The Extraordinary Art of Tudor Embroidery

Throughout history, aristocratic women have spent large parts of their time making and embellishing beautiful textiles. I'm speaking to Eleri Lynn to learn more about embroidery in the Elizabethan court. So Eleri, can you tell us a little bit about the importance of embroidery at court? Yes, absolutely. It was a very important part of a noble woman's education and a very genteel pastime for the women at court. And what about the Queen herself, Elizabeth I? Did she do embroidery and do we know if she enjoyed it? She certainly did do embroidery. So we have surviving examples of her own embroidery, which she created as a princess that sort of show quite amateur learning steps of embroidery. And it would have been something that her ladies undertook as they were in attendance on her. I think the product of the embroidery obviously embellished the Tudor court. The rooms would have been absolutely adorned with textiles and embroidery, as would the bodies themselves. So the palace that we see today is not what they would have seen. They would have seen it absolutely shimmering with cloth of silver and different embroidery and highlights. So the very elite materials they're using are bullion gold and silver. They're using that as thread. So that's incredibly expensive. So, Hilary, I'm dying to ask, what is this that we're seeing here? This is a fantastic replica of the dress that's featured in the famous rainbow portrait of Elizabeth I. And the portrait dates to around 1600. But it's a great example to see the sorts of symbolism, embroidery and decor that she would have adorned herself with. She's wearing this fantastic silk robe, which is painted with eyes and ears to show that she sees and hears all. And there's an embroidered appliqué serpent here on her arm, and that would have represented wisdom or intelligence. And then what's of most interest to me is this beautiful bodice, because not only does it depict the sorts of floral motifs that were very fashionable around this time at the Elizabethan court, but it gives us an indication of the sorts of time that went into creating these beautiful garments. The team spent 65 days recreating this bodice and the 78 motifs that surround it. But also, it was an important bit of research for me, because the bodice is very similar to a survivor of the Elizabethan period called the Bacton altar cloth. Now, the Bacton altar cloth is an altar cloth from the Church of Bacton in Herefordshire. It's now a T-shaped altar cloth, but would once have been something different. We can see evidence of pattern cutting in it that suggests it was once an item of dress. Materials and the techniques and the skill of the embroidery has led us to believe that it might have actually been worn by Elizabeth I herself. Very, very little survives in terms of textiles from the Tudor period. And if it is what we think it is, it's the only surviving example of its kind of Elizabeth's dress anywhere in the world. I'm going to be talking to embroidery expert and tutor Sarah Smith about the practicalities of embroidery at the Tudor court. We were delighted to create three of the motifs from the Bacton altar frontal, the daffodil, the thistle and the rose. And our first challenge was in sourcing a suitable fabric. Obviously, the fabric of the Bacton altar cloth is really special. It's a beautiful ribbed cream silk shot through with a real silver thread. So something really high status. We also then had to look at the stitches and try and work out the stitches that the Tudor embroiderers would have used. And we were working from a selection of high resolution photographs of both the front and the back of the altar cloth when it was being conserved. Some were very easy to identify and quite straightforward, such as stem stitch, which is used in modern embroidery, but others were a little harder. So we were able to match the colours that hadn't faded because the reverse of the embroidery hadn't faded. So we were able to choose colours that accurately reflected how the original embroidery would have looked when it had first been stitched. And how long would it have taken to embroider one of these motifs? The daffodil took about 15 hours. The thistle, which was a little more complex, took 20 hours. And the rose sat somewhere between the two. So a long period of time. Quite a long time, yes. So here we have the rose. We have stem stitch in the red going around the outside of the rose and also on the leaves. Right in the centre, we have the woven wheel, which is created in the gold passing thread. The outside of the stem has the buttonhole stem stitch combination stitch, which gives the effect of thorns. And then you can see in pretty much everything else, there is seeding inside the leaf, the stem and the petals. We have the more randomised seeding. And we also have the more regulated seeding, which uses the ribs of the fabric as a guide. Okay, Charlie, so I'm starting with the length of thread in my needle and a knot at the end. And you will see that there are two different colours in the needle. So I've got a pink and a green. And I'm going to start using a technique that we use here at the Royal School of Needlework called the waste knot technique, which is with a knot on the surface. And then I'm going to do two tiny little stab stitches along the paint line, just up and down. And this secures the thread. I'm going to bring my needle up where I'm going to start stitching. And now I should be able to remove that knot. So we have no knots in the work. I just pull the knot by the tail and then snip it off. And is this what we see in the back to the knotted cloth? Well, we didn't find any knots in the Bacton balled cloth. So we presume that this is how they started and finished as well. I'm going to start with a stem stitch, just to show you a straightforward stem stitch. So I'm keeping my thread towards the centre of the stem. And I'm coming up in the middle of my stitch, pulling through. And again, I'm coming down a stitch length away, keeping my thread to the left hand side and coming up in the middle of the stitch. So this creates a really good outline stitch that follows the contours of the stem. And it looks a little like a rope. The finished effect is almost like a twisted rope. What we also find is that there is a buttonhole stitch mixed in. So that is created by going just outside the stem, coming up within this loop, pulling through. And then we go back to a stem stitch. So we do a stem stitch. We come up in the middle. So we have a buttonhole stitch followed by a stem stitch. So now I would do another buttonhole stitch. I'd come up on the outside of the stem, come up on the line and carry on. And now I'm going to show you some seeding. The stitches on the Bacton Altercloth are tiny. So again, this is where they would need their good lighting and good eyesight. And the idea with seeding is to get the distance between every stitch to be equal. But to alter the angle of the stitch so that you get like a random scattering of seeds. But we've also noticed that they use a stitch where they go over the seeding twice. So they'll do one stitch and then they'll go back over the top of it with a second stitch. And that just raises the surface of it. So it sits on the top like a little raised bead, which is really quite effective and gives quite a nice texture to the work. Fantastic. Now I have an even better idea of just how long it took. And if I didn't have admiration for those embroiderers before, I certainly do now. Thank you very much. You're very welcome.