Big Furry Hat

This was a simple project I did a couple years ago. It was winter and I was at IKEA and they had sheepskins on sale for $12 each. I thought great I will try to make myself a hat. I did a little research and found that remnants of sheep fur hats have been found but their are no intact finds (you know that whole organic decay thing). Although the evidence for the hat is there for Vikings dating it to earlier periods was tough. Then I found that there was evidence for the hat in Denmark as far back as 100AD. The Tollund Man wears a patch work leather and fur hat. This is not the upturned panel style hat I wanted to make. I decided that if it was cold enough they probably wore something similar.

The next step was to design a pattern for the hat. I took measurements of my head and got some paper and tape and started to work out a design. I cut panels from the paper and taped them together until I came to the 5 panel design I used. Then it was just a matter of transferring the pattern to the skin, cutting out the pieces and then stitching them together. For the sewing I used a heavy linen thread. I like the results but the hat was a little tight at first because I did not take the added padding of the fur into account. The hat makes my head really hot in temperatures above 30 degrees Fahrenheit and it is big. If I make another one I will use a skin from a sheep skin with shorter fur..

It was my first attempt at a hat and the results are not bad. It has been the source of jokes from some clan members because it was really white when I first made it (see pictures below) and like I said before it is big. Yet I did see people who made fun of it wearing a similar hat at Samhain, 2006.