Tapestry showing scenes from the Trojan wars

Angus Mcbride Almost to the end of my collection of Mcbride…….

Just as a flight of fancy, imagine Gordon Brown's plans for equal succession rights had been in place in earlier centuries.

German fashions during the fourteenth century. The dress in Germany underwent the same transformation as in France.

Phillip Mould: The image of King Henry VIII is most familiar to posterity through the paintings of Holbein, and through the mass of images produced in the century after the King's death which derive from the 1537 Whitehall Palace mural type. This was not, however, how he was most commonly depicted in his lifetime, and, until the advent of Holbein, Henry was best known to his subjects through a variety of other images. This present small painting was executed by a native Anglo-Flemish workshop in the mid-1530s, and is comparable to an example in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG 1376). The artist shows himself competent both in depicting both the King's likeness -the narrow eyes, long, straight nose and small mouth are at once recognisable- but also in the painting of drapery and costume. The fur collar of the King's gown is admirably suggested, as is the rich lining at the open collar and slashes of his doublet. The interest of this portrait lies not least in its indisputable dating to within the King's lifetime -which is rarely the case with the mass of images after Holbein- and therefore of its particular place within the history of Henry's reign. The iconic images of Holbein belong to a period when Henry believed himself secure in his dynasty, in his establishment of the church and when his more turbulent dealings with the Continental powers had been resolved. This image, however, was executed immediately subsequent to the turbulent, earlier years. It was most probably painted whilst the King was still married to Anne Boleyn, and is, therefore, an intriguing glimpse of the man, who had at first courted her in the early years of the decade and married her officially in 1533, before becoming disenchanted by her failure to produce a living son. The consequence of this displeasure is celebrated. Influenced by the opposing party at Court he came to dislike Anne, and was prepared to believe the allegations of adultery and even witchcraft that led to her execution for treason in 1536.

Thanks to Anne Boleyn Files visitor Nancy Smith for writing this great article on the ghost (or ghosts!) of Anne Boleyn - I love a good ghost story!

Reign of Henri III. 1574 to 1589. The mignons. Masculine and feminine fashions. Marguerite de Valois. Pointed bodices.

A behind-the-scene look at the life of Charles I of England.

King John, King Edward I, King Henry III. Victorian scrap.

Seriously...I AM. I actually traced some pattern pieces this weekend. Next stop - muslin! I've just completed another move, and after being without my sewing stuff for a year, I decided NO MORE. I brought all of my sewing stuff up to my in-laws, and they graciously let me set up a sewing space in their basement. I spent Saturday arranging things, and then Sunday I actually decided to dive right in and start on a project. I'm working from the Tudor Tailor Pattern that my in-laws gave me for Christmas a year ago. This is without a doubt the most expensive pattern I've ever owned...almost $80 to purchase. It does have the patterns for three garments: petticoat, kirtle, and gown - but still, that's pretty expensive. The pattern is MASSIVE. Kendra at Demode had warned that the pattern pieces were very unwieldly, but it wasn't until I had the pattern spread out accross the entire living room floor that the sheer size of the pattern struck me. First impressions on the pattern: well, the fact that there are no seam allowances included is very frustrating for me. I normally trace the pattern pieces rather than cut them out so I can reuse the pattern which makes adding seam allowances a bit easier, but these pieces are so big I can't use my tracing paper (some are wider than 60 inches). I'm at a bit of a loss on how to proceed: I'd really like to make more than one gown style from this pattern, but I have no way to transfer the markings. Any ideas? Another first impression is that the instructions kinda suck. I had to read the kirtle instructions six times before I felt I had a vague notion of how to proceed. The instructions aren't illustrated at each step which makes it challenging for me - I'm a visual learner. I've decided to be on the safe side I'm going to completely make up a garment using scrap fabric. I normally just fit the bodice using muslin and then move on. This time I'm going to bone the muslin, work the eyelets, and finish all seams. I just really need to understand how this garment is made before cutting out the fashion fabric. I'm doing a mid-Tudor style, like the portrait of Princess Elizabeth above. I really wanted to have the massive sleeves and bell shape that comes from wearing a farthingale. Someday I'll probably make an earlier Tudor gown with a train, but for now this is what I want. I already own a farthingale, so I'm moving strait to the kirtle. I'm ordering black taffeta to go with a golden upholstery fabric I snagged from a bargain table in Dutch country Pennsylvania. For the gown, I have a cotton velvet I'd like to use. The velvet is a peachy color that's all wrong for the Tudor period. I'm going to take my first jaunt into dying fabric for this project, and try to acheive a nice deep red. I'd like to get to wear this outfit at the Maryland Renaissance festival this year, but that might be a bit ambitious. Each garment is very involved, and I don't have all the fabric I need yet. We'll see how this goes. Wish me luck!