The Armour Archive

Thinking about 20 projects ahead... maybe less... flakey muse has abandoned me in the midle of several things just at the moment.

A tricorn hat.
Assume multi part construction (as... it's not really going to be a hat per-se).

The brim.

If I start with a flat circle, divide that into 3rds, and then pin it up to the rest of the hat at those 1/3rd marks will that work?

Or should I be looking more along the lines of a triangle with the corners clipped?

Or hybridize the two, Triangle with rounded edges... then clip the corners?

Thoughts?

AFAIK, tri-corner hats were typically made out of a standard hat blank(a bowl shape with a big circular brim all around) folded up in three places and pinned/stitched/steamed into place.

To make a Pirates of the Carribbean/Jack Sparrow hat, you'd do the same thing, but instead of felt you'd use a novelty-size leather sombrero. Oh, and copious amounts of eye liner.

Right, any number of hats start with a circular brimmed felt hat blank. Fold up at 3 equidistant points to make a tricorne. So from above it is an equilateral triangle in shape. The width of the brim will determine how tall those folded-up parts are.

By the American Revolution, what you're seeing is generally called a cocked hat. It is made the same way, but instead of an equilateral triangle, you have one long side (the back) and 2 short sides at right angles to each other, forming a right triangle (basically half a square). It is worn slightly off-center, with the front point over the left eye, so that the back left corner doesn't interfere with your musket when you are at "shoulder arms". (Doesn't help much--when you go to "advance arms", with the musket at the right side, wham! into the right corner of the hat...)

There were also variations with just one side turned up. I've seen a pattern where that part of the brim is left full-width while the rest is trimmed down a little, but I expect that varied.

There are a LOT of patterns online that are very bizarre and unnecessarily complicated (unless of course they are meant to create the crown from flat material!). Just turning up the brim on a round brimmed hat is all you need to do.

Ah, here's a reasonable selection of shapes:

http://jas-townsend.com/index.php?cPath=6

Not sure they quite nailed the "civilian tricorne", it looks a little pinched and pointy. But you can see how the sides are held up by pairs of short cords, not quite parallel. At the bottom of the page is the standard $20 felt hat blank, perfect for every style.

Your serv't,

Matthew

Cool.

That's what I thought I was looking at.

3 dimensional objects can be confusing though.

Matthew Amt wrote:Not sure they quite nailed the "civilian tricorne", it looks a little pinched and pointy. But you can see how the sides are held up by pairs of short cords, not quite parallel.

If you look at Hogarth etchings you'll see that there are an infinate number of variations along a theme.
Some equally cocked, some with a fantail, some cocked with laces some not, some cocked tight, some barely curled, some 'laced' some plain, round crowns,flat crowns high and low yaddayaddayadda so as long as you like it it'll do unless you are portraying a specific military unit then there may be regulations as to size edging etc.

A guide with pics
http://pyracy.com/index.php?showtopic=7412&st=0
http://www.piratebrethren.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1179

Matt,

I came across a good tutorial once on the internet. I saved it to PDF for posterity. Its step by step, with pictures.

PM me your email address and I will send it too you . . .