Book Review: The Tudor Child

The Tudor Child: Clothing and Culture 1485-1625 by Jane Huggett and Ninya Mikhaila (ed. Jane Malcolm Davies).

I was expecting a slim research volume akin to The Queen's Servants (which I love and will defend against all nay-sayers) and was pleasantly surprised at the depth and breadth of this book. It truly is The Tudor Tailor for smaller persons. The main geographical focus is on England and northern Europe, with some Italian references also included. The book clocks in at 151 pages, excluding notes and index.

The first fifty pages are research: a brief peak into children's lives during the period, followed by explorations of garments for infants/toddlers, girls aged 4-12, and boys aged 4-12.  While few garments survive for this period, they still manage to feature several garments or garment fragments, as well as period paintings, sculpture and even stained glass which depict children. All of the illustrations are color photographs.  There's a further 12 pages discussing the materials used in children's clothing, including the different colors which can be documented.  The construction section includes a couple of pages on general sewing techniques (pleats, gathering, buttonholes, making thread and cloth buttons, different seam finishes), as well as advice on selecting materials and on using the patterns.  The patterns compromise nearly half the book (over 80 pages).

The patterns in this book are for children 0-12, both boys and girls. Except for the basic garments, which are given in two-year-age intervals, most of these are given in a single size: some re-scaling and fitting will be required to take full use of this book. Fortunately, basic instructions are provided. The projects included are:

• Childbed linen for 0-3 month old (elite and simple versions)
• Knit waistcoat for 3-6 mo, and infant petticoat
• Shirt and smock (for 8 year-olds, but with instructions to adjust for all-sized children)
• Bodies (c.1591) for a 6 year-old
• Spanish farthingale for a 10 year old
• French farthingale for a 2 year old
• Basic doublet, bodice and sleeve patterns* for 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 year-olds
• Skirt patterns* (sized for an 8-year-old, with instructions to scale up and down)
• Doublet, hose and coat for a 6 year-old boy (early 16th century)
• Coat and petticoat for a 6 year-old boy
• Doublet, breeches and coat for a 10 year-old boy (late 16th century)
• 1560s Kirtle and coat/gown for a 4-year-old
• 1560s Waistcoat and petticoat for a 12-year-old girl
• 1520-30s Kirtle and Gown for a 6-year-old girl
• 1546 Petticoat, kirtle, foresleeves, and gown for a 10-year-old girl (Elizabeth I portrait)
• 1547 Jacket, hose and gown for a 10-year-old boy (Edward VI portrait)
• 1565 Kirtle and gown for a 10-year-old girl
• 1588 Petticoat and coat for an infant (8 mo)
• 1600-1608 Doublet and petticoat for a 2-year-old
• Loose gown for a 12-year-old girl (1580s-1620s)
• Bodies, petticoat, and gown for a 6-year-old girl (1600-1640)
• Aprons, bibs, ruffs, collars, cuffs
• Biggins, caps, and coifs
• Frontlets, bonnets, and French hoods
• Caps, bonnets, and hats
• Stockings, mittens, and shoes
• A doll

*These are used together to make coats, gowns, petticoats, etc.--not "bodice and skirt" separates.

For all of the garments, a small chart is included to indicate whether the garment was used by lower, middle or upper class children, and whether it is appropriate to the beginning, middle or end of the Tudor period (approximately 1485-1540, 1540-1580, or 1580-1625). Some styles are used by all, others show up only in upper class clothing or linger in lower class use after elite fashion has moved on.

The best part is that each garment and ensemble is modeled by adorable children--it's like a series of Bruegel and Holbein paintings come to life.  Additionally, there is a two-page photo tutorial showing how to properly swaddle a very young infant (0-3 months), and another showing how women's garments can be adjusted for pregnancy.

Overall, I think this is a fabulous book. It branches out a little from the adult volume--including a handful of knitting projects, as well as a basic infant turnshoe. With a little work to scale and fit, one could easily use this book to construct garments suitable for children of all ages and classes, from the late 15th to early 17th century.  Some of this could also be done by scaling down The Tudor Tailor's adult patterns to child-sized, but I wouldn't recommend that unless you're really strapped for time/money, have good drafting skills, and are clothing larger kids (infants and toddlers have some different styles than adults, even more so than older children).

Stars: 5

Accuracy: Pretty High.  A few original garments, but many original paintings; there is explicit explanation of what information is currently available about children's clothing in the period, and what is inference or speculation.  Each garment pattern has margin notes about the sources it is based on.

