Centuries-Sewing

Category: Accessories

  • 16th Century Brass Pins

    16th Century Brass Pins

    For Christmas, I got myself a butane-fueled jewelry torch along with brass wire of various gauges, gold colored hard solder, and other accouterments. I have several projects planned but for now, I need lots of practice with the torch.

    Brass pins are just the right amount of fiddleyness for a beginners project and each time I’ve made some I’ve learned something new. Also, shout out to Scott of The Renaissance Artisan for his in-depth work on the history of pins and pinners and who made this process much easier.

    I have in my collection a small 16th century Dutch pin that I am using as a base. The wire it was made with is about 18 gauge and it is 34mm long.

    Brass wire next to original pin
    Brass wire next to original pin

    I start by trimming my brass wire into small sections with my flush cutter and filing one end flat.

    Work hardening brass wire
    Work hardening brass wire

    Next, I work harden my wire on my bench block with a rubber mallet. While this works, it isn’t optimal. On my next batch of pins I rolled the wire between a wooden cutting board and my bench block.

    This works much better for hardening and straightening the small lengths of wire without the risk of pinched fingers. Ouch!

     

    Brass pins after the first pass of sharpening
    Brass pins after the first pass of sharpening

    After work hardening the wire I give each pin a rough point with a crosscut file. In the 16th century, a pinner’s bone would be used to help position and angle the pin for filing. I don’t have one so I filed a small notch into my wooden cutting board.

    This is something I need to practice. While getting a sharp point is easy, getting a smooth taper can be tricky and if your wire is not hardened enough it likes to bend.

    For the pinheads I’m using round nose pliers to make little spiral hats from 22 gauge brass wire. My plier points are not as thin as the 18 gauge wire so I found this process extremely frustrating. The pinheads end up slightly too large for the wire and I had to individually tweak and adjust the top of each spiral so it wouldn’t fall down the pin shaft.

    On my second batch I wrapped the pinhead wire around the pin shank as it was done in period. This was slightly less frustrating and had the added benefit of not needing to adjust the tiny coils and took out the extra step of fluxing the pinheads in place before soldering.

    Brass pins with wrapped wire heads
    Brass pins with wrapped wire heads

    I poked a few holes into my soldering block to hold the pins upright and then fluxed and soldered each pinhead in place.

    Brass pins after torch firing
    Brass pins after torch firing

    After soldering the pins are dirty covered in flux and oxidation. Ew!

     

    Pins after coming out of the pickle.
    Pins after coming out of the pickle.

    To clean them I put them in a solution of white vinegar and salt, this eats away at the baked on flux and oxidation. It also brings a thin layer of copper to the surface of the brass. I might be able to prevent this by adding some hydrogen peroxide to the pickle but for now, the copper comes off with some polishing.

    Brass pins before clean up
    Brass pins before clean up with original 16th-century Dutch pin on the bottom.

     

    Brass pins after polishing
    Brass pins after polishing
  • 16th Century Shoe Hack: Painting Shoes

    16th Century Shoe Hack: Painting Shoes

    A month ago a Facebook post on Elizabethan Costume showed me some inexpensive* shoes (non-affiliated link)  that looked very similar to cutwork shoes found in period.

    The price was right, but they came in only one color: white.

    White cutwork style shoes before painting

    I ordered 2 pairs, not seeing the FB thread till much later about sizing up (and again if you are a half size). It took about 2 weeks for them to get to me but they were true to size for me with a few exceptions.

    I have wide feet, high arches, and a rectangular toe box shape. This makes shopping for shoes online hit or miss. Often the toe box is not wide enough and there is not enough width across the ball of my foot.

    When I tried the shoes on they highlighted these issues, but since they are faux leather I knew I could you a hair dryer to stretch them out. I put on thick socks, wrapped my foot in a face cloth, and then managed to get the shoes on.

    Then I took the hairdryer and slowly heated the areas that were too tight or rubbing. While doing this I wiggled my toes and shifted my feet around in the shoe to speed things along while being very careful not to burn myself.

    Once the material was warmed and my toe wiggling done, I switched the temperature to cool to help set it.

    Painting the Shoes

    Before I broke out the paintbrushes I prepped the shoes for painting. I used rubbing alcohol all over the surface of the shoe to remove any factory finishing or random grease or oils.

    While they dried I got all my supplies and materials together:

    Acrylic paint and textile medium

    Materials

    • Acrylic paints, textile medium, and matte varnish
    • Soft paint brushes
    • Disposable gloves
    • Paper towels
    • Cardboard to paint the shoes on
    • Plastic bags
    • Paper plate to use as a pallet and something to use as a mixing tool

    I stuffed the shoes with the plastic bags so they would keep their shape while painting and to keep the paint off the inside.

