Making a Ruff: Transcript

Includes Casey Kaleba, Folger teaching artist, and Mary Schaller, Folger docent.

CASEY KALEBA: Hi. I’m Casey Kaleba and this is Mary Schaller with me today. And we’re going to show you how to make ruffs, which would have been collars worn around the neck in the time the King James Bible was being written.

[Portraits with ruffs: King James Bible translators Sir Henry Savile and George Abbot, Queen Elizabeth I, King James I]

They were used to show status, wealth, and position. Their ruffs were made out of cloth. Today, we will be making ruffs out of paper. This activity is easy to do and is a fun way to try on a piece of 400-year-old fashion.

MARY SCHALLER: [To students] All right. To start, you’re going to fold your piece of paper. You have a piece of paper that is about, looks like a yard long. You’re going to pleat it. Basically, you are folding it backwards and forwards so that what you’re getting is what they call an accordion pleat. All of you got that?

Well, the next step is that we have to have a hole punched into one side of the fold. You want to have it sort of in the middle. And, we put a ribbon through it so that we can tie it.

CASEY: [To students:] Now the string I want has got to be big enough to go around my neck and have a little bit over. So, I don’t know, this one’s almost as long as my arm. We’re going to go about that length. So, what color do you want?

STUDENT: Red, please.

CASEY: [To student] Red. And we’re using ribbon, but you can use string, you can use anything that’s long enough and will tie nicely. So, red for you. And you just want to feed it through that hole.

[Students wear their ruffs]
MARY: The whole idea was to frame the face, to bring light to the face, and to make a show. But you paid for it. [To student:] Okay, let’s put yours on.

They were itchy and did constrict your movements. Just like ladies today wear tight shoes and extraordinarily high heels and their feet are killing them by the end of the day. But they look great. So, it’s the same idea.

Having worked with a lot of kids over the years, if they can have history where they can put their hands on it, they can do something with it, that will stick in their minds a lot longer than just being told. And, so if kids can dress in costume of any period that they’re studying, that will last longer in their minds than just talking about the clothes of the period.

[Students with ruffs pose with Casey and Mary]
CASEY: So, there you have it, high fashion in 1611. We still try to be fashionable today. We just don’t do it with big, itchy collars.