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Suspending a Leg Harness

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Ian:
Oh!  Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I have to make a new pourpoint eventually anyway.  Mine does not meet vetting standards because it is machine quilted.  It needs to be hand quilted.  It's also a giant pain in the butt to tailor it just right to get it to support a leg harness without transferring any weight to my shoulders.  So just out of convenience I would consider doing this method since it's historic and would save me some grief on the next CdB pourpoint project.

Don Jorge:
Yeah watching Jessica Finley make this green hand quilted CdB for Sean makes me cringe...so much work and details!

Ian:

--- Quote from: Don Jorge on 2014-09-16, 23:25:09 ---Yeah watching Jessica Finley make this green hand quilted CdB for Sean makes me cringe...so much work and details!

--- End quote ---

The martial version of that cote need not be so tedious. 

Sir James A:

--- Quote from: Ian on 2014-09-16, 18:16:40 ---Oh!  Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I have to make a new pourpoint eventually anyway.  Mine does not meet vetting standards because it is machine quilted.  It needs to be hand quilted.  It's also a giant pain in the butt to tailor it just right to get it to support a leg harness without transferring any weight to my shoulders.  So just out of convenience I would consider doing this method since it's historic and would save me some grief on the next CdB pourpoint project.

--- End quote ---

Ah, that makes perfect sense, I forgot about the vetting. If you think it's hard to tailor for you, try tailoring it where your stomach is bigger than your waist, and it constantly wants to drag itself down to the thinner area. My pourpoint needs those shoulder straps lol.

Ian:
I decided to revisit this and prototype the idea in some cow hide I had lying around.

It functions identically to a textile support which is what I had hoped it would do.  The leather edging along the top hem prevents the 'belt' from stretching when you buckle it tight.  This is important so that it doesn't shift after wearing it.  It offers the same flexibility and comfort as a textile, and none of the restrictiveness of a thick c-belt.  It also distributes the weight over a large surface area so you don't get digging in to the hips as you would with a thinner belt alternative.  You retain the same range of motion you would with an arming doublet, including comfortably sitting down.

This method will also work for maille chausses, and you can easily whip-stitch a maille skirt to the bottom hem to suspend that comfortably as well.  The only reason I would choose this method *over* the arming doublet is for ease of tailoring in the textile garment, or convenience.  If you do a time period that has a huge gap in knowledge when it comes to suspending legs, this is a viable solution, and dare I say superior to some of the more uncomfortable or inflexible methods out there.

A Charles de Blois style pourpoint is what I normally use to suspend my legs comfortably, but I will be the first to admit that the tailoring of this garment can be tough when you absolutely want to ensure that 0 weight transfer goes to your shoulders.  It's quite achievable (I get absolutely no weight transfer to my shoulders in my version), but it may be beyond the comfort level of some folks.  It involves making sure that when laced tightly the garment is completely girdling the hips and waist, and that there is enough vertical length in the garment to prevent tugging at the shoulders when weight is pulling the hem with gravity.  It also can't be too much vertical length that it appears in excess and looks messy.  If that's not something you want to mess with but seek a comfortable alternative, the leather arming girdle is comparatively simple to engineer.  For comparison my hand-sewn CdB pictured below represents about 100 hrs of work, the hand-sewn leather arming girdle represents about 5.



This is the speculative alternative:



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