Landsknecht Pouch Fail!

Well, I'll start out by saying that is one of my many fails.  Normally I just delete the pics, or refrain from taking them.  It was only after a few hours work that I determined this to be a fail.  I started this piece a few months ago.  Until today I debated even posting it, but for sake of education to others I'll put it here.  We ALL fail sometimes.  If you haven't failed, you haven't been trying hard enough.

The overall idea was to build a copper frame for a pouch to be worn with my Landsknecht outfit.  Only later, after some research did I determine that most men didn't wear pouches.  Oh well...  The pouch frame didn't work anyway.  

I didn't want to cast the frame as some of the period examples I've seen were done.  I had some copper wire around and thought I would experiment with working a piece cold to see if it had the strength to hold up.

Basic shaping was all done cold, and from memory.  I thought I saw a piece and would copy it, but unfortunately I recalled the basic shape incorrectly.  I shaped this pieces over an anvil using only a couple medium sized ball peen hammers.

  

The frame was to have to loops which would both hang from a cross bar.  Each would hold a pouch, the smaller loop framing up a smaller pouch which would actually sit in the mouth of the larger pouch.

 

After the basic shapping of the outer frame was done I simply bent the copper for the inside loop.  The copper worked easily at first but very quickly hardened up when I started smacking it around with my hammer.

 

All in all I'm really happy with the excercise.  I like the way the pieces fit together and they looked about like what I thought they should look like.  The next step was going to be to pierce the fish tailed ends and run a cross bar through it.  It was at this point I went in the house to take a break and looked at my extant example only to find out that the shape was wrong.  The actual pouch didn't have the fish tailed ends going straight up.  Oh well.  I was very upset for a while, but recently I recycled some of the copper for use in a period coin balance I'm making.  No great loss.  Good practice and proof of concept worked.  I may make a framed pouch some day, but not soon I think.

New ad-hoc shoes for Landsknecht outfit

Well, projects fall behind schedule and the debut of my new outfit has been moved up a week.  I was hoping to go to Crystal Ball to debut my outfit, but I won't be able to make it to that event so I'll be attempting to finish the outfit one week early.  That will likely mean I won't have the garters done and the cow-mouth shoes I'm working on won't be done.

So, what do I do for shoes in the mean time?  Head to Salvation Army!

I purchased these shoes from Salvation Army.  Had a nice period looking sole with visible stitching, so I thought that these would be a good starting point.

 

Step one was to slice out a much larger opening.  This was easy enough to do with a simply box cutter.

 

Next step... test for fit and of course snap a few photos.  Here is what the shoes will look like with the hose I made.
 

Next step, darken the leather a bit.  Was originally thinking black, but after seeing the way these looked with a coat of polish, I really like that look.

Next I took some blue leather from a chopped up coat, also from Salvation Army, and used it to make some strips which would be used as trim for the opening.  I had some green and purple leather but chose the blue since it matches the blue wool trim everywhere else on the outfit.

 

Final step is to add some straps.  The shoes surprisingly stayed on well enough without straps.  I plan on doing some dancing in these and want to ensure they stay on comfortably though.  I took some scrap leather from the Tandy Leather scrap bundle I had bought in the past.  I polished it up a bit to make the leather match the color of the leather on the shoes.  I used an awl and leather needle to stitch the straps on.

 I am aware that the buckles are not period and the strapping should have done differantly, but my focus right now is getting passable shoes as quick as possible as I hope to wear the outfit in less than two days.  I still hope to revisit the cow mouth shoes I started previously.  In the mean time... I think these will do.

  

Landsknecht Hosen

Just about done with the hose for the Landsknecht outfit.  There portion of the hose from the ankle up was made from 10 strips of alternating black and green.  Here are the images of the hose before adding feet.  I trimmed the opening and the length of the two to be about the same.  Since I started with scraps from a woman's cotton shirt the ten strips were not all the same size.

  

To get a proper foot piece I placed a flat square over the top of my foot and tacked it together with the hose.  After assembling the top to the leg I then placed my foot onto another rectangular piece for the bottom.  I simply pinned around the outside of my foot.  Never did end up with a pattern at this point, so I did the same exercise twice.  I made one foot green and one black, just to be a bid odd. :-)

Here is what the foot of the host looked like.  So far so good, turned it inside out again and ran another set of stitches around the edge to help prevent fraying and then on to the black footed other hose.

