ruffs-msg - 11/29/18

Elizabethan clothing ruffs. Making them. Storing them. Different materials to use. How to starch them.

NOTE: See also the files: corsets-msg, fasteners-msg, linen-msg, hoops-msg, clothing-books-msg, fashion-msg, hose-msg, hose-manu-MA-art.

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From: Gretchen Miller <grm+ at andrew.cmu.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Braveheart Wimples?
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 1995 12:33:28 -0400
Organization: Computer Operations, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Excerpts from netnews.rec.org.sca: 21-Jun-95 Braveheart Wimples?
Hurricane Alison at ukcc.uk (1320)

> Disclaimer: this is not a flame against people who do like wimples. I feel
> exactly the same way about those horrid late-period ruffs. They cover and
> obscure the neck, and I always think it makes people looks like they have no
> necks at all.  Just my own personal preference.

Ah, then you should try the Italian style ruff (seen on plates and
pictures in the mid to late 16th C)

The front of the chemise opens down the front like a man's shirt and the
ruff is a softer (non-wired) version o the fan.  It appears from the
pictures to be sewn directly to the costume, and rises to between the
hairline at the back of the neck to the top of the ears.  If I recall (I
don't have the picture in front of me), it's fan pleated.  It looks to
be made from the same material as the chemise.  It's a very graceful
style, making the neck look longer and framing the head.  My next
project will be making a chemise with a ruff like this.

toodles, margaret


From: Chandra Savage <chandra at SEDS.LPL.Arizona.EDU>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: standing ruff
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 1995 19:40:20 -0700
Organization: The University of Arizona

On Fri, 15 Dec 1995, Julia M. Kessler wrote:

> I'm looking for information on the how to's of building a Standing Ruff
> for an Elizabethan dress.  Any hints or helpful information would be most
> welcome. 
>
> I've constructed a normal ruff, but I'm not sure how to go about building
> a standing one.  Is there some type of super-structure needed?  If yes,
> what would it be made out of?  I'll take period and non-period directions
> if you have them.
>
> *******************
> Do=F1a Estrella de los Confinos
> Seneschal, Canton of Forestgate
> Barony of Carillion
> Kingdom of the East
> ******
> Julia Kessler
> Kessler_J at BMS.COM

Midieval Miscellanea's Period Patterns #90 has several types of ruffs,
both standing and not.  The patterns and instructions can be confusing at
times, but this may be a good place to start.

Good Luck!
Sionnan Mac an t-Sabhaisigh
Barony of Tir Ysgithir
Kingdom of Atenveldt


From: Barb at DISTANT-CARAVANS.reno.nv.us (Barbara Morgan)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: standing ruff
Date: 17 Dec 1995 18:58:30 GMT
Organization: Great Basin Internet Services, Reno, NV

kessler_j at bms.com (Julia M. Kessler) says:
>Is there some type of super-structure needed?  

In some of my lace research I've seen references made to a supportress(sp?)
This was a frame work that sat under a large standing ruff. I've only 
seen one in practice. It looked as if the person took wire and made a 
decorative frame work. How they managed to attach it to their garb is a
mystery.

For smaller standing ruffs a high stiff collar helps. Have you ever 
noticed that some of the high collars on doublets have two holes in the 
back. I believe that a small standing ruff could be fastened to the collar
using those holes.

Good luck on you project.

Amaryllis Alexandrea de Lacey
aka: Barb Morgan
e-mail: Barb at DISTANT-CARAVANS.reno.nv.us


From: "Bathroom Boy (It's an inside joke.  Don't ask.)" <valdemar at unm.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: How do I make a ruff?
Date: Thu, 6 Jun 1996 13:58:08 -0600
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

On Thu, 6 Jun 1996, Wrath of God wrote:

> If anyone out there has any experience making a ruff(collar piece used in 
> 1500+ with figure eight pattern), and can help me create one, e-mail me. I am 
> looking for an alternative to Lawn for the material also so if anyone has a 
> suggestion for a easier to find piece of material, it would be appreciated.
> 
> Bryan
> 
There's an article in the most recent Tournaments Illuminated (issue #118 
Spring '96) about making a ruff.  Look it up and see if it helps you.

