Sleeping caps

[Jeff M]

Anybody have any suggestions as to where to find Victorian style sleeping caps/nightcap or similar?

 

[57plymouth]

You have my interest!

I don't have an answer but I like where this is going.

 

[hatophile]

Try the Vermont Country Store, they also have sleeping shirts, suspenders, and all kind of other vintage stuff.

 

[kpreed]

I have 3, 1 Summer (plain cotton)and 2 Winter (Flannel), I just did a search on Google for "Scrooge Cap" and got them from a Cancer victim supply store, much cheaper then VCS.

 

[Feraud]

Here is the Vermont Country Store sleep cap.
http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/...1:100:1010:10180:100180/I/f21630?evar3=BROWSE

For the DIY'ers among us it would be easy enough to purchase a scrap of flannel and make your own. You could easily decorate it with a border or hang a tassel off the top.

To take it one step further, if you want a cap to match your sleeping clothes purchase an extra pair of bottoms and use the material to make the cap.

 

[Garrett]

In December 09 there was an east coast Ebay seller who came across several original victorian night caps along with a mid 19th century top hat that I'm still kicking myself for not buying. Anyway, the caps went for around $100 a pop. Keep your eyes peeled on the bay and you may find one.

 

[rlk]

Christys'

Unfortunately much too small for me.

 

[Feraud]

^ Is that a smoking cap or is there no difference between the two?

 

[rlk]

^ Is that a smoking cap or is there no difference between the two?

Brain error, sorry. Its a smoking cap I believe. Don't want to be smoking in bed...

 

[rlk]

There are a few repro's here.

Have the stocking cap type extension before the tassel
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&sc_id=65763&seller_id=57104&op=new

 

[hatophile]

Looks like a chopped fez.

 

[hatophile]

Unfortunately much too small for me.

Looks like a chopped fez.

 

[Dewhurst]

What was the point of sleeping caps? Were they thought to have done something?

Keep you warm? Save your hair?

 

[kpreed]

What was the point of sleeping caps? Were they thought to have done something?

Keep you warm? Save your hair?

Yes, I wear mine to keep warm at night, as most body heat loss is on your head (ask anyone in E.M.S.). Caps like these were very common before heating your home all night (I do not) made them kind of rare.
No, I am not just cheap! I have a sickness that makes me sicker if it's really warm, this puts me in more control and looks cool to me, too.

 

[B.J. Hedberg]

I don’t know how I could have forgotten about the sleeping cap. During the winter I like to keep the bedroom cold, and had been using my heavy wool winter cap if it was too cold. A nice sleeping cap would definitely be more comfortable. Great links all, and I love that smoking cap RLK.

 

[bolthead]

I Agree....

I wear one every day/night in my home, (during the winter mos.). It keeps my head warm, having no hair tends to do that. :eusa_doh:

I dont care what i look like, as long as I'm toasty warm. [huh]

By the way, they're not your standard sleeping caps, my wife got them for me online somewhere, she dont remember, but they look like a cotton lighter than wool cap. They came in a pack of 5, different colors.

 

[Dewhurst]

Caps like these were very common before heating your home all night (I do not) made them kind of rare.

That is what I figured. Besides the occasionally rhyming Christmas story you really don't hear about them anymore.

I don't run the heat much during the winter. My apartment has amazing insulation.

 

[AlterEgo]

At one point in college, I was dating a gal from my home town, 400 miles away. We only got to see one another every month or so, so when she was in town, we made up for lost time by spending most of our time in bed together.

Once, she was up visiting me on Halloween weekend. At the 11th hour, we were invited to a party. Only catch was you HAD to come in costume. Of course, she'd brought no costume, I had nothing on hand, and I would not even consider spending perfectly good beer money on buying or renting a costume.

Eager to show off my new drop-dead gorgeous girlfriend, I of course wanted to go to the party and so had to come up with something in the way of a costume in a hurry. She was a wild one and would have gladly gone in her ***y underwear, but it was unseasonably cold, so that was out. The nippy weather also thankfully got me out of wearing a pair of black silk boxer shorts she'd just given me for my birthday that I was not exactly hog wild about sporting in public.

I rummaged through all my stuff and came upon the perfect solution--white thermal underwear. My mother had packed me off to college with no less than three pairs of tops and bottoms, which I'd never worn. Like all new clothes, mom had washed them first--in hot water--so they were absolutely skin tight, which showed off my girlfriend's physique with breathtaking clarity and left no doubt that I was circumcised.

They resembled old-fachioned bed clothes, so we dubbed ourselves "bed people," a fitting moniker given where we'd spent most of the weekend.

The only thing missing was the quintessential sleeping cap, which would, quite literally, top off the costume and leave no doubt that we were dressed in bed clothes.

Having three sets of thermal underwear, there was one left over after my girlfriend and I donned one pair each. To make sleeping caps, I simply cut the legs off the extra set of bottoms just below the crotch and cinched up the ankle ends with string, leaving six inches, which I sliced through vertically with scissors many times over to make a tassel. Rolling up the wider thigh end to hide the fray and then pulling it over our heads, voila, we each had an extra-long, tapering white night cap that perfectly matched our bed clothes.

So bedecked, we were both quite comfortable on that frigid Hallowed Eve. Though she was the hit of the party, we didn't stay long. Had to get back to bed!

 

[Dewhurst]

To make sleeping caps, I simply cut...

She must have liked you for your craft making abilities.

 

[shortbow]

How very interesting, I was just thinking about this this morning. I guess the point, as was said, was to keep one's head warm in cold homes. When camping in really cold weather over the years I used a toque (stocking cap for you yanks) as it was absolutely necessary. Entirely by coincidence, and for no real reason, I was wondering why they are not widely used anymore. Now I get it.

Old times, cold rooms at nite. Now days, central heating etc. Thanks for the info. Also, thanks for the tip about Vermont Country Store.