IRCC - Hand Stitched Leather Belt Pouch

I have started the next addition to my IRCC costume. I started making a leather belt pouch out of light weight black leather. Unlike most of my other leather projects, this project was not done using recycled leather. I actually purchased leather from Tandy Leather. To start the project I based the design on a couple portraits from the 16th century. Based on the appearance In the portraits I sketched what I thought would be a good pattern on the back of an old poster.



Drafted pattern pieces





I decided to make this pouch slightly more complex than it perhaps had to be. Based on some extant pouches and some reconstructed pouches I’ve seen that others have made I decided to make a small pouch, within a pouch. I also added a divider on the inside of the pouch. I stiched all the pieces together inside out and then turned the pouch.

Inside of pouch front before turned.

Inside back before turned

I fashioned a sort of bodkin from some 16 guage steel wire I had and used that to do the lacing of the inner and outer pouch lacing.



I’ve already attached the flap which will be used as the closure, similar to the one in the following portrait, although I haven’t take a photo of that yet. I still have to fashion some sort of button to lock the flap closed.



Turned pouch without final flap closure

Inside of pouch



One final note.  I do a lot of hand sewing and the one thing that hurts more than sticking yourself with the point of the needle, is pushing so hard on the needle that the back end of the needle sticks into your finger.  Here's an example of pushing way too hard on a needle.  Either that or using a needle which is too small for the job! 









IRCC Black worked shirt nearing completion

My least favorite part of assembling a shirt is the collar. Not sure why. I’ve got close to 60 hours in on this shirt so fart and I have probably only a couple left and yet I just didn’t want to do the collar. Well I gave in and finally added the collar. I ran two gathering stitches along the ruffle to fit it into the collar. I decided on the closures I would use as well. I made three different types of braided cords before I decided which I would use. I opted for the ones you see in the photo. I braided two black lines with two white lines to give a rather nice effect which matches well with the rest of the black work.


Here part of a portrait which shoes the effect I was going for. Some period shirts had a single line as the closure while others from that period had two. This is the first shirt I’ve done with this sort of pair of braided closures and I’m quite happy with the look.

Here is the gathered ruffle and the section of blackwork prior to assembly.

Here is the gathered ruffle assembled to the front and back of the collar.  The braided closures are 12 inches long each with a 1/2 allowance for attaching to the collar.

Here is the assembled collar prior to attaching to the shirt.

Voilà! Here is the completed collar attached to the shirt.  Now I have only one cuff left to do and this project will be wrapped up.

IRCC - Paternoster Pouch

This article of clothing was constructed as part of the IRCC challenge. This is a portion of an overall outfit I hope to enter into a Pentathlon in the future year(s). The overall garment is intended to be worn by an Italian gentleman who living between 1520 and 1540. This is a leather pouch styled to match a single strand paternoster I recently made. This leather pouch has leather draw string and two tassels on the corners. The tassels are smaller versions which are designed to match the one I made for the prayer beads. The leather was originally part of a sleeve from a coat I purchased from Salvation Army. The pouch was hand stitched together using waxed linen thread.

Tassels with twisted gold wire

The tassels were joined to the pouch using the same cotton string which was finger loop braided.

Tassels attached to pouch



Source of leather: Leather Coat Sleeve



Here is the finished pouch all laced up.

 

IRCC - Source of fur and leather for Overgown

This is some raw materials which I purchased for uses as part of an article of clothing to be constructed as part of the IRCC challenge. This will be used as part of an overall outfit I hope to enter into a Pentathlon in the future year(s). The overall garment is intended to be worn by an Italian gentleman who living between 1520 and 1540. This is one of four coats which I’ve purchased from a local thrift store. I’ve already disassembled the rest of the coats. I only recently found this coat for $10 so I thought I’d photo it as part of documenting the overall progress of the construction. The summer seems to be a great time to find fur coats and leather coats at Salvation Army. Many people must purge their winter closets. Nobody wants to buy coats during the summer so they get marked down quickly. Most of the coats I’ve purchased were about $10 or less. One had some significant damage and is not wearable. As I intended to cut the whole thing up anyway, I thought that $4 was a good investment for what turned out to be about 18 square feet of fur!


This coat is in really good shape and it may seem to be a shame to chop it, but it is far cheaper than buying new fur for projects. This coat (and a few of the others) were very soft, clean and unmarred black leather. It is lined in what appears to be black rabit fur.

IRCC - Handkerchief

This article of clothing was constructed as part of the IRCC challenge. The overall garment is intended to be worn by an Italian gentleman who living between 1520 and 1540. This item is a linen handkerchief. The edges were rolled and bound with hand stitched blanket stitches using linen thread. I then hand stitched some store bought lace to the edge. I’d love to learn to make the lace, but until I start making lace I’m stuck with the store bought variety.

IRCC - Hand sewn underwear

IRCC - Hand sewn underwear (Persona, Breadth and Depth)
Article of clothing which was constructed as part of the IRCC challenge. This is a portion of an overall outfit I hope to enter into a Pentathlon in the future year(s). The overall garment is intended to be worn by an Italian gentleman who living between 1520 and 1540. This pair of underwear has about 8 hours of hand sewing so far and is almost done. I have created these without a pattern. I based the design on a pair of extant men’s underwear from the mid-16th century. As far as I could tell from the photo, it was a lined pair of underwear. There are reinforced holes used to add lacing for the hose. I will hand stitch the hose later and finish the rest of the holes. This item was made from a light weight linen lining and a slightly heavier, linen outer layer. The linen I used for the outer layer is a very soft loose weave. It is very comfortable. I drafted the patter out of a piece of curtain I bought from Salvation Army. I pinned the mockup together and when I liked the pattern I hand stitched the lining and the outer layers together. I’ve included a few photos of close-ups of the reinforced lacing holes. Even though these are a simple pair of underwear which nobody will ever see worn, I am rather happy with the way they turned out. All of the hand stitching is about 1/16th of an inch or less.

Here is a photo of the extant garment which I copied.
 

Here is a copy of my garment in progress.

Here are the laces which I created by slicing up a leather belt which I purchased from a local thrift store.  I cut the belt up with scissors, but found them a bit uneven and therefore had to do a lot of hand trimming with a small knife.