Misadventures of the Stuart Skirt, continued.....

Further Research

I plan to use Onion skins as the dye. Mainly because I have lots of them and they are taking over a corner in the kitchen. There is little historical evidence of onion skins being used as a fabric dye in Tudor and Stuart times. There is not much reference to yellow in skirts or petticoats in probate inventories and no reference to onion skin as a commercial dye in this period. But from some of the art of the period onion skin coloured clothing can be discerned.

1531

The lady's kirtle/gown here is like the colour obtained from a good onion skin dye.

1552 The Egg Dance Pieter Aertsen

The lady's sleeves here. I have got similar results from onion skins on a pair of my own sleeves.

1568 Bruegel

In this painting the gown of this dancing lady maybe lined with a fabric dyed with onion skin. There is one probate entry I have found that has a reference to a gown with yellow lining.

1630 Brueghel Pieter the Younger

This lady's petticoat could be too.

1650

This little girl's skirt looks like a faded or pale onion skin dye.

Pieter van Hooch 1658

And the colour of this little girl's petticoat looks like an onion skin dye.

But it is not conclusive as there maybe and probably is some aspect of artistic licence used here. But also a consideration could be that smaller items were dyed using onion skins on a domestic rather than a commercial basis, as a lot of these items are smaller and more easily dyed in a cauldron or the copper. So may be this particular dye was not used commercially but in small scale domestic activity. Just a thought.

Although wearing yellow hose was considered a sign of promiscuity!

On that note....