Ruffin’ Around

3–4 minutes

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I knew this was going to be a time consuming process, but I am excited to make a ruff. As I have said before, I think the Tudors had the most fun in terms of historical clothing, and ruffs are just RIDICULOUS. They are just a bizarre statement piece, and I just love it.

Here is 2cm wide petersham, we’ll be using this as the base that our pleats will be sewn onto. Note that this is a theatre way of creating ruffs, not how it would have been done within tudor times.
Cut to my measurement, and then seam allowances stitched in. I added 2cm each end to roll it into 1cm seams.
Measuring the ruff – I opted to go for a fairly shallow ruff, as my linen was quite heavy. I wanted my ruff to be 10cms deep.

For the ruff itself, you don’t actually need much fabric – 1 meter is more than enough to create a decently sized ruff, as you can cut off many strips, espeically if its only 10cms deep. I did add seam allowances though! 1cm on the side that will be stitched onto the neckband, and 2cm on the other side to create a rolled hem.

Just a couple of pictures to show my strips stitched together, and then hems and things rolled and sewn. For the side that will be sewn to the neckband, it is okay to just fold once to sew down, as this will be hidden underneath the ruff, right at the base of the neck, so its very unlikely to show.

I was a little worried about how this process was gonna go, as you have to be pretty precise. I had the foresight though to make a tool to help me with this step! I have this magnet that is the same width as my petersham. I then marked out 0.5cm twice, and thats where my stitch hole markings will be placed! This way I know that the piece will always be the same width and placement every time, rather than worring about making sure it matched using a ruler every time. After marking along my fabric, using a fabric marker of course, on the wrong side, then comes the long part. Armed with two needles, with 4 threads each, it’s time to pleat. I found this step theraputic, even if it was time consuming. I bunched a small bit first, and held it to my petersham to make sure its the right size, and it turned out almost perfect!

oooh flouncy

WHEW it took about 3 hours for me to get to the image on the right. I perhaps could have done it faster, but I was taking care. After all the pleats are sewn in, I then went through and neatened the pleats up to make it easier to sew onto the neckband. By the way, I got pretty lucky here – I was only making a sample piece as my Macbeth design didn’t feature a ruff, but I got about 95% of my neckband covered, just by guess work.

my first few stitches are a little wonky, but I soon fell into the hang of things
Top side done!
Both sides! soooo satisfying

Its holding its pleats really well, but I’m going to have to go in and stitch the figure eights to keep it looking neat and tidy. I actually prefer the slightly chaotic look, however I’m not a rich royal tudor, so what taste do I have?

This is the stitching in the figure eights. I haven’t finished this yet, as it might be the longest part of it all. Traditionally, these would be set with wax or fancy pins,
What a guess – if this wasnt for a tech skill I would of added in more fabric and pleats upto the clasps.

And here is the (kinda) finished piece! I haven’t starched it, as the spray starch I ordered is… somewhere??? Its on an adventure to “not my address”. Over time I’ll go and connect the 8’s all up too, its fiddly to do, and wears on my patience a bit!

I knew this was going to be a time consuming process, but I am excited to make a ruff. As I have said before, I think the Tudors had the most fun in terms of historical clothing, and ruffs are just RIDICULOUS. They are just a bizarre statement piece, and I just love it. For…

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Quill Vulkin is a multidisplined artist & costume maker. They use a mix of methods and media to create thought-provoking pieces, as well as re-creations of work for clients.