellow.
The brightly coloured tubes are about 75cm long, tapered at both ends and joined together at one end in sets of three, ready to be braided into the plaits. The plain ones were cheap enough to be bought by peasants (as you can see below), with more expensive ones decorated with gold coins.
Source: Art Institute Chicago
My friend Salome told me that Zöpfe were still worn by girls in Switzerland as late as the early 21st century – although they were considered ‘old-fashioned’!
Construction
Zöpfe
I made a test run using scrap fabric and some wool rovings to test the size and construction approach. The general shape and approach works well, but they are much too thick!
Those depicted in paintings are about half this thickness, so another round of testing was needed. The wool is also too springy, so for the final version I’ll use some softer wool rovings.
With the size sorted (1cm diameter), I machine-sewed the pointed ends and trimmed them, then turned them. I pressed and basted a narrow hem on one side and machine basted a guideline on the other side, to make sure my overlap seam was consistent. (I could have drawn this on with chalk but there is going to be a lot of handling…)
I used tweezers to stuff the tapered end of the wool inside the silk, then wrapped the silk around the wool and basted the overlap seam, compressing the wool slightly. Keeping the edge 5mm from my machine guideline ensures the tube stays a consistent diameter.
Once the tube was basted, I slip-stitched the seam closed, trying to slide the needle just under silk, to avoid dragging the wool through with each stitch. I removed the hand basting and the machine guideline. Then I made another 5 of them…
I sewed them together at the top points, into 2 sets of 3 tubes.
I wanted to see how they worked in context, so I’m using a wig on a headform, which I’m braiding into two plaits. After the first couple of turns, I put the Zöpfe behind the plait and then braided it in. Messy, but a useful proof of concept – and shows that the Zöpfe should be added in right at the start of the plaiting.
After playing around with this for a bit, I found that looping a tape through the top of the Zöpfe, then tying this around the top of the plait makes this much easier! And for each twist, you need to pull across the hair, then the ribbon, coming from underneath the hair. This would be much easier with real hair…
I tied the plaits off with a matching red silk ribbon, in a half-bow.
The Zöpfe would not be worn alone – they would be worn with either a Haarband (hairband) of Barett to complete the look.
So, on to the Dockenbarett…
Dockenbarett
The first step is a quick mockup in paper to check basic proportions. I usually make my Baretten with a 4-piece crown (like these ones), but looking at the images, I decided it needed a softer look. So I’m using the crown pattern from my Schlappe instead.
For the brim, I’m starting with simple loops of paper, although it will end up a continuous piece. Both the woman and man in Jörg Breu’s painting show 8 sections on the brim, so that’s what I’m doing. Two rounds of mockups gave me enough information to make a test pattern.
I cut my test pattern from heavy felt and sewed it up. This process ensures I can test the pattern shape, the size and the construction sequence before I cut the final fabric. The pattern needs a few minor adjustments, but the test version is looking good.
The wool felt has the right amount of stiffness to work with the pattern, but my red wool is a bit thinner and a bit less springy. Fine for the crown and for the base of the brim, but not for the loops, which might sag too much.
I did a small mock-up of two brim strips sewn to a crown segment, to see how it would sit. As expected, much too soft! I solved this problem on my previous Dockenbarett by sticking two layers of wool together with bondweb, so I tested that with the red wool – perfect.
With this resolved, I cut out the crown and the brim in the red wool, but did not cut the strips apart. Then I cut a second brim, piecing to save fabric. I trimmed back 1.5cm at the hem edge and the outer edge (future strip ends) to avoid excess bulk in the seams.
Next I sewed up the CB (centre back) seam in the main brim. The wool was strong enough to sew with a butt seam, which will minimise the visible seam on the outside. I sewed this with silk using one of my wooden leatherworking supports – the rounded top makes the whipstitch easy.
I applied bondweb to these pieces, checked them against the main brim and trimmed to ensure they fit neatly. Then I ironed on the second layer, offsetting the joins, which will strengthen the CB seam – a weak point.
Doing this inside the constructed cone of the brim was a bit tricky, but I added each section and let it cool before doing the next. (This sequence was a mistake – I should have done the layering while the wool was flat, before sewing the CB seam.)
With everything set, I cut the brim strips – they look like a single piece of wool!
I sewed the crown seams, then clipped and pressed the seams over my pressing ham. Because the wool is stiff, I felled the seams to the back of the wool inside the crown, then turned and pressed again. This gives a nice finished look to the crown.
Now to attach the brim to the crown.
I pinned the alternating ends of the strips to the crown, lining up the seams with the middle of the strip, then pinned the others in between – I had to trim a few millimetres off the sides of a few. Then I basted these in place and machine-sewed them 1cm from the edge.
Next I turned the brim the right way out – quite a challenge with the doubled wool! Then I basted the outer brim to the crown, leaving the 1.5cm hem clear.
I sewed from the inside through all the layers, avoiding visible stitches on the outside. Then I folded the edge over and felled it down over the opening. I checked it on the headform – fits well! (At this stage it would be easy to make the hat larger by steaming the edge and stretching it. Or running a cord through the hem and tightening it to make it smaller).
Finally, I used my crown pattern to cut a lining in red silk, sewed this up and then slip-stitched it in around the brim.
The Dockenbarett is done! With the 2 layers of wool, the loops are now a bit too upright, but I expect they will drop a little in use – or can be steamed into submission if needed.
Now I have a working pattern and construction sequence, this would actually be a pretty easy hat to put together with the right sort of heavily fulled wool. I really like how it looks – very jaunty!
The two elements can be worn separately, but I do like the look of them together!
And although this Dockenbarett and Zöpfe are going to Elßlin, I couldn’t resist trying it all on with the wig and appropriate garb!
It really changes the look of my green wool Rock. Maybe I need to find a less slippery wig and make myself a set…