 

The finished hose.  I know they garters are wrong.  These are my garters from my other Circa 1200 outfit.  I wanted to wear them around the house for an hour or so to check the fit and comfort.  Worked great.  Next I'll make a set of garters which match the rest of the brightly colored outfit.

 

Here is the concept sketch which shows the garter I have planned to go with the hose.  At least that's the plan...

Kingdom Craftspersons Faire

Got to display my Landsknecht outfit in progress as well as my Circa 1200 outfit and a couple other items hand stitched items I made.  This was the first time I got to see the outfit as it will be seen by others.  Kind of shocking.  So far I've seen pieces of it on myself, but only in the mirror.  I was able to borrow a mannequin to display the outfit on and it looked pretty cool.  I am very happy with the way it is turning out.  The outfit is almost wearable.  After the event I'll continue to tweak it and finish it for the competition, but getting close to wearing it in public for the first time!

PhototakenbyPhilippe de Lyon 

Landsknecht Cap

Final task to finish the head gear required a coif.  This garment will be worn underneath the platter hat I recently finished.  It will likely be worn during the dancing portion of the ball while the platter hat is resting on my back held on by the chin strap.  Wanted to tie the whole color scheme together and yet have something small and comfortable enough to wear when I took the huge hat off.   This will keep me from walking around the event with a bare head (which is a pet peeve of mine) and yet not be too overbearing.

I started with the same materials as the rest of the suit.  Linen lining, silk mid layer and wool shell.  I planned on slashing the wool after the construction was done, similar to the way I did the shorts.  Here are the layers attached at the middle seam and pinned to check the fit.

 

Finished assembly and turned right side out.  After turning I ran a series of small stitches along the edge.  The stiffness of the wool and seam treatment make the cap look like it has wings.  I know I hate this look!  I like the shape, but I don't want to have to wear a chin strap to make the silhouette look right.

  

The solution (which I've used in the past) was to soak the cap in hot water.  After a good soaking and squeezing I began pulling the wool into shape.  Natural materials are awesome!  Since I put the mid seam together with a series of back stitches there is a bit of stretch to it.  That is the reason I used that type of stitch.  Works well for seams around corners.  Allows me to stretch and shape the material more easily.  After soaking and stretching I placed the cap on my foam head and pinned it down to dry.  After a day it looked a bit better.

  

I then proceeded to do the slashing.  Silhouette looks better and when worn with the platter hat looks great.  Daughter wasn't around so I dont' have a pic with the platter hat yet.  I also chose to add a small hole at the end of the coif so that I could add a chin strap if I wanted to.  I probably won't need it, but just in case.  That was the last step on this project, but I don't have a picture of that yet.

  

Landsknecht Hosen

My latest recycling project.  I've been planning on making hosen for my Landsknecht outfit and until recently haven't been sure how I would do it.  I was thinking about bias cut linen, but they always sag and look funny.  I like the look of knit hose, but I'm not proficient enough to knit hose in the time I have for this project.  Solution... Thrift Store Junkie hits the road.  I came across the following two women's shirts at Salvation Army.  Made of 100% cotton and a similar pattern knit.  I planned on slicing these into strips and assembling them into the hose.  To see how they would look/feel I took the sleeve of one shirt and slipped it onto my calf.  Not the way most people try on a shirt at the store I'm sure.  I get a lot of strange looks from the women in the department wondering why I am even IN their area.  Oh well.  These looked pretty good so I got them.

Started by slicing them into even strips.  Slow going process.  Used small scissors to slice right along the knit line.  Since these were both similar knit I was able to simply count the number of rows and follow that row all the way down.  Each strip is about one inch wide.

Still nervous about spending a lot of time on something that may not work I stiched and stretched to see how it would look.  After three strips attached I liked the look enough to charge ahead.  Using a series of back stitches to ensure that the seam would hold, but still stretch a little vertically.  Works pretty well.

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Assembled 10 strips together  but before the final closure I pinned the opening closed to get an idea of the fit.  The following pics are of the inside.  I pinned them with the seam on the outside so it looks a little rough.  Was just looking for a rough idea of the number of strips.  Looks like 5 black and 5 green will do the trick.  Wanted it tight enough around the calf but not too baggy at the ankle.  I will have garters to hold the hose up as well.  I will perhaps come back in and tighten the seam up a little bit around the ankle when these are done.  Even if I don't the tightness around the ankle seems OK.