I am,
Valdemar Gillanders
Barony of al-Barran
Kingdom of the Outlands


From: j_mohler at wmc34c.wmc.edu (Jason)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: How do I make a ruff?
Date: 8 Jun 1996 03:48:55 GMT
Organization: Western Montana College, Dillon MT

My wife suggests you check out the book "Elizabethan Costuming for the Years
1550-1580" by Janet Winter & Carolyn Savoy published by Othertimes Publications
in Orlando, California.  It has a whole section on different kinds of ruffs.

Erik Blackwood


From: moondrgn at bga.com (Chris and Elisabeth Zakes)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Ruffs
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 1997 19:06:07 GMT

sirmll at ix.netcom.com(Michael Huston) wrote:
>Hello out there to all Elizabethan costume mavins. I need help figuring
>out how to keep my neck and wrist ruffs stiff. I've heard that
>horsehair was used in period, but how? Or am I going to have to starch
>them?

>R Huston

A lot depends on how authentic you want to be. You can find fairly
stiff lace in the wedding section of most fabric stores, but it uses
plastic or nylon for the stiffening. I've used it for several ruffs,
including a 6-inch-radius "head on a plate" one. 

If you're going for absolute authenticity, starch is probably your
best bet. I've no idea how horsehair would be used; maybe individual
strands were inserted in the ruff to provide internal stiffening?

        -Tivar Moondragon
                Ansteorra

C and E Zakes
Tivar Moondragon (Patience and Persistence)
and Aethelyan of Moondragon (Decadence is its own reward)
moondrgn at bga.com


From: Brett and Karen Williams <brettwi at ix.netcom.com>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Ruffs
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 1997 11:15:22 -0700

Chris and Elisabeth Zakes wrote:
> sirmll at ix.netcom.com(Michael Huston) wrote:
> 
> >Hello out there to all Elizabethan costume mavins. I need help figuring
> >out how to keep my neck and wrist ruffs stiff. I've heard that
> >horsehair was used in period, but how? Or am I going to have to starch
> >them?
> 
> >R Huston
> 
> A lot depends on how authentic you want to be. You can find fairly
> stiff lace in the wedding section of most fabric stores, but it uses
> plastic or nylon for the stiffening. I've used it for several ruffs,
> including a 6-inch-radius "head on a plate" one.
> 
> If you're going for absolute authenticity, starch is probably your
> best bet. I've no idea how horsehair would be used; maybe individual
> strands were inserted in the ruff to provide internal stiffening?
> 
>         -Tivar Moondragon

Perhaps the original poster was thinking of horsehair braid? This is a
common stiffener woven out of some kind of plastic filament that easily
twists into interesting shapes without loosing its stiffness. Inserting
some horsehair braid inside the outer edge of one's ruff (the lace end)
might help.

Period starch applications to ruffs were used with heated metal rods
called poking sticks.  I'm interested to know if anyone's ever found
something even remotely close-- certainly a curling iron ain't it!

And just as a bit of interesting trivia-- in James I and VI's reign in
England, one of the conspirators executed in the Frances Howard murder
scandal was a young woman who had made a tidy profit with her secret
recipe for yellow starch. After her hanging yellow starch was abruptly
dropped from the fashionable...

ciorstan


From: Richard Harper <rharper at sover.net>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Ruffs
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 1997 16:09:05 +0000

> Period starch applications to ruffs were used with heated metal rods
> called poking sticks.  I'm interested to know if anyone's ever found
> something even remotely close-- certainly a curling iron ain't it!
> 
> ciorstan

Couldn't resist this one...

