Lace-making

Tudor and Elizabethan Ruffs 

Lace-making is an ancient craft but it was not made in its true form until the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. A true lace is created when a thread is looped, twisted or braided to other threads independently and originally made out of linen, silk, gold and silver threads. Today it is often made from cotton thread or a synthetic fibre.

During the Tudor era, the ruff was the single largest user of lace, and the wearing of a ruff defines the Elizabethan age. We did see ruffs during Elizabeth's father's time, but they were just small frills that surrounded a tall collar. In the 1560s the ruff had evolved into a large separate article of clothing tied on by strings that were introduced to England from France.

Ruffs started out as starched linen edged with lace, but by the end of the 1500s ruffs were almost entirely of lace, and because it came in narrow strips several had to be sewn together to form the nine inches it usually took to make a large ruff which had to be supported by both starch and wireframes. Ruffs, on the whole, were white, but were could be coloured with vegetable dye and were either pink, yellow or sometimes mauve. A pale blue colour was popular but the Elizabeth disliked it and issued a statement which stated: 

"Her Majesty's pleasure is that no blue starch shall be used or worn by any of her Majesty's subjects, since blue
was the colour of the flag of Scotland "

The year 1615 saw the beginning of the end of the large starched ruff and by 1640 it was the falling ruff that was
becoming more popular.
​
Interestingly, between 1570 and 1625 the fan-shaped ruff with an open neck was only worn by unmarried women.