At open day this year, chatting with the ‘elves’ about DD1′s rich partlet and shift, we also discussed adding a guard to kirtles for that uber authentic tudor look. I like the look of a guard, so took in that it shouldn’t be too thick, and that there should be a second ring above it. I also liked how the black arm extension/guard looked on my daughters poor kirtle.
I cut out 2 strips of my light black wool of 5 inches width, I need 1 3/4 to go around the base of my kirtle, so thought easiest to just cut out 2. My hem has quite a deep turnover in wool anyway, and as you can see, has nowhere near the amount of dirt and grub of SB’s! I think i should probably have cut the black deeper to cover all this hem, however I didn;t ‘kirtle up’ last year, and may well not this year, so will remain hidden!
having done this I pinned them on so that there is 1 1/2 inches of guard showing on the outside, folding over the wool to protect the cut edge [and hide it] . Tis I did as an ‘eyeball’ even and then checked periodically that it was within my parameters of acceptable 
. I initially started sewing on as a whipstitch, but could see that this was going to take a long time, and that since the guards were made to come off when grubby and be replaced, I could prob get away with a ‘lazy’ slip stitch – essentially tacking between the 2, but so that no stitches are visible, but instead of only grabbing a few fibres of my kirtle i could do a good ‘dig in’ . This worked well, was quick, and again I used doubled thread [gutterman black rather than linen as it is more invisible]
I turned over and did the inside in exactly the same way, pulling taut over the kirtle edge so it would lie nicely. Happy with that I think! now just need to do the next ring up.
Currrently trying to decide the width of the decorative band…
So I asked an elf, who was happy with this spacing 
so being sewn on now, nearly finished, but will put picture when done all the kirtle jobs of finished project. It does look really nice with the double band
here i am – all approved
that really does add a lovely touch to it.
thankyou anni, I really like the look of the guards.