Yes, starch is the only way to go.  Not just any starch; get a powdered starch 
and make it in the stiffest boiled recipe on the box.  Let it cool just until it's comfortable to work with, then dip the freshly-washed, towel-dried ruffs into the starch.  You will have to work it in with your fingers a bit to get the ruffs well-saturated.  "Squeegee" the extra out with your fingers, then pin the ruff bands *firmly* to a towel-covered board.  Suspend the board so the ruff hangs down straight (I do it with a string and thumbtacks into the board, and hanging it off the end of an ironing board), straightening out the ruffs with your fingers.  

Let dry *completely*.  This will take probably at least two days, depending on 
air flow and the size of the ruff.  At this point, it will be very board-like.  An hour before you want to iron the ruff, spritz it lightly with water and wrap it in Saran Wrap.  Let it sit for an hour.  Then iron it with a curling iron of the proper size, using a Marcel iron (the type with a non-spring handle, which is metal all the way to the end).  Iron one entire side of the ruff, and then flip it over and do the other side.  This will take some practice to do it without getting "bumps"; even so, it will take possibly an hour to do a neck ruff properly, maybe 45 minutes for a set of wrist ruffs.   Store them (fastened closed at the neck & wrists) in a box and away from moisture.  You should be able to get two wearings, maybe three with an iron touch-up.

Yes, it is labor-intensive.  It also approximates the way that ruffs were done in period, and the only way I've found to get the correct level of stiffness and 
crispness.

Henry Kersey of Devon 
  Shire of North Gate (formerly Dun ni Slieve)
   East Kingdom

(who loves big ruffs and will talk about them with the least provocation)


Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Ruffs
From: una at bregeuf.stonemarche.org (Honour Horne-Jaruk)
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 97 07:54:05 EDT

sirmll at ix.netcom.com(Michael Huston) writes:
> Hello out there to all Elizabethan costume mavins. I need help figuring
> out how to keep my neck and wrist ruffs stiff. I've heard that
> horsehair was used in period, but how? Or am I going to have to starch
> them?
> 
> R Huston
 
        Respected friend:
        Use linen (or cotton, if cost is a critical factor) organdy 
or organza - the stiff kind. Then hem the edge over 3 strands of 
white horsehair. Then starch. }:->

                                Alizaunde, Demoiselle de Bregeuf
                                Una Wicca (That Pict)
                                (Friend) Honour Horne-Jaruk, R.S.F.


From: "Perkins" <lwperkins at snip.net>
Subject: Re: Ruffs (long)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Date: 28 Apr 97 00:01:06 GMT

>Hello out there to all Elizabethan costume mavins. I need help figuring
>out how to keep my neck and wrist ruffs stiff. I've heard that
>horsehair was used in period, but how? Or am I going to have to starch
>them?

     I havn't heard of using horsehair, although I'd love to find out more.
 I can quote you more about starch than you probably want to
know--apparently a Puritan fellow by the name of Philip Stubbes
(c1555-1610) waxed eloquent about ruffs in a tract called Anatomy of Abuses
(1583) He made himself the darling of costume historians by writing such
stuff as:
     "Mistris Dingen Van den Passe, born at Taenen in Flaunders, daughter
of a worshipful knight of that province, [snip] came to London [snip] and
there professed herself a starcher, wherein she excelled, unto whom her own
nation presently repaired, and payed her very liberally for her work.  Some
very few of the best and most curious wives of the time, observing the
neatness and delicacy of the Dutch for the whiteness and fine wearing of
linen, made them cambricke ruffs, and sent them to Mistris Dinghen to
starch, and after a while, they made them ruffes of lawn, which was at the
time [c.1564] a stuff most strange, and wonderful, and therepon rose a
general scoffe or byword, that shortly they would make ruffes of a spider's
web; and then they began to send their daughters and nearest kinswoman to
Mistris Dingen to learn how to starch; her usuall price was at the time,
foure of five pounds, to teach them how to starch, and twenty shillings how
to seethe starch...Divers noble personages made them ruffes, a full quarter
of a yard deepe, and two lengthe in one ruffle.  This fashion in Londaon
was called the French fashion; but when Englishmen came to Paris, the
French knew it not, and in derision called it the English monster."
   I wish he'd noted the recipe! I have this quote courtesy of Millia
Davenport's the Book of Costume. She notes in the bibliography that there
was a reprinting of Stubbs by W. Pickering, London in 1835--if anyone has
access to this reprinting, please tell me!
    On a practical note, I use regular starch (bought at the grocery store)
and apply it to my ruffs with a spray bottle while the ruff is on its pegs
(I made a board with dowels stuck in it to keep the loops open and
straight.)  Then I let it dry. If a loop has gotten smushed I fix it with
an electric curler...it does get starch on the curler, so wipe off the
curler after doing this.
--Ester du Bois  
      