Difficulty: Intermediate to advanced.  Ambitious beginning sewists with good spacial reasoning and/or a mentor may also be able to make garments, particularly the basic ones. For less experienced sewists there is both basic sewing instruction and scaling/fitting advice included.

Overall Impression:  I think this is an interesting and worthwhile book in its own right, and would recommend it to anyone clothing children from the late 15th to early 17th century, or interested in learning about children's clothes from that period.

HFF 3.2: Looking Back

The Challenge: Looking Back Improve upon (or try an alternate version of) a previous challenge, or a recipe you are already comfortable with. I revised the hot cross buns I made for challenge 2.20, with some insight from the other 1850s receipt I tried last Easter.

The Receipt:  Cross Buns from Five Thousand Receipts: In All The Useful And Domestic Arts, by Colin MacKenzie.

Cross buns
Put 2 1/2 lbs. of fine flour into a wooden bowl, and set it before the fire to warm; then add 1/2 a lb. sifted sugar, some coriander seed, cinnamon and mace powdered fine; melt 1/2 lb of butter in half pint of milk; when it is as warm as it can bear the finger, mix with it three table spoonsful of thick yeast, and a little salt; put it to the flour, mix it to a paste, and make the buns as directed the last receipt. [...cover it over and set it before the fire an hour to rise, then make it into buns, put them on a tin, set them before the fire for a quarter of an hour, cover over with flannel, then brush them with very warm milk and bake them of a nice brown in a moderate oven.] Put a cross on the top not deep.

The Date/Year and Region: 1854, American (Philadelphia), adapted from a British source

How Did You Make It:  I upped the 6 tsp of yeast I used previously to  7.5 tsp of dry yeast (this is proportionately closer to the amount I used in the other receipt, which gave a lighter roll).

Mixed together 2.5 lbs of all-purpose flour, 1/2 lb of granulated sugar,  4 tsp cinnamon, 4 tsp coriander, and 2 tsp mace. All spices were pre-ground; I increased the amount of coriander and mace from last time. I melted 1/2 lb of butter, added 1 cup of skim milk to the butter, 1 tsp of salt, and the yeast. After letting the yeast wake-up for a few minutes, I mixed it into the dry ingredients. I added a little milk while kneading, because the dough was really dry, and let let it proof in the oven for 1 hour.
Shaped and let rise a few minutes more, then baked at 350F for 20 minutes. I forgot to brush with milk, so the rolls turned out a little paler than they should have.


Time to Complete: About 3 hours, include rising and baking time.

Total Cost: All ingredients on hand--which is why I made these: I'd planned to revisit the apple-substitute-for-quince pudding receipt, only to have the store in which I finally found quinces no longer has them. I then tried Beeton's macaroon receipt--again--only to run into some major problems with the structural integrity of egg whites.

How Successful Was It? Lighter than the first time I made them, and spicier than the second. I could probably tweak the spices more, but this is a good proportion. The main issue is that the dough is still really dry, so it's not especially pretty. I need to keep working on that.

How Accurate Is It? As previously noted, I'm using dry yeast (modern!) and these were largely a commercial product in the 1850s. I'd like to think they're getting better, though. And that spice combination of cinnamon, coriander, and mace is delightfully Victorian.

Hot Cross Buns. These were the photogenic ones.

Knit Cloths

Warming up on knitting, with some cotton washcloths. Knit in stockinette, on size 8 needles.

HFF 3.1: Twelfth Night Cake

The Challenge: New Year's A new year, a new era, a new receipt, or a food intended for New Year's.

For the "new year" challenge, I tried a new receipt that seasonal in early January: Twelfth (Night) Cake.  For added fun, I baked in my new 8" tin cake ring (from Goosebay Workshops).

My usual receipt for Twelfth Cake is from 1888, and I tend to decorate it with marzipan and my modern almond-buttercream icing (since I encountered references to such cakes being iced and decorated in sugarplums or sweetmeats, but without explicit recipes).  While preparing for this task, however, I discovered some very helpful receipts in the The Complete Cook (1850): a specific icing for wedding or twelfth cakes, as well as an apple paste for decoration, and a couple versions of the cake itself.  However, I couldn't resist trying the 1857 cake receipt in Godey's--it's in rhyme!

