My first Steuchlein and Wulsthaube
It was two weeks before I was to wear the Enn's dress for the first time and I was in desperate need of a haube to wear. I looked through all the artwork and then late one night, inspiration struck. I chose these two pictures as my inspirations for the shape.
Wolf Traut: Portrait of a Woman, 1510 The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Early German Painting 1350-1550 pg. 384
Here is the description and instructions for how I made my Steuchlein and Wulsthaube. The Wulsthaube is the supporting undercap and the Steuchlein is the veil that goes over the top.
Dürer , Frau with Wulsthaube, 1503, Textiler Hausrat , pg 107 This is labeled as a frau with a wulsthaube, but I think it is more likely that she is just wearing a plain steuchlein. There is another almost identical of the same woman, except that her headdress has a black band on it versus the cloth being plain.
Back of Steuchlein from Dürer – The Four Witches, The Complete engravings, etchings and drypoints of Albrecht Dürer, pg 38-39
My finished Wulsthaube and Steuchlein, front and back.
As you can see from the front it looks pretty similar to the pictures, the wulst has better days than others and today was not one of its stand up straight and tall moments. Being wool felt, it tends to bend out of shape quite easily. The treatment of the back of the veil is not as it should be constructed to be authentic. It should have a flat band that wraps around from one side to another and the veil is gathered between the sides, not tying in the back like mine.
Instructions
- Measure your head around your hairline, subtract 2”. This plus amount needed to finish the edge is the length. I usually use 1 inch total as a guideline, my rolled edges are pretty standard to 1/2”
- Measure from the hairline above one ear, across the back of the head, over your hair that’s put up, to the other ear, add two inches. This plus 1” for seam allowance and rolled edge is your width.
- Cut out a piece of linen that is the length and width needed. Lay it over your head. The long way should go over your head and there should be a future seam down the back.
- Sew the seam. I like French seams as linen frays like the dickens. Cotton would work too, but make sure it has a good seam
- Add ties to the front corners.
- Tie it on and fold the point down so that it doesn’t stick up. Pin it in place and tack it down.
There are a lot of different things that can be done from here to get the bump in the back. Here’s how I made the understructure for my Wulsthaube.
What I did was create a wool felt roll and steamed it into a arc. Then I held it up on my head and looked in the mirror and found the spot on the crown that made me look like the women in the pictures.
Then I folded a rectangular piece of wool felt over the top of it to maintain the curve. Sort of like wrapping a present. This ends up looking like a cresent moon shape. Like this
This then was tacked together, then placed on the cap on my head and when it looked right, I pinned it into place and drew a pencil line where the front of the felt was. I then sewed the felt piece to the cap.
This works great, looks good. But the cap gets very dirty quickly, whereas the felt doesn’t. So, for my next one, I am planning on having a roll that laces into the cap, so that it’s removable for washing. There is documentary evidence for this, as the wulsthaubes and wulsts are detailed separately in the inventories and there is mention of a wulst that has been broken apart..
Here are pics of my finished wulsthaube from all sides, without the veil over the top.
Now this is just the undercap. For the veil which covers it, I made a half circle veil, it should be deep enough to cover from the front hair line, to below the ties on the under cap. The ends of mine tie, just like a bandana, you can see this in the pictures above.