From: rhayes at powerup.com.au (Robin Hayes)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Ruffs
Date: 28 Apr 1997 03:28:20 GMT

Richard Harper of rharper at sover.net says...

<SNIP>
>An hour 
>before you want to iron the ruff, spritz it lightly with water 
>and wrap it in Saran Wrap.  

Pardon the interruption... 
Saran Wrap is hardly period.
My mum (and her mum) used to use a damp towel, or a sheet (and it doesn't 
have to be too damp, just moist enough to keep the humidity in the 
garments) when ironing starched garments.

Robin
Who is too lazy to iron much at all these days so buys work clothes made 
from fabrics that need little or no ironing... :-)


From: Richard Harper <rharper at sover.net>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Ruffs
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 07:36:40 +0000

Robin Hayes wrote:
> Pardon the interruption...
> Saran Wrap is hardly period.
> My mum (and her mum) used to use a damp towel, or a sheet (and it doesn't
> have to be too damp, just moist enough to keep the humidity in the
> garments) when ironing starched garments.
> 
> Robin

Thanks for the interjection.

However, the starch build-up on the ruff is so great that an air-permeable 
surface (such as a towel or sheet) will allow moisture to wick away from the ruff before the starch can be appropriately softened enough to iron.

I agree, of course, Saran Wrap is hardly period.  If you think of a suitable 
substitute that is period, I'd be more than happy to give it a try.  Oilcloth, 
perhaps?  A pig's bladder?

In actual period, the ruff was dried on a stick, rotated near a fire by a servant or an individual whose business it was to prepare ruffs for the wearer.  That way, the process could be halted at the appropriate stage of dryness so the ruff could be ironed properly.  Unfortunately, no one I know has that kind of time.

Henry


From: gileshill at aol.com (Gileshill)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Ruffs
Date: 28 Apr 1997 15:04:59 GMT

R Huston said 
> Hello out there to all Elizabethan costume mavins. I need help figuring
> out how to keep my neck and wrist ruffs stiff. I've heard that
> horsehair was used in period, but how? Or am I going to have to starch
> them?

and Alizaunde said
        Use linen (or cotton, if cost is a critical factor) organdy 
or organza - the stiff kind. Then hem the edge over 3 strands of 
white horsehair. Then starch. 

The technique I've been using (although not as period as Alizaunde's) is
to cut a band twice as wide (plus seam allowance) as I want the ruff to
be, fold it in half (lengthwise) and iron.  Set twenty pound fishing line
(ie, thick monofilament) inside the band, against the crease, and using a
zipper foot, run a seam down the edge.  (A fine lace edging may also be
applied.)

The seam allowance is pleated into the neck of the shirt (or a separate
neckband) and the outside edge (the one with the fishing line) is hand
tacked into candy ribbon curves.

This technique (although ~as I said~ not period) produces a ruff that
looks exactly like the portraits, and can be washed, (even by machine)
hung to dry, crammed into a suitcase, and still look great.

