Tailoring maille chausses

[Sir Ulrich]

Well considering it was yet another disaster with tie in the back chausses this year at DoK, I am done with tie in the back ones. I am now deciding to seal up the back of mine with rings and basically convert them into full leg ones. I have such thin legs to begin with so it should work. Joe Metz gave me the suggestion as thats what he did with his, he even said it tailors much easier due to not being oversized, and he and I are about the same build and size so it should work for me as well. Only small issue I have is the knees are a bit tight, might have to add some extra there, but I only have 9MM rings for this stuff, should still work though cause they're almost the same size. Thankfully I wont have to buy another pair if this should work, still have to work on the feet though, anyone have any suggestions on how to tailor the feet?

[Sir Douglas]

I wonder if making little "booties" would work. Like, lace the mail onto a leather sole and have a little bag to put your feet in. Kind of like regular cloth chausses. Has anyone ever tried this?

[Sir Ulrich]

I'd consider that if I didnt hate leather soles to begin with. Leather soles tend to make me slip and fall so I actually use lugged ones, I could always use a pair of separate shoes for the chausses and keep them sewn to the chausses themselves once I tailor the feet, only issue would be tying the shoes with the maille over it.

[Sir Douglas]

You might be able to do the same thing with lugged soles if you can find them by themselves. Or rip them off a pair of old, cheap shoes or something.

In theory, it would be like a mail shoe, but my main concern is would it work in practice since mail has a give to it that leather or canvas doesn't. The question then becomes would it hold together tightly enough to stay on your feet the way it should, or would there be too much give that you'd just end up flopping around like you were wearing a pair of scuba flippers?

[Sir Ulrich]

I think I may just use some old or cheap boots to rivet the maille directly to to keep it from flopping around, I could use period shoes for it or a set of normal shoes. I'd prefer period shoes but I may just get another pair, sew some arming points to them and point the maille's feet to them and use my other set of shoes for soft kit. And the good news is my 9MM maille rings work fine with the 8MM maille chausses. Sealing them up will be done soon enough and pointing them to the feet will be the hardest part honestly cause all the ties ever do is go undone.

[Sir Brian]

Here is the kind of maille sabatons I acquired a couple of years ago.

The design is pretty simple. I intend to convert mine from butted to riveted maille this winter. I have plenty of leather strapping around and the loose rivets to make them and intend to reuse the excess pieces of riveted maille I saved from tailoring my haubergeon. The biggest issue with them is designing a historically plausible and efficient method of keeping the maille in position. I resolved that by attaching a ring and anchor point on the bottom of the boot soles but that is hardly period and will likely just use leather lacing after the conversion to riveted.

[Sir Ulrich]

Currently working on sealing up the back of my chausses with riveted rings, riveting each ring is a pain though with wedge riveting, hopefully I will get the hang of it sooner or later, my main issue is the feet though, if you figure out a good solution to keeping the feet on the chausses attached to the boot I would like that. Need pics of a solution so I can actually figure it out.

[Sir James A]

If you are going to attach the mail directly to the boots, I suggest stitching instead of riveting. Thin leather like shoes won't hold rivets well, and you don't want rivets on the inside of your shoes either.

I considered the "mail with integrated shoe" thing, but trying to get chausses on and then tie the shoes with the chausses already on was nearly impossible (or at best, excessively frustrating), just from testing by tying it to the shoes before doing anything permanent.

[Sir Edward]

Yes, using laces to tie it to the shoe instead of riveting it on is the way to go. It's more historical, easier to do, and won't give you as much trouble.

[Sir Ulrich]

Guess I should stitch some tabs to my shoes and lace the chausses to those tabs, I actually just realized I wrote rivet and I guess I was sleep deprived after writing that, no I dont wanna rivet them to it cause if they rust I cant clean them. Still dunno how to sew leather, maybe I should ask viking leathercrafts to make a pair of shoes that would work with it.

[Sir Douglas]

Is there a specific aspect of sewing the leather that you're unsure about or just sewing it in general?

A stitching awl or small leather punch would help you punch holes in the leather for stitching; they also make needles specifically designed for leather. I picked up this little awl/needle tool at Hobby Lobby recently. It works like a regular awl, but it has a spool of thread in the handle so you can sew as you punch. Kind of nifty.

[Sir Brian]

Is there a specific aspect of sewing the leather that you're unsure about or just sewing it in general?

A stitching awl or small leather punch would help you punch holes in the leather for stitching; they also make needles specifically designed for leather. I picked up this little awl/needle tool at Hobby Lobby recently. It works like a regular awl, but it has a spool of thread in the handle so you can sew as you punch. Kind of nifty.

I started using mine last night for making a sheath for my sharpened spear head. It works really great! Fast and convenient. If you do decide to use a leather needle and nylon thread then use a small pair of pliers to help push the needle through the leather. - Says the man who spent over a week stitching his WMA gauntlets. 

[Sir Edward]

I started using mine last night for making a sheath for my sharpened spear head. It works really great! Fast and convenient. If you do decide to use a leather needle and nylon thread then use a small pair of pliers to help push the needle through the leather. - Says the man who spent over a week stitching his WMA gauntlets. 

Pliers are a must! I found that out when re-attaching the buckle strap on one of my shoes.