A Stitch in Time

- Season 1

(2018)

Amber Butchart begins by examining portraits of King Charles II to draw up patterns for items of clothing that can be recreated using historical methods by tailor Ninya Mikhaila.

In this edition of the show Amber and the team attempt to recreate the clothes worn in one of the most studied and most complex paintings in the history of European art - the Arnolfini portrait by Jan van Eyck.

Amber visits Broughton Castle to examine an unusual portrait of an ordinary worker, a hedge cutter. The team then try to recreate the clothing he is shown wearing, which reveals interesting information.

Amber Butchart explores the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate daughter of Captain John Lindsay and an enslaved African woman who was brought up in the 18th-century at Kenwood House in London.

Amber looks at the life of the son of King Edward III, Edward of Woodstock, the so-called Black Prince. By studying the effigy of Edward in Canterbury Cathedral the team try to recreate his jupon (a tabard like piece of armour).

Amber looks at the life of the ill-fated French Queen. The team examine a clothing item that changed history - the simple white chemise à la reine that shocked France.