If you have a serger that does a fine edge, feed the raw edges of the band
through the machine, with the fishing line fed into the overlocking
threads.  (That's fed at the presser foot, NOT through the thread guides.)
 Using black thread on a white ruff gives a really smashing effect.

Giles


From: moondrgn at bga.com (Chris and Elisabeth Zakes)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Anatomy of Abuses (was: Ruffs)
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 13:37:17 GMT

"Perkins" <lwperkins at snip.net> wrote:
>     I havn't heard of using horsehair, although I'd love to find out more.
> I can quote you more about starch than you probably want to
>know--apparently a Puritan fellow by the name of Philip Stubbes
>(c1555-1610) waxed eloquent about ruffs in a tract called Anatomy of Abuses
>(1583) He made himself the darling of costume historians by writing such
>stuff as:
(snip)
>This fashion in Londaon
>was called the French fashion; but when Englishmen came to Paris, the
>French knew it not, and in derision called it the English monster."
>   I wish he'd noted the recipe! I have this quote courtesy of Millia
>Davenport's the Book of Costume. She notes in the bibliography that there
>was a reprinting of Stubbs by W. Pickering, London in 1835--if anyone has
>access to this reprinting, please tell me!

Stubbes' book is still available, I special-ordered a copy less than a
year ago through Border's Books. It's been reprinted by a group called
"The English Experience". (They have over a thousand titles from the
16th and 17th century, A of A is # 489. Quite a few of their titles
are available through Amazon.com Books.)

Or you could try:
Da Capo Press, a subsidiary of Plenum Publishing Corporation, 277 West
17th Street, New York  NY  10011

 ISBN 90 221 0489 3

        -Tivar Moondragon
                Ansteorra

C and E Zakes
Tivar Moondragon (Patience and Persistence)
and Aethelyan of Moondragon (Decadence is its own reward)
moondrgn at bga.com


Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Ruffs
From: una at bregeuf.stonemarche.org (Honour Horne-Jaruk)
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 97 23:40:57 EDT

gileshill at aol.com (Gileshill) writes:
> Alizaunde said (about ruffs)
>       Use linen (or cotton, if cost is a critical factor) organdy 
> or organza - the stiff kind. Then hem the edge over 3 strands of 
> white horsehair. Then starch. 
> 
> The technique I've been using (although not as period as Alizaunde's) is
> to cut a band twice as wide (plus seam allowance) as I want the ruff to
> be, fold it in half (lengthwise) and iron.  Set twenty pound fishing line
> (ie, thick monofilament) inside the band, against the crease, and using a
> zipper foot, run a seam down the edge.  (A fine lace edging may also be
> applied.)
> 
> The seam allowance is pleated into the neck of the shirt (or a separate
> neckband) and the outside edge (the one with the fishing line) is hand
> tacked into candy ribbon curves.
> 
> This technique (although ~as I said~ not period) produces a ruff that
> looks exactly like the portraits, and can be washed, (even by machine)
> hung to dry, crammed into a suitcase, and still look great.
        (snip)
> Giles
        Respected friend:
        I find that this method doesn't look exactly like the 
portraits; because the neck edge has a much smaller diameter than
the outside of the ruff, the candy-ribbon curves funnel _backwards_
from the desired direction; they get smaller as they go outwards.
        To produce a "walk-off-the-wall" ruff, I've had to turn
to cutting and splicing sections shaped like a tire sidewall. A
slight curve produces a "straight" ruff (One with no visible flare)
More pronounced curves make wider, flaring ruffs.
        This is also why bridal-store lace is never as effective as 
it should be; for the outer edge to stay straight or flare, the
inner edge of the lace has to be "crowded" (whipstitched on while 
being very slightly gathered.)
        No wonder Master Ruffmakers ranked as gentlemen...

                                Alizaunde, Demoiselle de Bregeuf
                                Una Wicca (That Pict)
                                (Friend) Honour Horne-Jaruk, R.S.F.


