Elizabethan Ruff
Make a ruff from A4 paper
You will need:
- A4 Paper sheets*
- Ruler & pencil
- Scissors (to cut paper into strips)
- Glue or sticky tape
- Hole-punch
- Ribbon, gift-ribbon or soft string
*One sheet of A4 paper cut into 3 lengths and joined together makes a strip almost 90cm long. You need 1m – 2m for a fairly strong ruff. *Alternatives might include brown paper, strong gift wrap, wallpaper.
- Cut each sheet of paper into strips 7cm wide.
- Join the strips together with glue or sticky tape, to make one long, thin strip of paper.
The longer the paper strip, the thicker your ruff will be. - If you want to decorate your ruff, do it now.
- At one end of the long strip of paper, fold over about 4cms. Now fold it back on itself - fold it like a fan, until all the paper is folded into pleats.
- Pinch or press the folds to keep them sharp.
- Punch a hole through all the layers – not too near the edge, but not as far as the centre. Use a pencil to mark where the hole will be, if your ruff is too thick to punch all at once.
- Thread a ribbon through the hole.
- Fit the ruff to your neck and tie the ribbon loosely in a bow
Does the ruff affect the way you move? Is it comfortable?
Ruffs were sometimes very stiff, to make people stand up straight and look important.
Ruffs were often white, but they were sometimes black or had gold embroidery. The good thing about a ruff was that it was separate from a dress or jacket, so it could be washed more easily and prevented make-up or face powder staining the clothes. The bad thing was that ruffs became very large and needed starch to make them stand up stiffly round the face, which was very uncomfortable and also meant that the ruff had to be washed and starched every day.
Comedy characters might have more colourful ruffs – find a picture of a clown wearing a ruff.
How would you decorate your ruff? Only the rich could afford to wear them. Look at pictures of Elizabethans to see how many ways there were of making a ruff attractive.
If you would like to see a picture of your ruff posted in our Gallery, parents can tweet photos to @brownseatheatre
Other Costume activities:
These activities will be enjoyed by children and adults of all ages.
The activities are rated according to difficulty and level of parental involvement: these descriptions are intended as a rough guide only.
We have rated them to help parents of children aged 8-13, on the assumption that above this age supervision is rarely required, and that below it, supervision is generally required.
: Set it up and off they go.
: Some help needed.
: Challenge yourself.