The Receipt:  Twelfth Cake

TWELFTH CAKE
To two pounds of flour well sifted unite
 Of loaf sugar ounces sixteen.
Two pounds of fresh butter with eighteen fine eggs
And four pounds of currants washed clean
Eight ounces of almonds well blanched and cut small
The same weight of citron sliced
Of orange and lemon peel candied one pound
And a gill of pale brandy uniced
A large nutmeg grated exact half an ounce
Of allspice but only a quarter
Of mace coriander and ginger well ground
Or pounded to dust in a mortar
An important addition is cinnamon which
Is better increased than diminished
The fourth of an ounce is sufficient
Now this
May be baked four good hours till finished.

The Date/Year and Region: 1857, American (Philadelphia)

How Did You Make it: I made this receipt on a quarter-scale. First, there was candied lemon and orange peel to make (in the usual method of boiling in sugar syrup). I then beat 4.5 eggs (four eggs and the white of a fifth) very hard, and mixed into it 1/2 lb of softened butter, 1/4 lb sugar, and 1/2 lb all-purpose flour.  I then stirred in 10 oz of currants (should have been 16 oz), 2 oz of silvered, blanched almonds, 4 oz of candied peel (minced), 1 fl oz brandy, about a quarter of a nutmeg (freshly grated), 1.5 tsp ground allspice, 3/4 tsp each of mace, coriander, ginger, and cinnamon.  I omitted the 2 oz citron, as I did not have any.

Having learned from previous recipes that these cakes need to bake very slowly, I put a double layer of parchment paper around the inside of the cake ring, and on the cookie sheet under it, and over the batter. It was much easier that trying to line a pan in paper.  This cake baked in 2 hours at 325F. I added a white bean near the end of the bake, per tradition.

For the icing, I beat egg white and powered sugar for about ~20 minutes, until the icing thickened and would hang on  the side of a spoon without dripping.  I actually managed to forget the lemon juice; this didn't affect the consistency of the cake when first cut, but on the day after, the icing broke/scaled when cut, just as the book warned.

Running out of time to make the apple paste (which I simply have to try next year), I used commercial marzipan and modern food coloring to decorate the cake. I'm still not good at shaping marzipan, so after the usual attempt at a crown, I just made medallions with a cookie stamp.

[I used the approximation of 4 Tbsp= 1 oz on the spices, since I didn't have a scale that could handle weighing out 1/8 and 1/16 oz quantities.  For the brandy, 1 gill = half a cup or 4 fl oz.]

Time to Complete: About half an hour to prepare the cake (after the peel was candied) and two hours to bake it. Decorating it was another 20-30 minutes of playing with the marzipan while letting the mixer beat the icing.

Total Cost: Most everything I already had on hand.

How Successful Was It? Fairly successful. This cake baked nicer than my previous ones, which tend to get overdone on the edges by time the center bakes (even with a few layers of paper). I think the proportions of raisins/currants/almonds/peel in my usual receipt is slightly richer, but the texture was really pleasant on this one. The new icing went on easily and looked well, but I like using my modern icing, because I think the extra almond flavor goes well with the cake.  I may try experimenting with some period almond icings next year, and hopefully that apple paste, too.

How Accurate Is It? As noted, I scaled down to a quarter-sized cake; I'm tempted to try a half-size in my current cake hoop, but I'll need a much larger party and pan to attempt a full-sized cake. Even with a dozen people, we only ate 3/4 of the cake that night (resulting in a second year with no monarch being crowned--no one found the bean). I omitted the citron, simply because I didn't have any, and used 'zante currants' for the currants, because that is what I can buy locally. We do have a native currant in this region, so one of these years I'd like to dry some of its fruit for my winter baking.

Boiling lemon and orange peel in sugar syrup.

New cake round! It was easy to paper, easy to remove the cake,
and only a tiny bit of the batter seeped under.

The baked cake.

Iced cake, decorated with a  yellow marzipan crown in the center,
and red, blue and green medallions around the sides.
The crown stood straighter before I cut the back half of the cake.

Swatch Books and Fabric Samples Online

Happy Twelfth Day of Christmas. For a while, I've been gathering examples of historic textiles (fabric samples and designs) which have been digitalized. Here's my initial attempt at curating them.

Most of these are from Internet Archive, but there's also two from Reproduction Fabrics, and several from museum collections such as the Met, MFA, and VAM. A few are whole books of fabric designs or samples, others are single pages or even single pieces of material.

