As the trend for high hair ascends at the turn of the 1770s, the need for bigger and bigger cushions arises. This tutorial will create the grandaddy of hair cushions, what we call the “donut”—a round pad with an ingenious hole in the middle that allows the hair to be formed, supported and controlled over this utterly huge form.
The size of your donut should relate to the length of your hair. Big donuts need very long hair, like Laurie has in this chapter, whereas ladies with shorter hair will use a smaller donut. The hair must be able to wrap up and over the sides and back down into the donut hole.
It is important to note that the French Night Cap and Calash Bonnet in this chapter are also very large and are meant to be worn with this huge donut. If you need or want to reduce the size of your pastry, you will also want to reduce the scale of the cap and calash as well.
• 1 yard (1 m) wool knit
• #30 thread
• Horsehair, wool roving or granulated cork stuffing
1. Choose a wool knit that is close in color to your hair when powdered. Cut out the pattern and mark the pleats on the outer piece.
2. Pleat the outer piece, working each side toward the center point. Also pleat the short ends according to the pattern. Pin, then test your pleating against the small inner piece to make sure the long and short edges match up. Baste through all of the pleats.
3. With right sides together, match all edges of the outer and inner piece. Pin, then backstitch with strong thread, leaving about a 3-inch (8-cm) opening on one short end between the small pleats.
4. Turn right side out, then cram this sucker full of horsehair stuffing. We’ve chosen horsehair for this cushion because it is very lightweight with tons of body.
5. Once you’ve got what now looks like a giant larva stuffed full, turn in the open edges on the end and whipstitch the opening closed.
6. The larva will naturally wish to curl into its final donut shape, which makes it easy to match up the short ends and roughly whipstitch them together from the outside. This doesn’t have to be pretty, just secure.
7. Congratulations! You’ve completed your enormous donut hair cushion! Now remember, this is a very easy pattern to reduce in size. If your hair isn’t quite long enough or you just want something a little less gigantic, play with the dimensions of the donut cushion for different effects.
