Neoul (너울): Korean Veil

With the weather getting warmer and the sun coming back, I needed to find a way to protect myself from the sun at events. I had purchased a jeonmo (전모) frame a while back and figured that now was the time to use it!

The neoul (너울) is a veil used by ladies while going out in the Joseon Dynasty. It wasn’t used by itself, but was worn on top of a hat. The hat would have ties inside for the wearer to tie under their chin to keep the hat in place. Ladies wore some sort of veil recorded from Goryeo called a myeonsa (면사) along with a hat called an ipmo (입모). The myeonsa seems to be more square and longer than the neoul. Since my persona is mid-Joseon, I went with the neoul. I suspect that the ipmo is the predecessor to the jeonmo!

Here is a Neoul at Dankook University SeokJuseon Memorial Museum dated 1551-1609 made of 羅 – Ra/La – thin silk. It’s made of six trapezoid panels that meet in a circle at the top with petals sewn in as a decoration. There are a row of stitches along where the hat brim would have been. I suspect that this would be to tack the veil down to the hat to keep it in place. The bottom edge is not hemmed. Here are a set of ties that I believe go with this neoul.

Since I started with just a frame, I had to cover it before making the neoul. I chose a black cotton we already had since my veil fabric was going to be sheer and I didn’t want the hat to be distracting. Using the tutorial from moranbp, I used double-sided tape to attach the fabric onto the spokes. I rolled the frame onto the fabric in order to keep the tension even.

Once the frame was covered, I cut away the excess and top and glued the fabric down in order to secure it. I used the same fabric to make the ties inside the hat.

Lorenzo and I patterned the neoul pattern from the hat once the fabric was attached by using a piece of paper to trace out the panels. I chose six panels since the extant neoul has six panels, and it would be easier to sew.

I chose a thin sheer black silk that I had purchased from Fine Fabrics. I didn’t want the neoul to be very opaque and I wanted a more grippy silk to keep it on my hat. I’ve used this same silk in white for my Italian veils so I knew I’d like it for this as well.

Once I got the six panels cut out, I sewed them together by using a rolled hem stitch at first, but found out that I could sew this silk on my machine. I then attached the rest of the panels using a French seam and then top-stitching the seam down so it would lay flat on the hat. With the six panels sewn together, I laid the neoul on the hat to pattern the top circle of the veil. I chose to not include the petals on the top of the hat, but while attaching the top circle, I could see why there were there. The edges of the neoul want to stick up like petals!

I finished the neoul with a rolled hem stitch on the bottom and tacked it down onto the hat fabric to keep it in place. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos of sewing the neoul together.

I wore it out to MCA before finishing the edge or tacking it down to the hat and realized how important both of those steps were, haha. It did fly off my head a few times and the silk frays a lot, so protecting the edge will allow me to wear this for a long time.

I had to wear it off to the side because my hair piece is asymmetrical. It doesn’t really rest comfortably right on top.

Hairpiece is from sofoom.com and I used Korean Buddy as a shopping service to purchase and ship them to the States. I would highly recommend them for getting things from Korea from stores that don’t ship to the States!

I purchased my frame from MoranBP, they don’t seem to sell just the frames anymore, but do sell finished hats and hat ties. If I find a source for just the frames, I will post it.

Overall, I’m really happy with my neoul and I’m looking forward to wearing it to events, especially Pennsic!

Sources:
“너울(羅尤).” 한국민족문화대백과사전, encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Contents/Item/E0012606