A New Ruff

I've know for many years that it would be appropriate to own a small ruff.  I made a ruffle 10+ years ago, but it's constructed completely wrong (stacked pleats and folded fabric).  They are featured in the engravings I've been working on reproducing. But, ruffs always seemed a bit daunting.  I had no desire to deal with starch and the specialized irons or poking sticks needed to set the ruff, even if I could work myself up to all the sewing to put a ruff together.

Thankfully, my hand sewing has gotten better and I'm not as scared of the sewing part. Given that we were going to have a starching workshop at the Jamestown Conference, I decided to give it a go.

I followed Noel Gielgehem's guide to making a 1570's ruff. Noel is the foremost authority on ruff making that I know, and he would be the instructor of the workshop.  The ruff is entirely hand sewn.  It took ~ 4 nights or 8-10 hours of sewing to construct.

The strips before sewing. ~4 yds.

A close up of the edges to be turned. I pulled threads to ensure a straight and tight hem.

The sewn strip, complete.

Size of the turned hem ~ 3/16

A view of the gathered / cartridge pleated edge before sewn to the neck band.

A quick finger set of the ruff.  The rest of it still looked completely random.

In the workshop, I didn't have a chance to starch it, but I was able to press it with Noel's curling irons.

I should have taken a pic before wearing it because the shape really collapsed after 2 hours in the heat.  I guess this makes the point about the need for starch.