Women's Night Cap c. 1790-1820

A beautiful and delicate style Night Cap, meant for wear in bed and for warmth. This is a wonderful addition to your wardrobe for camping. Keep one in your gear. It is also wonderful for the bedroom on cold nights, or just for fun.

This pattern is inspired by the instructions given in “The Lady’s Economical Assistant”, by a Lady, originally printed in 1808, and is documented with similar original night caps. Construction techniques are based on minimal information included in the primary source and typical construction used in original caps.

The night cap is made with a double layer front head piece for warmth. It is intended to have a double ruffle round the face. It can be made with or without ruffles on the ends of the bands. Front ruffles can be made with tapered or square ends. It can be worn with the bands hanging loose, tied in a bow, or wrapped around the neck.

Detailed, illustrated hand sewing instructions are given. However, if you need a night cap solely for cold events, or winter emergencies, and don't care about authenticity in sewing, one can be made fairly quickly on machine if you have a rolled hem attachment. Modern machine method steps are also provided for this purpose.

This cap pattern is in one size only, based on original information, but can be easily altered per instructions. The pattern is on tissue paper.