Constructing Your Own Boqta, a Mughal Woman's Hat, from Mundane Items.

I've been asked for a while to write up the history and process of making the hats I wear as part of my Mughal garb. Here's what I've garnered.

Scroll down for the materials and how-to.

First off, we do need to mention the fact that while the Mughal Empire in period covered a lot of space that included slices of modern India and Pakistan, its ruling class were not Hindi. Babur was the son of a Timur prince and a descendant of Genghis Khan on his mother's side. Babur's defeat in 1526 of the last Delhi Sultante, Ibrahim Lodi, is where we traditionally mark the beginning of the Mughal Empire.

Babur only lived four years into the Mughal period. Everything up to that was a series of events that lead to its creation. Babur was born in 1483, the eldest son of Umar Sheikh Mirza, who was the governor of Fergana and son of Timur the Great. When he was twelve he himself became governor of Fergana. By the time he was 14, he had conquered Samarkind, but lost both by 1501. At 21, he conquered Kabul. Most of his young life was spent in battles and negotiation.

I mention all of this because Babur chronicled his own life in his memoir, the Baburnama (the book of Babur). But his book was a written text. It wasn't until his grandson Akbar, son of Himayun, commissioned illumination of the book that we received the tomes we know today - illuminations that are lush with color and which depict not only the battles and the negotiations but also moments of everyday life in Babur's time.

These are the illuminations from which I take the inspiration to create the hats.

A really excellent article came out a few years ago, noted  by the Smithsonian, posted on MedievalPOC.com. It stirred up some interest in hennin, the hats worn in various parts of Europe in later period. The article surmises that a hat given by the Empress of Genghis Khan, his most beloved wife Borte, to the explorer Marco Polo influenced European fashion and ushered in the adoption of some pretty incredible hats. The images I'm posting here

were saved from the China Silk Museum website, but I can't get the original site to pull up the page. This hat was supposed to have been one of those boghtaq hats, kept in the collection. Kudos to the museum for taking good photographs that show all sides of the unusual headdress.

Borte's headdress can be seen in much of the art depicting those times. Its unusual shape is similar to a drum. You may note the silk strapping across the basket and the ties to keep the item firmly on the head. I've read before that the tall hats helped those from a distance determine the men from the women as an indication of whom not to target.

How did this thing turn into this other thing?

Well, time and distance. After all, we didn't just go from the Mongol Empire to the Mughal Empire. The Mongol empire effectively ended in the 14th century, while the Mughals didn't come into their own until the 16th. Fashion had a lot of developing to do in-between.

This hat, which Marco Polo brought home with him, is alleged to have influenced the hats of Europe. You do see this sort of thing here and there in art of the intervening period.

For instance, the painting Presentation of Christ at the Temple by Hans Holbein the Elder (1501, full image here) shows a woman wearing a very tall hat with a veil attatched to its tip. This is very much the "princess hat" we have come to think of for children's play fantasies of what such should appear to be.

Another example, this one from Emilia, Arcite, and Palamon worship at the shrines of the Gods – from the Théséide by Barthelemy d'Eyck, shows a woman in a hat that appears to be conical and which bears an elaborate veil. (full size image here).

And then there's this - Portrait of a Female Donor by Petrus Christus. The painting, dated to 1456, shows a woman kneeling, wearing a hat that appears to be a boqta. The rounded but still somewhat conical hat includes a short veil and is similar to the hat worn in this image:

The image in question is "Babur Witnesses Muhammed Husain Mirza entangled in bedding" by an unknown artist, contained in the Baburnama (full image here). The hats on the woman in blue and the woman in yellow appear to be this rounded-topped hat, but with a much longer veil.

This is where my supposition comes in. I detail how I created my Mughal ensemble based on what I found in period illuminations here, and I happily invite you to go take a look. As I learn more, I continue to evolve the outfits I wear.

But the hats? Well, when it came to creating a hat, I needed some idea. I originally thought the hat must be made from felt or buckram. The latter seemed more plausible, since whatever hat would have to be pretty strong to hold up a lot of veiling. And then I found this illumination.

Do you see it? Let me point out all the things about this.

Baskets. So I crafted a way to make the hats out of what I could find, which in this case are bamboo flower basket covers. You can purchase them online, or you can do what I do and pick them up from thrift stores and yard sales. Seriously, people don't want these things.

Here's how to make your own boqta hat.

