Elephant Man Hat and Cowl

Sometimes, when you are a maker of things, you get asked to make the weirdest stuff at the strangest times. I wasn't planning on blogging today, but when I woke up to my sister's calling and asking me to make her an Elephant Man hat and cowl for a play she and her husband are directing. . .I realized I would be blogging today after all. . .Yes, Sister, you let me stay at your house for a year rent-free. . .I guess I can make you an Elephant Man hat. . .

This is the original one that is in some museum somewhere. Until this morning, I had no idea what it even was! I mean, I knew he wore a thing over his face, but I didn't know there was a specific hat. Learn something new every day. . .

Here is another view:

Here is mine:

I went to Goodwill, but I couldn't find any brown velvet, so I bought a pair of brown tweed pants. I used a pillow case for the cowl.

I used the lining of the pants as the lining in the hat.

If you look at the original again, you will see it has some kind of ribbon around the bottom half. Well, obviously, I didn't have that either, so I just sewed around and around the bottom half with white thread. I think it gives it a rustic feel and it at least alludes to the orginal.

If you look closely, you can see that I put a bit of thread down the middle of the eye hole. Having done theatre myself, I know how much an actor needs to see on stage, so I cut the eye hole bigger than the original. To keep the hole from gaping open, I tied a bit of thread down the middle of it.

A close up of the eye hole.

The End.