The Stuart Tailor

27/08/2026

A work bag for keeping your current sewing project. Embroidered by a ten year old in 1669. It is red wool embroidery on linen with a double drawstring closure, and tassels on the bottom. The designs are mostly worked in double running stitch, and echo designs found on many 17th century samplers and in publications such as A Schole-House for the Needle. Metropolitan Museum, New York, Object Number: 2006.263.

25/08/2026

This post is on the finer linens.

There were many types of fine linen in the early modern period, but the best known, and apparently most used, were cambric, lawn and holla...

20/08/2026

Early 17th century gloves in the collection of Glasgow Museums. Made of a light brown kid leather with embroidered gauntlets edged with silver gilt bobbin lace and three ribbon loops. Museum ID no. 29.141

14/08/2026

On the coarse linens for shirts and smocks.

This looks only at the coarser linens used for shirts and smocks, it does not look at the very coarse linen and h**p fabrics such as canva...

07/08/2026

Woman Painter - an exhibition on the work of female artists 1550-1650, opening 8th October in Oslo.

Between 1550 and 1650, a number of women built professional careers as artists in a male-dominated field. The exhibition “W̶o̶m̶a̶n̶ Painter” highlights these pioneers as central figures in Europe’s art scene.

02/08/2026

Another post on a seventeenth century textile, this time frieze. https://costumehistorian.blogspot.com/2026/08/frieze-cloth-and-what-it-was-used-for.html

30/07/2026

Photo of a 1632 casaque in the Rijksmuseum, taken by Jenny Tiramani of the School of Historical Dress.It belonged to Ernst Casimir I (1573–1632). https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/.../NG-NM-1097...

29/07/2026

A rather boring post (I wrote it) on 17th century kersey cloth.

What is kersey Over ten years ago I blogged on kerseys, this contains more information. Kersey is a twill woven wool fabric. (1) They...

25/06/2026

In view of the current heatwave I thought I would repost this one.

Introduction The word fan originally mean an instrument for moving the air, especially for separating grain from chaff, such as a winnow...

31/05/2026

The last section on women's clothes 1620-50.

Introduction This is the third section of part two of a series of posts on women’s clothing in the period 1620-50 from the information in...