I Haz Turbans!

Last winter, I read about a turban-making workshop out near Kansas City. My friend Susan was going to come up to Florida and we would go together. Then for some reason, Susan couldn't come, and I had one of my regular panics about the horrors of meeting new people. I didn't go.

I really, really, really wanted a turban though.

Seriously, isn't this gorgeous?


Every December, I have some rock star gigs that require me to dress for a series of historic eras. For the eighteenth-century one, I have a wool outfit and for the mid-nineteenth, I have a velvet coat, not to mention warm underpinnings, even a fur muff for my hands if necessary.

For the early-nineteenth century, I have a linen, short-sleeved dress that displays such a shocking expanse of bosom that I get "special requests" from my male friends to wear it again. The cut of the dress does not permit warm underpinnings, or indeed much of any sort of underpinnings.

A girl can get cold in this dress. Plus, I longed for a turban.

On Tuesday, another kindred spirit, one who always looks far more fetching than I ever feel in eighteenth-century clothing, sent me this link on how to construct a Regency turban, complete with a video. I thought I was booked solid between Tuesday and Saturday's gig, but I eeked out a bit of time before work on Wednesday and sewed myself a cap turban (or capote) out of some silk.

As the link suggests, it would have been eminently sensible to make a muslin first, but I didn't have time to construct two turbans. I also did some of the sewing on machine, but all visible stitching is hand-done.


I haven't figured out how to wear my hair underneath, but it's a pretty good first stab.

I've also been practicing the wrap turban, but need to find the perfect silk scarf and don't feel like triggering an allergy attack by rummaging through my scarf box.

I am hoping that covering my head will keep me warmer. Now I long for a spencer.