Scythian History Co-op. Week 2: Clothing

Week 2: We made Scythian hats.

The Scythians lived on the plains of Asia. The cold wintery weather influenced Scythian clothing. They typically wore warm woolen, hemp or flax clothing which included hats and boots. Fibers were spun on drop spindles typically made of bone. Flat decorative strips of cloth made by card weaving often adorned the edges of their clothing. In addition, images of animals often drawn in a curved body position commonly appeared on articles of clothing. Their hats were pointy and looked similar to Smurf hats. Incidentally, pointy hats made from felt are still worn in the region of the world where the Scythians lived.

Our Scythian hats were constructed from felt, and sewn together with needle and thread.

Scythian hats were pointy on top with ear flaps and a long flap in the back. A Scythian hat pattern was created by tracing around a winter hat with ear-flaps and altering the rounded top portion into a point. This resulted in three templates; a front, back and sides.  The front portion was triangular, while the sides and back looked triangular on top with long flaps. Here is another method for making a Scythian Hat.

 

 The children hand-stitched the four pieces together with four seams to complete their hats.

Please visit our History Page for more hands-on history activities.