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.

Ayerton Blue and Green Fashion Show - Wool Belt Pouch Lined with Linen

 Garment to be worn as part of the Stone Dog Baronial Green and Blue Fashion Show.  This is another rather simple item.  After spending about 50 hours making a shirt and pants I wanted to start a slightly smaller project.  This is intended to be an accessory to a fully hand stitched outfit which I hope to wear in the Ayerton Green and Blue fashion show.  I have a friend whom I consider to be an expert in medieval studies.  When going through her and her husband’s garb closet I spotted a very nice looking wool pouch.  She explained the construction and purpose and that alone inspired me to remake my belt pouch.  My persona for this outfit is a craftsman and as such I need no embellishment on the pouch.  The item is simply practical and functional.  It is made from heavy wool lined with linen using a leather thong as a closure. The wool was taken from a Salvation Army woman’s coat. The linen was from scraps left over from a recent shirt/braes created for the same fashion show. The leather thong was reclaimed from a leather shoulder belt attached to a woman’s brief case from Salvation Army.



(( Insert image of item being worn ))

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 - 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.