This is the project I started over the weekend of Pentathlon. I like to always have some sort of portable project going, so I have something to work on when I would otherwise be sitting around, as I like to keep my hands busy. The driving force behind making it is to help avoid sunburn. I’m pale enough that I have always been prone to sunburn, but ever since finishing the antibiotics I am extra sensitive. This will be relatively cool to wear, easy to just thrown on, and will keep the sun off my head and shoulders.

This particular item is of mixed historic influence. Open hoods are a later period item, 14th and 15th century mostly, I believe. All of the illumnations I’ve seen with them have a very short drape, so I am extending the drape for more effective sun protection. I am also adorning it with seam embellishment and embroidery designs that are from at least a couple centuries earlier.

So far I have started embellishing the seam with a fishbone stitch, which was along the seam of a pillow in the Mammen finds.

Project: Red Open Hood