The Armour Archive

In my ongoing experimentation, I incorporated a decorative style seen in the early 15thc grande assiette garments on my latest arming cotte. I never got around to asking (bad me!), but I think my client's armor was circa 1410 or so.

I made her an arming cotte to which she's pointing her spaulders, arm harness, and leg harness. The upper body armour tied on perfectly, but I had to take back the cotte for alterations to the lower body points -- adding leather reinforcement and placing them higher and in a few extra spots. That's in progress. The pictures below are before any changes, but you can see some of the shoulder/arm arming points (I put three in a row for choice on armour placement).

There's a bit of speculation in this cotte, and I doubt that the linen of the time would have held such a bright black and red, but such is the leeway of "interpretive re-creation".

Very nice work!!! Can you get some pics of the arming points in a semi close up?

Do you do commissions?

Tim

Tim,

I do occasional commissions, but I'm pretty booked for the rest of the year and into next year at this point. I also only will fit people in person. My apologies!

Here's a closer view of the shoulder and arm points. They are whip-stitched in thick silk around flat, welded rings of steel that were cut off of aventail scraps.

Tasha McG wrote:Tim,

I do occasional commissions, but I'm pretty booked for the rest of the year and into next year at this point. I also only will fit people in person. My apologies!

Here's a closer view of the shoulder and arm points. They are whip-stitched in thick silk around flat, welded rings of steel that were cut off of aventail scraps.

Nice job on the eyelets (sp?).

Thank you; with heavy use, however, they do need occasional reworking.

How do you reinforce the eyelets?

I used welded steel rings that had been from scraps of mail cut off of aventails during fitting to helms.

I poked holes through the fabric layers using a circular sewing awl to a circumference of approximately 1/4 inch. I placed the ring on top and whip-stitched the rings down all the way around using a thick, twisted silk sewing/embroidery called Grandeur (or sometimes Elegance, which is slightly thinner; depends what I have on hand). You could also use eyelet (buttonhole) stitch which would probably be a bit stronger, but it takes longer and I'm not entirely sure it's going to last that much longer during hard use.

The bottom points intended for the leg harness will be leather-backed with rectangular tabs of leather and I intend to use a box formation for each section of points -- 4 holes per pointed area in a square pattern. This provides more stability and is documentable from the art of the time.

-Tasha

Far out.
Thanks

How about some more pics, this time with out that red thing in the way?

I thought you loved me for my mind! You know, being shite with armour and all that...

I'm not much on anatomy, so I'm not exactly sure where the mind is. I just want to look at your heart.

There you go again, raising the bar. Drat you and your talent. Mutter mutter mutter snarl mutter.

Klaus the Competition

Tasha McG wrote:I placed the ring on top and whip-stitched the rings down all the way around using a thick, twisted silk sewing/embroidery called Grandeur (or sometimes Elegance, which is slightly thinner; depends what I have on hand).

When you do this, do you wax your thread? It helps with tangles, but I'm not sure if it adds any hardiness.

If the thread were linen I'd wax it, but in the case of really thick silk, it doesn't tangle much when I whipstitch eyelets/points, etc.

My own cotte is progressing well!
All pieces have been cut out and pinned together. It really looks like my gande assiette fitting problems have been worked out. Big THANKS to You, Tasha, and my wife (who had to learn fitting from a photo essay!)

Questions on the leather reinforcements. Are you putting them on both the inside and outside? And are all the point lacing holes going to be reinforced or only the leg harness holes?

Hi there David,

This client, while wearing a full harness, won't be actually fighting in it. The shoulder and arm points shouldn't need reinforcement beyong the metal rings, as there won't be much pull/strain there. The legs on the other hand, really pull down on the cotte, so the leather seems necessary there. I used a big rectangular piece on both sides which wrapped around her sides for points on the back-hip and the front-hip. I only attached it on the front of the garment and then overlaid it with another layer of linen to make it less obvious.

I sewed the leather down to the cotte using very thick waxed linen.

Glad to hear your grande assiette cotte is coming together! You know we'll want to see picks when all finished. Pretty please!

-Tasha

In my experience, which may differ from yours (I haven't worked with silk that much) the buttonhole stitch does make a difference. I'm only occasionally masochistic enough to do eyelets/buttonholes by hand, but when I do I find buttonhole stitch lasts a lot longer than a simple whip stitch. Also, do you put a ring on *both* sides of the hole, or just one? I don't have my research on hand, but i think i remember 1590's arming doublets having rings on both sides.

Alejandro, who is perfectly secure in his masculinity, thankyouverymuch

edited 'kuz i cain't spayell.

Tasha McG wrote:Hi there David,

Glad to hear your grande assiette cotte is coming together! You know we'll want to see picks when all finished. Pretty please!

-Tasha

I use a 35mm camera, so while I'm good at taking the pictures I'm slow at taking them in to be developed !

Didn't they use that sort of camera back in the 20th century?

Alejandro, I only use the rings on one side.

Must dash!

I'm a mid-20th Century guy!

Tasha McG wrote:Didn't they use that sort of camera back in the 20th century?

He's a reenactor, hello!?!?!?!