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Puffed and paned sleeves
Let’s delve into the coffer and take a look at another popular type of sixteenth century upper sleeve.
I always think of puffed and paned sleeves as the “Snow White” look. You’ll find a lot of portraits from the 1560s with variations on this style, which both wealthy and less well-do women could adapt depending on the fabric they had available.
I wanted to recreate …
John Raleigh of Forde - a Newton Abbot connection
The girl she called granddaughter was peering at her, offering the apothecary’s potion. Kitty Hooker; such a pretty girl, so like her mother, Walter’s Mary. Katherine’s mind rambled over memories of the day Kitty wed John Hooker’s son Robert at the Church of St Mary in Wolborough. John Raleigh, grown wealthy from his shipping interests and his wife’s money, had put on quite a show for the wedding of a favourite niece.
An extract from A Woman of Noble Wit
“She took a faltering step forward, tipped her head back and gazed, unblinking, at the soaring columns and the vaulted ceiling with its gaily painted bosses. Goosebumps slid down her neck and along her arms as she slowly released her breath. It was like being in a stone forest, with branches entwining high above. Near dazzled by the light from so many windows, she was in a new world full of gaudy colour and light. She felt like a tiny, insignificant speck as the vast cathedral cast its spell over her, and sank to her knees …
Anyone who has researched their family history will be familiar with the frustration of finding, or more often missing, different spellings of their family name as they trawl through parish registers, wills and land transactions. We are lucky to have access to sophisticated search engines and online catalogues, but it is so very easy to miss vital documents. The further back you go, the worse if gets. Amongst the records that remain to us from the sixteenth century and before, its an absolute minefield! So when searching for records that mention the characters in A Woman of Noble Wit I …
In this series of posts I’m going to share my experience of making different types of sixteenth century sleeves, starting with a fashion called Almain sleeves. I made these when pattern testing for the Tudor Tailor’s forthcoming book “The Typical Tudor”, which will include full instructions. - learn more here The Tudor Tailor
Here I’ll just give you a flavour of the construction techniques involved.
But first a bit of background……………….
Sixteenth century sleeves, both for men and for women, were often separate items, sometimes made up …