The Tudor Tailor

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The Tudor Tailor

Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from The Tudor Tailor, Educational Research Center, The Old Dairy, 2 Trowell Road, Nottingham.

The Tudor Tailor publishes books and creates resources to encourage the accurate reconstruction of historical dress from the late 15th to the early 17th centuries

24/08/2026

Aside from all the half-price gowns, Jane and Ninya are accepting offers for any other garments which are for sale online.

🛍️ https://shop.tudortailor.com/collections/garments

Please send an email to [email protected] with a link to the garment which piques your interest stating your offer. Please also provide the address for delivery so the total price can be calculated before you decide to buy. Choose men’s workaday garments such as a cassock, of which there are several on sale or items of headwear which are newly listed. Take a look at the women’s kirtle collection as there are several different styles suitable for a range of eras.

🛍️ https://shop.tudortailor.com/collections/kirtles-collection

And for a totally different take on Tudor cleaning, take a look at this game based on advances in 16th century sanitation!👇

https://www.grailgames.games/our-games/night-soil

23/08/2026

The autumn tidy-up is already underway at The Tudor Tailor. In the 16th century, it was an annual ritual to prepare the home for the colder months. Advice on husbandry included tasks to be done ‘against winter’. Household management books recommend washing linens, clearing out cupboards, and dusting furniture to ensure living spaces were hygienic and comfortable for the long days inside. The TT team is now emptying the wardrobes and ‘everything must go’!

🛍️ https://shop.tudortailor.com/collections/sale

There are many garments which are as good as new having been used for a single photoshoot or a few indoor events. A typical all-purpose woman’s gown for the middle of the century is this high-bodied round gown in tawny wool. It was photographed for 'The Typical Tudor'. A gown for the end of the Tudor era is a comfortable loose black worsted gown with generous sleeves. It was worn for a 'Who do you think you were?' video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X31EDuc69T0

21/08/2026

All the readymade gowns currently on sale in the online shop are now half price. There are gowns suitable for a long span of the Tudor era – from the late 15th to the late 16th centuries. See them all in the Gowns collection.

🛍️ https://shop.tudortailor.com/collections/gowns-collection

This week sees the anniversary of the Battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485. For many, the death of Richard III and Henry VII’s accession to the throne was a cause for celebration. However, there were many new widows on both sides of the Wars of the Roses. An appropriate gown for a grieving woman at the end of the 15th century is this black one based on clothes issued to Anne Percy in 1498, when she held a high-ranking position at court (see page 24 of 'The Queen’s Servants')👇

🛍️ https://shop.tudortailor.com/products/finished-garment-early-tudor-ladys-gown-as-featured-on-the-cover-of-the-queens-servants

It represents a gown made of 10 yards of 22-inch-wide black silk camlet, lined in black linen, and edged with one and a half yards of dark crimson velvet. A less showy style for the same period is a violet broadcloth gown lined in black linen which is based on clothes issued to a servant of the royal nursery. It is suitable for a middling or gentlewoman from 1485 to the 1510s. There are also readymade garments for men for this time period available such as this frieze gown, which is made of pure Welsh wool.

🛍️ https://shop.tudortailor.com/products/finished-garment-mans-long-wool-freize-gown-as-featured-in-the-typical-tudor

A doublet based on sources for a lowly or middling man in vintage h**p canvas lined with wool goes very well with it. The appropriate bias-cut hose is also available to complete the perfect early Tudor man’s ensemble. Men’s dress of the late 15th to early 16th centuries is amply described and illustrated in 'The King’s Servants', which covers the early years of Henry VIII’s life and reign.

16/08/2026

It was lovely to meet Rachel Carter this morning at The Wollaton Walled Garden Wollaton Hall & Deer Park this morning. Ninya was volunteering for the National Garden Scheme Notts day and Rachel came to discuss her research for her masters. She also kindly gave us a miniature version of her Pilgrim Woman sculpture which is installed at Gainsborough in Lincolnshire and marks the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower voyage of 1620. Rachel used our patterns as the basis for the garments which were hand stitched by volunteers at Gainsborough Old Hall

10/08/2026

Still on special offer are bodkins in bronze, brass or silver and solid silver thimbles. The 16th century knitting booklet featured in last month’s newsletter is now half price as is a special issue of the Archaeological Textiles Review featuring detailed reports on early knitted items. Get knitting those essential winter woollies in good time for a change in the weather!

🪡 https://shop.tudortailor.com/collections/gifts

📖 https://shop.tudortailor.com/collections/reference-books

09/08/2026

The Tudor Tailor’s holiday season sale features the remaining 2/2 twill cloth in 100 per cent wool and dyed in typical 16th century colours. All the Madder red and Lincoln green is gone but there is still sheep colour, poor black, tawny, violet and woad blue available. Each of these colours is currently half price.

