The Tudor Project

The Tudor Project was one of the most informative and incredible experiences I have had in my young career. The goal of this group was for each person to commit to reproducing a portrait from the court of Henry VIII of England. Everyone thought it sounded simple at first, but then many of us started to research and examine the details of this clothing. Eventually we were discovering things that had fallen in the cracks of previous researchers or re-creationists. This is not to say that we think we are better than those before us, or who have different views on the construction of this clothing. Everyone that I worked with feels that we are standing on the shoulders of giants, but that we are the ones choosing to reach for the sky.

There are many different stories to how this started, but what it all boils down to is that we were a group of people willing to find our way into the right places at the right time and help each other to finish our goal. When the procession started, there was not a single person who did not look amazing in their ensemble. There was also not a single person who had not learned at least a little bit during the project.

Thank You to all of the amazing people I worked with. This blog is dedicated to you.

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Pockets in the 16th Century?

So if you are new to my blog, Hello! I took July off to focus on work and realities of covid life. Thanks for hanging in there. This week we are doing to cover 16th Soccocia and their role toward the origin of pockets. People need a place to carry and keep their small items as they walk around. In the middle ages you might have a pilgrim satchel or a belt pouch. Some women in the middle ages had the brilliant idea to stop wearing their money purses outside of their over gowns and instead would wear them between their kirtle/sottona layer and over gowns. This arrangement still gave you access to the purse, but made it harder for thieves to cut your purse strings and run. Fast forward to the 16th century and we find the heirs to this practice in socaccia. We have some visual evidence of these in mid to late 16th century art out of Italy. This is a detail of Alessandro Allori's, Woman at her toilet, ca 1575-78. Currently in Florence, Church of Santa Maria Novella, Gaddi ...

Beginner's Lucet Tutorial

I got a message recently asking for a tutorial on how to make a basic lucet cord since the only tutorial on my channel so far has been an advanced braid that features working 2 strands. This is the video for you if you are a newbie to using a lucet to make your own lacing for historical garments. Lucet has been used for ties, laces, and applied trim. Typically it is thought that the style might have originated with Norse cultures in the early medieval period. I encourage you to dive into the history of lucet and the different braids you can make with it if you are looking for a quick and compact way to make cord that you can put down and pick up as your time allows. The piece I made for this video took about 2 hours in real time and I did not speed up any of the clips I used to teach the technique, I simply trimmed down the footage. Have you ever used a lucet before? Tell me about your experiences in the comments and your preferred style of lucet fork. Do you like the large U s...

Tudor Tailor French Gown Foresleeves

While I am doing blackwork for 8 hours at a time, my Venetian camicia is not ready to be posted about yet. Instead I want to share some important information for anyone trying to make a French gown with accessories from The Tudor Tailor . I love this book but there were a few problems with the publication. The woman's foresleeves do in fact have a pattern included with the gown and kirtle, but the instructions were omitted at the time of publication. The wonderful women at The Tudor Tailor have since realized their mistake and will provide anyone with a pdf version of the instructions on their website. Detail of Elizabeth I from The Family of Henry VII, Hampton Court Palace. These sleeves are similar in size and style to the instructions given on The Tudor Tailor website. I have observed that is is just one kind of foresleeve. I am working on a extensive handout on these accessories because of all of the variations available....

The Tudor Revolution

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