Fragments & Samples

London Foundling Hospital (1740s-1760s) Threads of Feeling fabric swatch collection

MFA Boston textile fragments (18th-19th centuries, like this 1830s print)

The Victoria and Albert has many samples, especially c.1840-1851 (like these or this or this)

Sample & Design Books

c.1700: Pattern Book of Silks and Damasks these are woven silk patterns, not prints
c.1700: Asian Fabric Sample Book, vol. 1
c.1700: Asian Fabric Sample Book, vol. 2

1746-1823 Barbara Johnson album fabric swatches annotated with year and garment type
1784: Textile Sample Book (Manchester), cotton

c.1800 Embroidery Sample Book, Maison Sedille (Iran/Persia) French imports?
1800-1899: Sample Book of Trims, Lobre Frères  (Lyons) embroidered net, diverse passementerie
c.1800-? British Sample Book, early 19th century
1818: Textile Sample Book (Lyon), prints, one page
1821: Textile Sample Book, page
1825: Fortin Sample Book (Paris)

c.1830: The Dargate Book, identified as French dress goods

1842: De la fabrique d'étoffes (Lyon), woven designs with the drafts and treadling sequences
1845: Échantillons (France), prints
1846: Textile Sample Book (Lyon), prints, two pages
1846-1860: Textile Sample Book, page
1843-1863: The Delaine Book (Paris), wool prints dated 1843-4, 1849, and 1863

1861: John Smith/Goodshawl Chapel (Lancashire)
1863: Maison Robert Sample Book (Paris)
1863: Darras-Heumann Sample Book (Paris), these mostly seem to be kerchiefs or border prints
c.1865 Imprimés en tous genres,  E. Lemancel Sample Book No. 2 (Paris)

Louis Long Sample Book (USA) 1860-1895, 1877-1892 1878-1900, 1886-1903, 1885-1902, 1884-1889 1880-1920s, 1903-7

c.1870–78 Ullman Frères/Willman Sample Book whitework embroideries
c.1870s British or American Sample Book prints
c.1875: Trims and Edging embroidery designs for nightgowns and shirts

1881: Textile Sample Book (Lyon)
1886: Silk Ribbon and Trims, E. Lemancel Sample Book (Paris)
1887-8: Sample Book (American)

1890-1901: Gazes, E. Lemancel Sample Book (Paris)
1893: Rudolf Kratzsch Sample Book (Germany), one page
1895: French Silk Sample Book 

1900: Lainages unis en façonnies en tous genres. Livre no. 3, E. Lemancel (Paris)
1900: Untitled Sample Book (Paris)
1900: Weaving Pattern Sample Book (Lyon?)

19--: Aniline Colors on Cotton Yarn (New York) dyeing information and color samples

[I'm still exploring it, but the Textile Research Center's online collection has 20th and 21st century swatches from around the world.]

Original: Moire Silk Ballgown c. 1865

For the 11th day of Christmas, an original gown. Because warp-printed butterflies are what we all need in January. And it's a moire taffeta, too...

Warp-printed moire silk gown,
c. 1865, LACMA.

As always, follow the link for more images. I strongly approve of both LACMA's staging, and the number of detail shots they include. Also, their photographs are public domain, just in case we needed another reason to love them.

More Pillow Pincushions

The bows may have achieved peak cuteness.

On the tenth day of Christmas, two more pillow pin cushions made as New Year's presents. I think these would look great hung on a Victorian Christmas tree (as presents).

The cushions are calico, the stuffing wool (one emory); I used Rit pale pink dye with vinegar to color the silk ribbon, and (again) got a very bright shade.

Wool Caps

From the Workwoman's Guide (1838), caps for men or boys. The brims should be leather, but I tried self-fabric on these first two.

In retrospect, the beige sofa was not an ideal backdrop.

Black wool photographs really flat, apparently.

Costume Resolutions, 2019

Happy New Year! On the 8th day of Christmas: my costuming goals for 2019. A few of these did get held over from last year...

Late 18th century chemise, maybe one more 16th century smock.
That linen gown*
Partlet
Tablet-Woven Garters*
Another pair of turnshoes

1770s corset*

Empire ballgown remade
Dancing slippers
Bib-front Empire dress* (completed skirt and sleeves, bodice needs work)

1848 Dress and Bonnet

Fix mid-19th century corset
New sets of 1850s undergarments
Braidwork coat*
Blue Wool* Sleeves Reworked (did make and wear it)
Black or red plaid wool worked up*
Gaiters*
That sewing apron*

1890s corset*