✂️ https://shop.tudortailor.com/collections/fabric

Read more about conventional colours for specific garments in The Typical Tudor: reconstructing everyday 16th century dress.

🧵 https://shop.tudortailor.com/products/the-typical-tudor-reconstructing-everyday-16th-century-dress

The Tudor Tailor’s favourite lace designs are named after historic sites in Nottinghamshire. Visit Newstead Abbey or Wollaton Hall to discover centuries of history and enjoy delightful gardens. Wollaton Hall is still hosting the Greensleeves exhibition and the Tudor embroideries exhibition (until Sunday 1 November). The Newstead lace and the Wollaton lace are also in the summer sale at half price.

🪡 https://shop.tudortailor.com/products/tudor-style-wollaton-nottingham-lace-for-renaissance-or-elizabethan-reenactment-1-5-8-43mm-made-in-the-uk-sold-by-the-half-yard?_pos=1&_sid=94ca0a629&_ss=r

08/08/2026

Jane and Ninya would like to thank all their European customers for their support over the past 21 years. New reporting requirements for packaging come into force on 12 August which will make it difficult to despatch goods to countries in mainland Europe.

📣 https://www.packaging-gateway.com/news/new-eu-wide-packaging-rules-take-effect-in-august-2026/

The TT team applauds the intention of the regulation, which is to reduce waste and encourage recycling. Currently, The Tudor Tailor does not have the resources to comply with the new reports in the relevant places but investigations are underway to find a solution. Nevertheless, from 12 August, The Tudor Tailor will not accept orders from Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden until further notice, while the team investigates how to comply.

There are still a few days in which to purchase items from the online shop before this (temporary?) obstacle comes into force 👇

🛍️ https://shop.tudortailor.com

07/08/2026

Pewter dress hooks are now available as a pair for the same price as a single one 👇

🛍️ https://shop.tudortailor.com/products/tudor-style-pewter-hooks-known-as-dress-hooks-sold-singly-or-with-ribbon-girdle-for-renaissance-or-elizabethan-reenactment-or-fancy-dress-tudor-tailor-exclusive

Use them to make a girdle with a hook at either end to lift skirts off the ground and/or display a fancy petticoat (see photo). The Tudor Tailor’s dress hooks are modelled on archaeological finds from Staffordshire (the ‘rose’ design) and Lincolnshire (the ‘birds’ design). Browse through many original examples online here 👇

🔎 https://finds.org.uk/pas/recorded-find/search?page=6&q=dress-hook&sort_by=updated_at_desc

📷Dress hooks depicted in wear on a monument to Richard and Jane Knightley (1534) at the church of St Mary the Virgin, Fawsley, Northamptonshire, UK

27/07/2026

Men who sewed for a living were tailors. Ninya transformed herself into a tailor and Jane became a mariner for an event in Virginia, United States, back in 2018. Jane’s garments were based in part on evidence they collected in Red Bay in Labrador, Canada, where a ship’s crew from a whaling ship all perished in 1565. She also wore a pair of venetians and a canvas doublet, which are on sale too.

The pair donned false facial hair to improve their impressions of Tudor men. Their unique beards were handmade by Sally Pointer from sheep’s fleece on felt bases.

These are now on sale in the online shop as part of the mariners’ collection together with the ‘boy cut’ wigs which completed Jane and Ninya’s transformations. Visit the shop to see how very manly they looked!👇

https://shop.tudortailor.com/collections/mariners-collection

26/07/2026

There were clues to needlework undertaken aboard ship, such as making and mending clothes and sails, among the wreckage of the 'Mary Rose'.

Check out the discounted bodkins and thimbles in the online shop – some are functional (for example, the bronze bodkin) and others make great gifts (such as the silver thimbles).

🪡https://shop.tudortailor.com/products/tudor-style-embellished-bodkin-in-solid-silver-or-brass-for-lacing-and-finishing-knitted-garments-for-reenactment-tudor-tailor-exclusive?_pos=1&_psq=bronze&_psid=dcf56a18a&_ss=e&_v=1.0&variant=44339817087075

Sailors may also have knitted on their long voyages although no evidence for it was recovered from the 'Mary Rose'. But finds from the ship do confirm that mariners wore knitted items. A sleeve (erroneously called a ‘scogger’) is described in detail online here (https://atnfriends.com/index.php/2018/12/01/atr-60/) and knitting instructions for caps based on those in the 'Mary Rose' collection are published in 'The Typical Tudor'.

📕 https://shop.tudortailor.com/products/the-typical-tudor-reconstructing-everyday-16th-century-dress

Address

The Old Dairy, 2 Trowell Road
Nottingham
NG82DF

Telephone

07734202458

Website

http://www.tudortailor.com/

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