Making of a Leather Jerkin - Part 3

In The Modern Maker book, Gnagy describes only a single type of skirting: a one or two piece skirt for the whole circumference of the waist.  I'm not a huge fan of this and wanted a more traditional tab for the leather jerkin.  We went to another great newish resource, 17th-Century Men's Dress Patterns, to help us get the proportions right.  We drew up a new tab pattern and an separate pattern for the two front tabs (actually we drew up two different ones for the front and decided which one we liked better).  I also wanted a paper pattern for the short sleeve, which was a simple trace of the existing sleeve, just cut off at about 9".

Figure 1 - Tabs and short sleeves

With new patterns in hand, 2 short sleeves, 6 tabs, and 2 front tabs were cut out of the good leather.  In addition, I cut out body, back, sleeve, and collar linings of a white linen; this stuff multiplies in our house, so I honestly have no idea what weight it is or where it came from, but it's not as fine as what we used on the blue cloth doublet.  Lastly, I cut out lining for the tabs from a cinnamon colored leather that had leftover from my previous leather fencing jerkin.  Look for something interesting coming with the tabs.  We'll see if I want to add the linen lining to the tabs later or not.

Figure 2 - Tab interlining layout

Figure 3 - Tab interlinings cut out

Note that I've chosen not to do any interlining or shaping layers on this jerkin.  That is a conscious choice for a couple of reasons.  First, even on the cloth doublet it's hot.  I live in NC and regularly fence in 90+ degree weather, and I just don't need to add heat stroke to my list of chronic injuries.  Second, I think the leather itself will hold the shape well enough, but only time will tell.

This marks the completion of all of the primary cutting.  There may be some minor additions, like a waist lacing strip, extra collar stiffening, etc., but nothing major.  Now on to sewing.

Time: 5 hours 47 minutes (across several days)

Total time: 11 hours 22 minutes

Making of a Leather Jerkin - Part 2

Figure 1 - Fronts, backs, necks, & epilets

Well, real life got in the way, but I'm back to making a jerkin. If you'll remember from Part 1, we had an initial layout of parts.  Unfortunately, even with the picture it had been long enough that layout had to be redone, plus I suspect we had forgotten we wanted lengthen the back pieces by an inch from the original pattern to provide slightly better protection for fencing.  Once the layout was done, I traced and cut out the jerkin fronts, backs, collars, and epilets.  It was a gruelling 3+ hours of crawling around the floor (no permanent work area in our house) with plenty of back and knee aches slowing things down.

Figure 2 - Traced layout

Side note: Tracing on leather provided an interesting new challenge.  Typical fabric marking items (chalk/chalk pencils) don't work very well on leather without a whole lot of work and a high potential of causing the "fabric" to move on you.  When I've traced on leather in the past, I've just used a sharpie (permanent marker) but I've also been tracing on the bad side of the leather.  Also remember that I'm using the flesh side of the leather as my good side; this is normally where modern tanneries put markings, as they assume it's going to be on the back of whatever is made.  Because of using the flesh side as good and having to avoid the markings, I would be tracing on the good side, and I didn't really want to use a permanent marker in case I slipped.  Child's washable markers to the rescue - see having kids does have its advantages ;).

Going back and reading my previous post, I realize that I haven't listed the materials I'm using.  The good "fabric" in this case is a Nappone Bone colored deer skin purchased from Zack White Leather; they're relatively local (less than an hour away), and I can walk in and choose my leather, which I really enjoy doing.  For cutting, I use a pretty boring pair of leather sheers that I've had forever.  I don't have the surface, skill, or time to use a traditional moon knife or other period equivalent (although I do own one).  And of course, an orange Crayola washable marker for tracing patterns :).  More on the materials as they come up.

Time tonight: 3 hours 5 minutes
Total time: 5 hours 35 minutes