Another ladies purse

Just this weekend I finished another ladies purse. It is basicly the same design as the last one. This new one has two pouchlets, rather than just one and it is a bit larger. The pouch measures 20 x 20 cm.



I also found this picture from the Mendel Hausbuch at this fantastic site: Die hausbücher der Nürnberger Zwölfbrüderstiftungen
(It contains a great amount of 15th century craftsmen (as well as 16th and 17th century craftsmen))

A purse very similar to the one I made lies on the table.

Things that I have been doing this summer

I´m very sorry that I have been absent from the blog in quite a while but there have been so many things going on this summer. Although I have been busy I havn´t stopped making different medieval things. It is things that you have seen mentioned before on the blog and there is at the moment no new and exciting projects with need of source pictures and such. So this post is going to be pics of different things and opbjects that I have been working on/with. Sometimes much reading in a post isn´t always the best. So at the moment I´ll leave all the writing to Mikkel :0).


Working on my embroderi (which is now finished, and will be shown in a upcomming post)




Dyeing in an iron cauldron.


Here I´m washing the yarn that have been dyed with Saint John's Wort (on danish it´s called perikon)


Here are some of my dyes - the small bundles are embroidery wool which I sell on the markets that we attend. So fare there haven´t been much luck in the sales.



And this...I just had to show you that I have been so lucky to have tried to hold such a wonderfull bird :0)

Pattens

Tha last project I did at Voergaard was a pair of pattens. They were made purely out of necessity, as we had a lot of rain that week.

They are made from alder (Alnus glutinosa), which was cleft and worked from the still fresh wood.
Alder will get very light when it dries, so the pattens won't be too heavy. Poplar or willow would also do just fine for pattens.

The most important thing about making pattens is to place the raised wedges in the right position, so it won't hinder the movement of the foot.
They need to be places right under the heel and right where the toes bend when you take a step.



And I really recomend people using medieval shoes (with leather soles) to get a pair of pattens!
They keep your feet warm and dry, and they make a fabulous noise when walking on cobblestone pavements :-)

15th century girdlepurse

At Voergaard I also made a girdlepurse.

The most interesting feature on this purse is the decoration on the flap. I have never made a purse with a decorated flap before, so this was something to try out.

The decorarions are made using an awl, but later I will try using a wooden board with some carved lines, and press the leather into those. Hopefully this will result in deeper lines.

Early 16th century ladies pouch purse

During our (Louise and I) stay at Voergaard castle I was asked by a friend of Louises to make a ladies purse.

I remembered seeing some pictures of the so-called "Pouch purses" in Purses in Pieces, so I thought that it could be an interesting project.

The pouch purse is a fairly simple type of purse. It consists of a pouch og "bag" of variable size and a strap to attach it to the belt. The pouch is drawn shut with a drawstring and the flap is held down with a sort of "button".
Smaller pouchlets can also be attached to the main pouch.

This type of purse can be seen on several pictures from the early 16th century. For example this picturen from 1500-1501 by Dürer.



And here is my interpretation of a pouch purse.



The pouch measures ca. 15 x 15cm and is made from very soft cow-skin, 0,6-0,8mm thick. The strap for the belt is ca. 20 cm long and made from 3mm cow-skin. The drawstrings and the edge og the belt-strap is made from goat-skin, ca. 1mm thick.
The glass beads are hand made (not by me though).



In the picture by Dürer the flap does not look like it is held down by stiching, so I decided to leave it. Even though the flap is not stiched down it sits well on the belt.
The weight of the purse doesn't seem to be a problem.



A close-up of the button and reinforcement of the holes for the drawstring.



And this part of the purse is what I am perhaps the most pleased with. I really enjoyed making these stiches. And I think they look great :-)



The back of the purse. The drawstrings are held in place bu a knot on the backside of the belt-strap.

And here is how to sew a strap on the edge of a piece of leather. Is also looks great on shoes!

First sew a strip of leather on to the front of the edge. Sew it on front-to-front. The distance from the edge to the stiches determines the with of the decorational edge.



Then turn over the leather strip and sew it to the backside, with stiches that doen not go through the front side of the leather.



All it takes is a bit of cencentration, and it looks great :-)

- - - - - - - - Update! - - - - - - - - -

I also found this picture from 1503. Artist unknown.

Buisnesscard

Since Louise and I are going to a market next week. We thought that we would do some promotion for this blog.
So we made a buisnesscard :-)

Tent complete!

Finaly we have finished our tent! And we are both (Louise and I) very pleased with the result, and looking forward to field testing this coming week.



The tent is ca. 3 m tall, 4m wide and 7m long. The canvas is made from cotton and we have sewn the whole thing om a sewingmachine. So no authentic handsewn seams on this project.

The poles are made from spruce. Not the toughest of woods, but it should be perfect for tentpoles. And it has the advantage of not being to heavy.
We have painted the poles red with linseed oil paint.

There will be more pictures later, but here are some details on the tent.



The edges of the "flap" were reinforced with jute-band, to prevent the rope from tearing through the canvas.






Of course we had to celebrate the ocation with "Expensive champagne" :-)