Bees, butterflies, beetles and 24 different plants - the astonishing sewing ... trends now
She enjoys many and varied interests, from gardening and riding to the serious task of championing literature.
Yet, despite the time she spent at a Swiss finishing school, few would have had Queen Camilla down as a domestic goddess.
And now she has admitted as much - or come close to it - in a book celebrating the fine art of needlework.
Writing in the foreword to An Unbroken Thread: Celebrating 150 Years of the Royal School of Needlework, Camilla confides that she is ‘not personally blessed with many sewing skills’.
King Charles waves to the crowds from the Buckingham Palace balcony following the 2023 Coronation
The King and Queen are pictured sitting on their their newly refurbished Chairs of Estate
The Royal School of Needlework gently removed the 'E' from the fabric of the Albert Hall 'Hammer Cloth'
Afterwards, the fabric was gently cleaned in preparation for the new letter
The new 'C' now replaces the 'E' for Elizabeth
She does, however, take the opportunity to wax lyrical about those who do know how to use a needle.
‘It is quite astonishing what can be achieved, and expressed, through the medium of hand sewing,’ she writes in a newly revised edition of the book, which has just been updated to take account of the school's contribution to the Coronation.
‘I saw this for myself in May 2023, when a brilliant team of members did so much for the Coronation: conserving The King’s Robe of Estate, sewing the Anointing Screen and designing and hand embroidering my magnificent Robe of Estate, which features bees, butterflies, a beetle, a caterpillar and 24 different plants (including, appropriately for the RSH, Scabiosa – pincushion flowers).’
The Royal School of Needlework (RSN) also worked on the Thrones, the Chairs of Estate (used by the Monarch and Consort in the first part of the Coronation), the Anointing Screen, the Stole Royal and the Girdle.
The Queen, a patron of the Royal School of Needlework, describes how the institution had been ‘dear to the hearts’ of several generations of the Royal family, from Queen Victoria to Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth II.
And she jokes that Queen Victoria, ‘apparently liked peering in cupboards and work baskets to see what had been concealed from her!’
Written by curator and archivist Susan Kay-Williams, the new chapter of An Unbroken Thread chronicles the work of the college following the death of the late Queen Elizabeth on September 8, 2022.
With the 'cypher' or initials of the monarch changing, there was a great deal to do.
The first task for the RSN was altering the cypher on the Hammer Cloth, a large ceremonial drape placed in front of the Royal Box for the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on November 12 that year.
‘This was only a few weeks away, so the RSN team got straight to work,’ writes Ms Kay-Williams.
‘The cloth was carefully conserved; cleaned of dirt and dust by surface cleaning.
‘The letter E was removed and the area where it had been resting was carefully cleaned and the pile restored, especially where it would be visible in the change from E to C.’
Next, they started work on the huge task of preparing robes and fabrics for the May Coronation.
One of the priorities was restoring the King’s Robe of Estate, which was worn by the King’s grandfather George VI in 1937.
‘In order for it to be used again, the RSN conserved the velvet,’ writes