From: uriel507 at aol.com (Uriel507)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Ruffs (making ruffs - LONG)
Date: 10 May 1997 20:32:40 GMT

1) Making Ruffs stiff.
     Yes you'll have to starch them.  The invention of starch in the 16th
century is what enabled ruffs to acheive their large width during the
Elizabethan Era

2) Making Ruffs.  I use a peg-board the length of my neck circumferance. 
The pegs are set in two rows as wide apart as the depth of the ruff I
want. ( The board has 6 rows of holes so I can vary my depths.  There are
several sets of pegs in varying length.  The length of the peg determines
the width of the ruff (how far it sticks out from the neck.)

Using ecclesiastical weight linen (very dense and very fine -  at 150
threads/inch):
     make a neck-band from a piece twice as wide as you want the depth of
the ruff to be.  Make sure it is a  comfortable width when folded in half
- no sense choking all day! Fold the short edges in 1/4 inch and make a
neat hem. Fold it in half longways, seam the long side, turn it.  Decide
on how you want to fasten it.  Ties and buttons are both period.  If it is
more than 1in wide use 2 of whatever fastening. Close the short edges with
a catch stitch.
    The ruff itself is  at  three times as long as the neckband. (If you use
the pegboard method, measure around the pegs you intend to use in a
"candy-ribbon" fashion with a piece of string and then measure the
string).  Cut the linen strips with the warp of the fabric forming the
short length and the weft forming the long edge if at all possible, since
linen "likes" to fold along the warp threads.  For perfect evenness pull
out weft threads at the measured width and cut along the space left
behind.  Conntect the various strips selvedge to selvedge with a seam
stitch (no seam allowance, catch 1 or 2 threads at the edge of one
selvedge then 1 or 2 threads of the other in a lacing fashion). Put a
small hem in all 4 edges of the now-long strip.  If you are attaching lace
- do it now.
    Prepare your starch.  If it is flakes- follow directions for a strong
or heavy mix.  If bottled - use full strength.  Wet both the neckband and
the ruff strip in water and then thouroughly cover with starch.  Don't
wring or squeeze.  Strip the excess starch from each piece so that is
doesn't drip much and let them dry completely.  They will be crispy and
stiff as paper. Its OK.  Now.. spinkle or spray the linen with  a little
water and iron at the highest temperature. (steam iron is OK)
   Now - snake the strip of linen, neck edge uppermost, through the pegs. 
Make a little catch stitch at each turn where one turn touches the other
in the center. When all of the ruff strip is gathered up on the pegs; take
the neckband (neck-side uppermost) and lay it on top of the gathered edge.
 Catch-stitch the top and bottom curved edges of the ruff to each long
edge of the neckband.  Voila!

Now - If you don't wear it in damp weather AND give it a nice band-box to
live in it will stay nice quite a while.  When it gets crumpled and dirty,
remove the catch-stitches and separate the ruff from the band.  Remove the
catch stitches from the center of the ruff strip and launder.  Then begin
again from "Prepare your starch". (Really - you can become quite quick at
this. I typically do it the night before an event) You can refresh a ruff
without taking it apart by using spray starch and a curling iron stuck
into each curve in turn.

If you want (need) to be really really period; after the ruff is done,
replace the catch stitches in the center of the ruff strip with little
pills of wax.

Source:  Arnold,Janet.  "Three Examples of late 16th and early 17th
century neckware."  Waffen-und Kosstumkunde, Pt.2 (1973) pp.109-124 
(includes patterns)

I've used this method very sucessfully for all my ruffs. 
Note:  Get help in the bathroom if you are wearing wrist ruffs.  (Think
about it - you'll see what I mean)

Enjoy the adventure  - what ever method you end up using!  
Tamlin du Bois Vert, OL


From: palotay at aol.com (Palotay)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: ruffs
Date: 1 Oct 1997 20:18:13 GMT

Robin Stoneking <stonekin at erols.com> writes:
>I am attempting a narrow (3 in) ruff made in cartride pleats. I'm
>finding it difficult to get the proper figure 8 along the outside
>edge, and would appreciate any hints on how to acheive this. 

