What a fabulous Elizabethan Gold Gown – I’d really love to wear it – always wanted to be Elizabeth I – it’s been a dream of mine.

Hi Sarah

Nice to hear from – really pleased you like my gold gown.

Regarding the ruff –

I created it by firstly hemming the sides and bottom edge of a very long double strip of silk organza (the stiffest you can find) – keeping the fold at the top edge (If you need extra support you could stitch a long piece of very stiff dress net to the back). Then I stitched gold lace along the top edge.

The strip was cartridge pleated and sewn to a neckband.

As the ruff is quite large and heavy it sits against a gold wisk (wings) which I have decorated with pearls, lace and jewels.

If you don’t create a wisk you will have to make a supportasse or a large and heavy ruff may not stand up properly.

Have a look at the very merry seamstress website – it has a lot of useful information about ruffs/wisks etc.

http://www.verymerryseamstress.com/ruff.htm

You can also find a pattern for a supportasse by Margo Anderson (although I haven’t used it).

http://www.margospatterns.com/Products/ElizAccessrs.html

Hope this is of some help

Kind regards

Julia