You will need:

1 flowerpot cover basket that fits comfortably on the top of your head (the 7 inch variety works perfectly for me).

1 piece of lining fabric that's as tall as the basket and as long as the circumference - a 10"x24" piece usually works well. I suggest a lightweight scrap of cotton or linen

1 piece of felt, the width of the height of the basket plus the top of the basket and two inches by the length of the circumference of the exterior of the basket. Or - you should be good with a piece that's 14"x24".

1 piece of fabric for the outside, whatever you want, as long as it's not stretchy. Same size - 14"x24"

Sewing needle

Thread

Straight pins

Scissors

Remove the plastic lining from the basket (if it still has it).

Measure the basket to make sure of your measurements - as you can see, this is a roughly 7" in diameter basket rim...

that's roughly seven inches in height...

and just over five inches at the base.

Make sure your lining fabric is long enough to circle the basket.

For the inside, I usually go for an inch more than the basket is tall, since there will be a lap at the brim.

Pin the lining fabric to the inside of the hat. Don't force the pins through the wicker. Find natural places to push it through. Forcing it through bends your pins and weakens your basket structure.

It is OK for the pins to just go through the rim here. You're preparing for the next step. No sewing yet.

Now take the felt and make sure it fits the circumference of the outside of the basket. I know, you measured this already, but trust me. Measurements are weird on these flexible baskets sometimes.

Cut the felt appropriately. I'll cut this piece two inches longer than this ruler - one inch to cover the lap in, one for security at the other end. Twelve inches here is the height of the basket plus the diameter of its base.

To pin the felt on, start with a new straight pin, then pull the ones from the lap on the lining fabric and replace them as you go along. You can leave out the felt layer, but realize it's providing a cushion for your head.

Continue to pin all the way around. Note the lining fabric is not sewn to itself. This is by design - you could do the hat without a lining, but if you have hair it will get tangled in that wicker.

Continue around the basket. You may need to smooth the felt a bit.

This is how it should look when you finish pinning. Time to sew. It does not matter what color thread you choose at this point, so I'm going with something that contrasts so you can see what I'm doing.

Carefully start threading through the layers and the wicker. You're going to want to start that first and second stitch tied together, because once your needle goes through two layers of lining, four layers of felt and the basket itself, that hole's going to be pretty large and a knot at the end would just slip through.

Once again, don't force the needle through the wicker. Find spaces where you can wiggle the needle through. This means you're going to have some rather gnarly looking stitches. Don't fret over it. You won't see this at all in the finished product.

If you can manage to make this neat, more power to you, but really, it's not necessary.

Remove the pins as you go along. Make sure you go through all the layers as you go around the hat.

When you get to the beginning again, continue up the side, pulling the felt tight against the wicker. At this point, you are not going through the wicker - it's secure at the bottom and the tension from closing the hat at the top will keep this felt on for good. Whip stitch this baby all the way up, pulling as you go to keep the felt flat. Don't worry - the felt will reshape a bit to accommodate.

When you get to the top, you have a couple of options. One is to cut the felt to fit. Here's how I did that on another hat.

I want this hat to be a bit more rounded at the top, with plenty of padding. So I'm just folding the felt down and in.

Once I have the felt in place, I secure it with a pin and then whip stitch the end of it so it's somewhat flat.

At this point, I could do several things. I could take the needle around and sew down all the folds. I could take a felting tool and get the felt to set to itself.  But this layer is going under another layer that will match my coat, so I'm just leaving it like this.

You'll notice that the seam in the back went up at a diagonal as I pulled the felt tight.

Time to put on the outside. I am using an irregular cut that's 25 inches at the bottom.

Pin the cover material to the inside of the hat, into the felt. You do not have to go through the wicker at this point - the felt is your base. If you have a fabric that frays, this is a good place to roll that hem.

When you get to the end, it should look like this. Note I have leftover fabric. I cut that off.

To sew the cover to the lining, be sure to sew it through the felt and through the end of the hat. This is where you should probably have matching thread.

You follow the same steps as with the felt layer, where you whip the stitches up the back. Once you get to the top You'll want to sew down the folds at the top (if you don't choose to cut the folds out). I realize it looks very Frankenstein-ish, but you won't see this once the veil is on.

I'll add the pinning shots once I pin both veils to the hat. For that, you're going to need veils that are at least 24 inches in length. I'll describe this better once I update with the veiling instructions.