The Tudor Tailor

Overview

  • 160 pages
  • 80 historical illustrations, many in colour
  • Over 100 specially commissioned line drawings
  • 36 patterns with full step-by-step instructions and photographs showing finished garments worn by real people

Summary

The first four chapters provide a social history of clothes in the 16th century, drawing on the latest research and primary sources such as ordinary people’s wills and surviving royal records. There is discussion of the materials used, people’s financial and social relationships with their clothes, and the changes in dress from birth to death. There is as much emphasis on the clothes of ordinary people as there is on high fashion. There is also general advice on choosing materials, construction methods, and an insight into the Tudor tailor’s sewing kit.

Reviews

I bought this out of interest to help my daughter with a project on the Tudors. What a mine of information it proved to be! I’m no great seamstress and the instructions took some careful reading but the patterns were excellent and my daughter is now the proud owner of an incredible costume. The historical detail was fascinating and thorough. If you are planning a historical reconstruction then this book is a must

— Mrs FP Tompkins Cardiff, UK

This is the perfect book – the research is first class – it describes the fabrics, threads and colours that were used in Tudor times and also has a very useful pattern section in the second half of the book. I highly recommend this to both textile history students and re-enactment societies!”

— Ms J Mulroy Staffordshire, UK

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have just received your book. FANTASTIC. I can’t wait to show the other members of our club and the dancers that I belong to. Just with a cursory glance through and I have had a few questions answered already. I shall be recommending this book to everyone who asks or is involved in the scene over her in New Zealand. If you are going ahead to print another book please let me know.

— Lesley Antill Waitara, Taranaki, New Zealand

Many congratulations to you on your lovely book – it arrived just before I went away for the week and it certainly brightened up my day and that of those around me

— Dr Maria Hayward Director of the AHRC Research Centre for Textile Conservation and Textile Studies, Winchester School of Art, UK