    The textile medium calls for 2 parts paint to one part medium. I kept to this ratio, adding a small amount of water to thin the paint out.

    For an oxblood color I added only a few drops of black to the Quinacridone red-orange to deepen the shade. I had to remake the color several times as I painted and learned it is easy to go overboard on the black.

    I started painting the shoes in with thin layers to start with, wanting to “stain” the material to keep the white from showing through later. After the first three layers of paint (which unfortunately I don’t have photos of) I thinned the paint out less and concentrated on coverage.

    This is where the soft brush is very useful it will help keep brush strokes to a minimum, but be sure to watch out for brush hairs getting stuck in the paint. There are a few in mine that I wasn’t able to remove in time.

    The last two layers of paint I thinned out again, working on shifting each shoe to a similar color. As I remixed the paint color several times there were some subtle variations in tone.

    My last pass on the shoes was around the edges and along the back of the strap. This was to keep any of the white material from being glaringly obvious.

    Painted shoes in an oxblood color

    I let the shoes dry for a few days just to make sure the paint was set. The acrylic and the textile medium dried to a glossy shine and also left the shoes slightly tacky (enough that they tried to stick to each other). As I was not able to heat set the shoes as the textile medium suggested I decided to seal them instead with a matte varnish.

    I gave them several thin coats which worked well to seal them (no more tackyness yay!) but done very little to knock back the gloss. Once I wear them the gloss may on longer be an issue, but it is something to keep in mind when working with textile medium.

    All I have left is some final clean up. I need to clean out the cutwork sections that filled up with paint and take some steel wool to the buckles.

    Other Painting Options

    For anyone who wants to paint their shoes with less fuss I have heard very good things about Angelus Leather Paints for shoes but have not tried them.

    *These shoes were very inexpensive, there was some loose thread that needed to be clipped and a few specks of glue to remove. They are not perfectly period shoes but would pass the 10-foot rule. For indoor events a few times a year I think they will hold up fine. For outdoor use, I would add insoles and change out the buckles.

     

     

  • Hand Sewn Red Linen Hose

    Hand Sewn Red Linen Hose

    manuscript-man-putting-on-stockings
    Queen Mary Psalter (British Library Royal 2 B VII, fol. 72v), c. 1310-1320

    This week I unearthed some unfinished projects while “Cleaning” aka where did I put my photo box? How could it have vanished? I’ve looked in that box three times now and I’m running out of places it could be.

    That is the problem when I clean, I put things in a safe place and never find them again.

    But, nestled happily in a plastic bag was a half finished pair of linen/rayon hose in screaming red. I think I started these two years ago when I wanted a small project I could work on while watching Netflix. I know I draped a pattern for hose at least 4 years before out of some thin cotton but never got around to the actual making till now.

    Socks have never been high on my priorities list, most of the time I wear O Rayons from Sock Dreams under my skirts.

    My memory is a little fuzzy but I think I draped my original pattern from this tutorial: http://www.faucet.net/costume/research/hose.html

    Bright Red Hand Sewn 16th Century Linen Stocking Bright Red Hand Sewn 16th Century Linen Stocking Close up of Gusset

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    I sewed the right foot up with dark red Londonderry linen thread using the backstitch. Then referencing Patterns of Fashion 4 I trimmed down the seam allowances along the foot, sewed down the seam allowance along the gusset with the running stitch and whip stitched over the top of the gusset point to reinforce that area.

    The fit is good if a little loose. By the way that’s my sleeve form and some quilt batting, not my leg.

    I still need to sew up the left foot and may make some adjustments to my pattern.

     

  • 16th Century Pocket Prototype

    16th Century Pocket Prototype

     

     

    Based on a few different museum pieces I did a mock-up/prototype for a 16th-century pocket. These were worn under skirts, much like their 18th-century descendants. This is version 1, which I made a little roomier for our modern day needs. It will fit a phone, money and other often necessary items.

    It is all machine sewn but the only stitching that shows is at the top where the pocket is sewn down to the silk taffeta waist tie.

    I hope to offer a few of these in my Etsy shop soon.

     

  • Work in Progress Shots of a Very Fine Ruff

  • Dress pins made from jewelry findings

    I’m finishing up the bright red wool kirtle and this time around I need some dress pins to keep the sleeves on.

    I remembered Catrin’s pin making tutorial but knew I didn’t have the right gauge wire on hand, but I did have some decorative head pins left over from making the  green tudor gown.

    I followed the same process Catrin’s tutorial showed, save that I didn’t have to wire wrap to make the head of the pin, and I don’t have a jewelry anvil. I work-hardened the length of the pin by hammering it flat on my front porch, nipped the ends with wire cutters and sanded it down with a file.

     

    Dress pins made from jewelry findings