If you don't mind being not-too-period, you can use horsehair braid along
the outside edge.  This keeps the pleats nice and round without the hassle
of starch.  However, most horsehair I've found tends to be _too_ springy,
which means you end up with an enormous ruff unless you stitch the ends of
the figure 8's.  (You can hide the stitching with little beads, or by using
lace on the edge.)

For such a small ruff, it _should_ be enough to just starch the heck out
of it, form the 8's, and let dry. The natural stiffness of the starched
fabric _should_ tend to end up with the right size & shaped 8's. (Notice I
said _should_, not _will_.)  

hope this helps and good luck! (You'll need it!)

Martha 


Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 23:05:50 -0800
From: Brett and Karen Williams <brettwi at ix.netcom.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Elizabethan Ruff

>I would like to make an Elizabethan ruff.Where can I find a pattern or
>buy the finnished items. Thank You, Karen

There is a recent article in Tournaments Illuminated by Mistress Eowyn
Amberdrake discussing her examination of a surviving ruff (Madame, did
you steam up the case, incidentally?). The article doesn't go into
specifics, as in 'this is how much to cut for such a size', but it
details primary documentation on how one was made.

There is reasonably extensive discussion on ruff-making in Jean
Hunnisett's "Period Costume for Stage and Screen, 1500-1800", ISBN
0-88734-610-3; little on point in Arnold's "Patterns of Fashion", other
than a tantalizing illustration from the back of someone wearing a ruff,
tassels and buttonholes in the center back collar prominently
displayed...

And last and certainly not the least, there's a fairly recent discussion
saved by our own Lord Stefan, which is located in the Clothing section
in the Florilegeum, at:

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/idxclothing.html

Just pick the article called 'ruffs'. That oughta getcha started.

ciorstan


Date: Sun, 1 Feb 1998 15:08:10 EST
From: <EowynA at aol.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re:  Elizabethan Ruff

>I would like to make an Elizabethan ruff.Where can I find a pattern or
>buy the finnished items. Thank You, Karen

There is a pattern (at least, the information for making your own pattern,
depending on exactly which decade of the 16th century style you wish to
emulate), in the July, 1997 edition of the Ars Caidis.  Ars Caidis is the
quarterly arts magazine for the Kingdom of Caid.  cost: $4.00 each (I think)
and available through the publisher, who can be reached at ArsCaidis at aol.com

Eowyn Amberdrake, Caid
(Melinda Sherbring, Los Angeles)


From the FB "SCA Garb" group:
Ann Schde
7/25/15
I was just pondering the elizabethan woman in the group timeline photo.... the lace ruff, to be precise. Can only think how hot and SCRATCHY that must have been. Amazing what people go through to be up to date, in vogue, etc.
Does anyone here have knowledge they can share, or links to, info on how and why the ruff came into being? I'm fairly sure it didn't just spring into existence one cold winter day...

Karla Hood 
Just as so many fashions evolved from previous ones, the ruff evolved from the shirt ruffle of previous decades. The ruffle became more stylized, and eventually became a separate garment in itself. This eventually changed into the soft ruff of the early 17th century, and the ruffles blended together into the ubiquitous large flat collar of the mid to latter part of the century.

Kimiko Small 
I've worn a proper starched ruff a few times, and while it starts off stiff, in short time you don't notice it much, and the lace at the end is away from the head so it is not scratchy.

And like Karla mentioned it expanded from the narrow neck ruffles of the late Henrician period.

Druscilla Galbraith 
My hunch, based only on experience wearing clothing, is in the very beginning, the ruffle kept the shirt collar from slipping into "jacket" collar. Then the shirt would absorb the sweat, dirt and oil from the neck. The outer garment would be harder to clean.

<the end>
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