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Simple 14th C Turnshoes (Photo Heavy)
jkoelker:
Hi Ian,
New member, but I've followed your work on your YouTube page, which I love. I was about to jump into a turnshoe project using another tutorial, but I much prefer the look of yours (and it is closer to my period/persona).
I just wanted to ask, how did you go about defining the patterns for your bottom and uppers? It seems like a bit of a trick to ensure the length of the upper aligns with the edge of the soles. I'd like to avoid ruining any leather as I attempt this, so I figured I'd ask for your insights as you took those first steps. The rest I don't think will be a problem for me with my current experience with leather working, but drawing the patterns accurately is not a skill I have developed yet!
Thanks,
Josh
Ian:
Hi Josh,
This was just my first pair and I've learned a lot since then. It was a copy of another pair of shoes I had laying around so I already had a pattern that fit me properly. Ideally you need a last (a wooden or plastic foot form, but they can be made from duct tape). Then the upper will get stretched over the last to marry up to the sole. The upper will generally stretch a little bit beyond the edges of the sole, they don't need to line up perfectly, because the excess will get cut off after the upper is stitched on. For patterns I generally use the first three books listed here (http://knyghterrant.com/index.php/recommendations/books/leatherworking-and-leather-goods-books/) and I will try to tweak them to my own foot or to a last. I've made a mock up of a pattern in fabric before just to get an idea of coverage. One day I will write up a much better tutorial and post it on the website. In the mean time, check out those books. "Shoes and Pattens" is probably the least expensive and easiest to get a hold of. There's also this free pdf that has a lot of information about construction and includes patterns (http://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/AY17-16-Leather-and-leatherworking.pdf)
-Ian
jkoelker:
Thanks so much for the tips, Ian. I took a crack at creating a pair this past weekend, and I'm rather pleased with the result. Using your guide as well as another guide I found online I had little difficulty putting these together. Creating the pattern was really the most challenging part, but now that I have one saved I should be able to make future pairs with much more ease.
I'll be dying these a light brown today and call them done. I'm curious, did you find that they stiffen up too much when you dyed them? From past experience I've found that leather tends to become more rigid and brittle when dyed. Also, what type of leather treatment did you use to preserve the shoe afterwards?
Thanks again!
Ian:
--- Quote from: jkoelker on 2016-08-30, 13:33:55 ---I'm curious, did you find that they stiffen up too much when you dyed them? From past experience I've found that leather tends to become more rigid and brittle when dyed. Also, what type of leather treatment did you use to preserve the shoe afterwards?
--- End quote ---
Yes, until you treat them with something, then the soften right back up. I use pure neatsfoot oil on most of my medieval leather projects. It restores the suppleness to the leather and offers some moisture protection. You can always use an oil / beeswax mixture to add more of a water 'proofing' to the leather, and some people just use modern leather conditioners or water proofing solutions. My shoes almost always tend to get wet at events. I just make sure they're not in a crushed state as they dry out, then I will wipe them clean and apply more oil as necessary. I've also found (for the future) that dying before assembly sometimes results in a nicer finished product just because it prevents you from having to try and get dye into the turned seam without getting it all over the soles (which I leave plain).
jkoelker:
Thanks for the advice. I thought about pre-dying, but I wasn't sure how it'd react being in water so much for the soaking process. It's funny, I also found that, although both shoes were cut from the exact same patterns, one ended up being slightly bigger after drying. I might re-soak it and let it dry again and see if that works.
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