Elizabethan Coif - The Setup

Since Gulf Wars 25 (2016) I have been playing around with the idea in my head of starting an Elizabethan embroidered coif. I attended a class at Gulf Wars on Elizabethan braided Stitches, specifically gold work braid stitches. The teacher at this class had a great book by Jacqui Carey which I subsequently picked up a copy of from Amazon. This book is FABULOUS and gives not only great stitching info, but also case studies for us history buffs. I will be doing a full review of it at a later date.

Original Coif overview, you can see it was unfinished.

Original coif close up

So I decided a week or so ago to start my coif, using case study 19 from the book as my base for the embroidery. The original is gold work and navy or dark blue silk. I decided that since free form blackwork like this was done in black, red, blue, green and probably other colors in period that switching to a more appealing color combination would be ok. I ended up going with hunter green and gold, as I like that combo and it will go well with most of my garb (even if the period doesn't match!).

The next step was figuring out sizing for the coif by measuring my head and making a paper mock up, then drawing it out flat, and sizing a photo copy of the close up of the coif. This took a whole bunch of time spent at Office Depot's copy center, and about 5 dollars worth of copies but I eventually ended up with this. Not pretty but it lines up well enough and will get the job done.

Copy with sharpie outline behind pattern paper

Next I outlined the bits I wanted to be able to see with a sharpie, to make it easier to trace with a light box, also known as my dining room window.


I copied the pattern onto my paper over and over and over. It was tedious, my arms were sore after, but the finished result was amazing!

Finished pattern with details copied

Using the Micron to draw on the linen

Next I laid my linen ground fabric over the pattern (still on the light box window) and recopied the entire thing onto the linen using an Archival Micron Pen. I cannot stress the archival pen enough, as it will not eat away at the fabric over time, and won't fade away like some modern transfer pens. In period ink and quill would have been used, and the extant example I am working to replicate even has areas that show the original ink, and where it seeped through to the back. You can use even weave, but I did not. The linen I used was purchased at Gulf wars from Carolina Calicoes. I plan to line the piece when it is finished so I do not touch my hair directly to the coif. This will also allow me to remove and replace the liner and help keep the piece clean.