Leather Boot & Jerkin Projects

[Greg]

Greetings to all!

I have finally acquired some quality materials en masse for the purpose of putting the endless patterns and designs I've been doodling over the last six months or so to use. Courtesy of a surprise tax return and a very generous, understanding wife, I have officially acquired a massive dark-brown Bison hide. 27 square feet kind of massive. It's incredibly supple, but plenty thick at 3-4 oz, and gets that nice aged/old-world look when stretched. I'm extremely pleased. For those of you wanting to get started in leatherworking, I'd highly recommend going to theleatherguy.org and looking around. It's much cheaper than Tandy, though if you don't want to make a large purchase, ebay is also a good choice. But for $100 even, I scored a $175-200 hide, so the leather guy's a good place to look into.

Anywho, the picture below is of an identical piece that's half the size of the one I picked up, and is also listed on the leather guy. I didn't think to snag a pic off their site before the listing was taken down due to the purchase, so this'll have to do. I'll be working on the boots first, I think, and then the jerkin, but I'll be taking regular pictures of the process to keep you pic-o-philes thoroughly entertained. I'll also, hopefully, put together a pattern for the boots to post here, as they're as close of a representation of Andy's boots as I could manage...fully functional, rugged, and (soon-to-be) filthy. As for the jerkin, I may post that pattern as well, but that one I'm freehanding a bit more, so we'll see if a workable pattern comes out of the project or not. I'm just tired of repairing the consistent decay of my thrift store jacket-turned jerkin, and it's not thick enough to be very useful for warmth or protection, so I've decided it's time to step it up and make something legitimate, and permanent. Lastly, my wife Lori and I have begun designing a complete set of Ranger garb for a female, and so I'll be constructing a leather bodice in a similar style to my own jerkin out of this as well, all with function in mind.

Sooo...here we go.



I must admit, I'm extremely tempted to lay this thing out on the living room floor and do a repeat of Pete's bearskin rug pic...but we don't want anybody getting too excited, now...

[Ernildir]

Very nice... looking forward to more pictures.

[Eric C]

I must admit, I'm extremely tempted to lay this thing out on the living room floor and do a repeat of Pete's bearskin rug pic...but we don't want anybody getting too excited, now...

Very nice... looking forward to more pictures.

Umm... That depends on what pics you are talking about.

Greg, sorry I never got those files from Andy sent to you.

[Willrett]

Sounds great cant wait to see pics.

[Peter Remling]

I must admit, I'm extremely tempted to lay this thing out on the living room floor and do a repeat of Pete's bearskin rug pic...but we don't want anybody getting too excited, now...

There can be only one!

[Greg]

Alrighty, update time.

To bring anyone who isn't aware of what I mean when I say "Andy's Boots" up to speed, here's the pic I'm building my boots off of. Countless hours of staring at this image developing a pattern are beginning to show signs of progress.



Here's the base piece for the uppers, including the lacing loops on one side. They're going to go approx. 12" up my calf, with an additional piece stitched to the top that will fold down.



And a closeup of the lacing loops, with a small fuzzy cameo of my ever-present assistant:



The next step will be installing the second set of lacing loops on each of the two sides, and stitching the uppers into their final shape, as well as installing the piece up top which will fold down over the top end of the uppers when laced and worn. After that, it's on to the lower half.

[Cleddyf]

those are awesome boots,
your pattern looks really good

[Ernildir]

Impressive!

[Sam]

Looking good Greg, what do you plan to do with the sole?
Also, how are you armstreet boots going? (I think I remember you purchasing some...)

Re: The leather jacket jerkin, that's the concern I have with doing this. The garment leather is just too useless for a Jerkin. I'll be interested to see what you come up with. Perhaps a heavier jacket would work better, yours was a ladies wasn't it?

[mcapanelli]

So if you get those boots right I'll be your first customer.

[Greg]

That's a pretty big if...we'll see!

[Greg]

Looking good Greg, what do you plan to do with the sole?
Also, how are you armstreet boots going? (I think I remember you purchasing some...)

Re: The leather jacket jerkin, that's the concern I have with doing this. The garment leather is just too useless for a Jerkin. I'll be interested to see what you come up with. Perhaps a heavier jacket would work better, yours was a ladies wasn't it?

The sole is going to be layered, glued, and stitched leather, with a glued-on thin rubber sole over that to increase the sole's life. I don't want to have to rebuild an entire sole every time they get worn out...the rubber will help it last longer without adding non-historical tread, etc.

The armstreet boots are so far gone that I've given up on improving them. They've been beaten to the point of destruction, held up decently, but are of no further use to me.

The jacket jerkin is toast as well. Nearly threadbare, and I'm sick of making repairs. It's always been too thin to be of much help. I don't know if the jacket was a women's or not...but it was definitely thin. This new jerkin I'm working on is made of the same bison leather that the boots are...

...aaaand here's a preview! Jerkin-in-progress!

[Cleddyf]

cool

[Mirimaran]

Looking good, Greg!

[Greg]

Update time:

Jerkin is finished. After countless hours of hand-stitching panels together, it's come together pretty much exactly how I hoped it would, so no disappointments there. I decided to hold off on the boots and finish the Jerkin first, being a less complicated project (albeit more labor-intensive and long) to ensure that I trusted myself before I tried to to go forward with the boots and wind up failing. At this point, I think I can do the boots justice, so those should be one of the next things on the list.

Anywho, the jerkin design drew inspiration from several sources, including the ithilien Rangers in the New Line movies, my old Thrift Store Jerkin, and R.D.'s homebrew leather garment he posted on here awhile back (http://ranger.budgetauthenticity.org/fo ... ?f=5&t=639). It laces up the sides, so there's room for chain maille, wool, tunic(s), a gambeson, or the inevitable gut that I'm sure I'm not far off from developing. All edges on all panels were turned under and stitched down except for the edges of the armholes and the neck, which were left bare for comfort. It sports short tassets of a sort on the front and the rear, which don't seem to hinder movement, and I doubt will get in the way of riding or anything else of that sort. It should get a good test this week under sparring conditions, and I'll report back with the results.