My sewing skills were absorbed early from my mother, grandmothers and great-aunts: I spent my childhood making dolls’ clothes and felt toys, progressing in my teens to wild and mostly regrettable adventures in dressmaking and embroidery.

I took City and Guilds Fashion (parts I & II) in the early 1980’s and started taking commissions for historical clothing – and that’s when it really got interesting.

Over the past thirty years I have made tents and lace, jeans and banners, and clothing from the Bronze Age to the present day.  My hand sewing is among the best in the business, and as a pattern cutter I relish the challenges that dress history offers. 

Simple processes involving basic tools are often dismissed or ignored today, and the qualities of lasting workmanship they embody seem irrelevant.  I’m proud to be a traditional craftsman, and  keen to pass on one of the most ancient of human skills to anyone willing to learn.  

But I’m not a purist: in many contexts a well-planned fake, cut to the right shape but using modern fabrics and machine sewing, is quite good enough.  For historical re-creation, though, it needs to be done properly.

 It’s not simply a question of sewing it by hand, but of putting it together in the right way: the seamstress had one set of working methods, the tailor another, and neither of them worked like a modern dressmaker. 

And then the details matter: the buttons, the band-strings, the design and scale of the embroidery, the thread you sew with.

I still love making things, and I still enjoy the challenge, because the next one can always be better than the last.   These days my sewing time is limited – I’d rather teach you how to make it for yourself –  but if you want a really interesting item or outfit, especially if it’s between about 900 and 1400 ce, you might just talk me into making it for you.