More Breakfast Caps

Not that I needed more than one breakfast cap-and the first would have matched most of my wrappers.  But I had extra fabric and just couldn't help myself!  So here are three more breakfast caps.

First off, a little cap dating.  When you see caps with all the fullness at the sides (by the ears), you're looking at an 1850's cap.  In 1860, you'll start to see some bows put on top of the head, but still most fullness is at the sides.  The frills start being only at the top in about 1864 and will stay there until almost 1870.  This makes sense when you think about it.  Caps followed bonnet fashions closely (being head wear) and you also see this in bonnets (and evening headdresses, actually!).  Flowers and frill were found around the ears and sides of bonnets in the 1850's and then gradually went all around and then upwards until you hit the epitome of the spoon bonnet where all the pretties are on top of the head.  Let's take a look at some original caps to see this pattern.

1850's Caps

Morning and Dress Caps from
Arthur's Illustrated Home Magazine, 1858.

Unknown collection
white and blue silk cap, ca. 1850-1855.

See all the frills around the ears?  Definite signs of a cap from the 1850's.  Also notice how detailed they are-caps get a little 'cleaner' later on.  The 1850's were a time to pile on all the trims!  So delicate and intricate!

Early Civil War caps (1860ish to 1862ish)

Der Bazar day caps, 1860.

Centraal Museum Dutch cotton and silk cap, ca. 1860.

Both of these from 1860, you can see frill sort of concentrated at the sides, but not nearly as full as in the 1850's.  In the illustrations, you can start to see trims (ribbons, bows) starting to go on top of the caps whereas before, it was just flat trims on top.

La Mode Illustree January 5, 1863. Morning cap of organdy.

This one from 1863 is interesting  because it shows the in-between.  There is still fullness all the way around, but the bow on top makes the top stand out a bit more.

Late War Caps

Wien Museum cotton tulle and lace and black velvet cap, ca. 1864-1866.

Metropolitan Museum of Art American silk lace cap,
ca. 1864.

Private collection morning/breakfast cap
with lavender ribbon and flowers, ca. 1864-1868.

All decor on top speak to late or post war caps.  Flowers in caps become popular (generally you only see lace and ribbon on earlier caps).

Now onto my caps.

The first was a quick and easy cap inspired by these two originals:

Cap from an unknown private collection, ca. 1860.

"Head-dress for Breakfast", Peterson's Magazine, 1864.

The first picture (of the original cap) was my main inspiration, and is most like mine.  The other shows an illustration of a similar cap.  Peterson's cap states that to make the cap one should "Take a square of tarletan, trim with narrow black ribbon, and pin it quite forward on the head: and you will have the head-dress complete.".  As there is a ribbon on top of the cap and no fullness at the sides, this is a very fashionable cap for 1864.  Tarletan is an open-weave cotton cloth similar to cheesecloth or cotton gauze but is heavily starched.  Think gauze meets organdy.  For those interested, you can supposedly still find tarletan fabric today as it is used for cleaning off a plate in the intaglio printing process.  I can find it in colors, but I'm struggling to find it in white.  Let me know if you know of a source for white tarletan!

For my cap, I used point d'Espirit (dotted net) from Originals by Kay.  I can't remember if I purchased 1 yard or 1/2 yard, but I've gotten 4 caps out of it and still have leftovers. It is a wide fabric at any rate.  This fabric closely matched the original cap which is why I used it.  I used some 100% cotton lace from cottonlace.com for the lace.  Since my lace was more narrow than the original, I doubled the lace to make it sort of ruffled.  The lace is applied flat except at the corners, just like the original.  The blue velvet ribbon is rayon, unfortunately, and is from farmhousefabrics.com.  I purchased 4 yards of 3/8" ribbon.  In hindsight, I should have ordered 5/8" length and 5 yards.  The tails are a little short for my liking but I didn't feel like going back and ordering just one more yard-that was a little ridiculous!

I cut a 12" square of the dotted net.  The Peterson's did not give a size and I haven't seen the original in person so I had to guess.  12" is from ear to ear on my across the top of my head so that's what I went with.  I then put on the lace in two layers then the ribbon.  The distance between ribbons is about 1/2".

My second cap I actually made for a specific (in progress) wrapper.  Now the above cap will match the wrapper, too, but as the wrapper itself is blue, I felt like I was matching a bit too much and took a secondary color for the cap's ribbon.

Cap from Ebay, circa 1860.

I used the KayFigII Negligee cap pattern for both this and the next cap.  I used regular cotton net (the cheap stuff from Dharma Trading) for the base and crinoline net from Judith M for the headband piece.  The lace was all from cottonlace.com and the exterior fabric is point d'Espirit from Originals by Kay.  Ribbon is silk satin ribbon from Farmhouse Fabrics.  For the first cap, I didn't purchase enough ribbon to make the lappets so the cap is currently without. When I place another Farmhouse Fabrics order, I'll order a few more yards to complete the cap.

The next cap I based on these originals.  The fullness at the sides date it to the 1850's.  Perfect as I don't have an 1850's cap yet!

Arthur's Illustrated Home Magazine, 1858

I used the same materials as my other cap, but got the ribbon (rayon moire) from Timely Tresses.  It is 2" wide and I believe the color was periwinkle.

Enjoy!