Wearables Medieval Knight's Armour

Hi everyone!

I have a DOD Luke here with me at home who I am in the midst of turning into my steampunk faerie character, Salem. Sam is supposed to be a changeling child who, at one point in my story is transported to the faerie world where he meets his mother Una and ends up wearing the armour of his father, The Redcrosse Knight, otherwise known as the Patron Saint of England, St. George.

St George's day is rearing up on us and my home city is doing a big celebration the Saturday before (April 20th) to celebrat, myself and a few doll friends have decided to go and dress our doll's up for the occassion. My roommate has commissioned a "Medieval Princess" costume for her Yo-Sd girl and a friend of mine is dressing her MSD lad like a Morris Dancer but, given my doll's unique connection to St George I've decided to go full tilt and make him St George's Armour.

There's going to be four stages to the armour, under layer, maille layer, plate layer and then the top layer.

UNDER LAYER

• Shirt- this was made of linen and was part of the underclothes
• Braies- these are essentially linen shorts and again, were part of the underclothes
• Pourpoint or Cotte- this was a tight fitting shift over the underclothes to which you could attach the leg armour
• Woolen Stockings done- Post 3
• Arming Doublet/Gambeson- a highly padded underplayed to which the arm armour was attached
• Boots done- Post 2

MAILLE LAYER

• Chausses- a layer of maille that protected the legs
• Haubergeon- a shorter variation of a hauberk- it is a vest of chain maille that covers the torso and the top of the arms

PLATE LAYER

• Sabatons- plate armour that covered the feet and attached to the boots below
• Greaves- plate armour that protects the calf and ankle
• Poleyns- plate armour that protects the knee
• Cuisses- plate armour that protects the thigh
• Besagues, Spaulders or Pauldrons- different types of armour that protect the shoulder and, more importantly the armpit where a major vein runs.
• Rerebrace- plate armour for the upper arm
• Vambrace- plate armour for the lower arm
• Gauntlets- jointed metal gloves
• Cuirass- consisting of seperate breast plate and back plate
• Faulds- plates of armour attached to the Cuirass to protect the hips, abdomen and Lowe back

TOP LAYER

• Tabard or Surcoat- different types of robes that cover your armour and are emblazoned with your coat of arms. In this case, a Red Cross.
• Cloak- falls to the instep
• Belt- to fasten the Tabard or Surcoat

I'd like to get a good chunk of this done before April 20th for the St George's day celebrations and hopefully all of it! That said, some things are more important for me that others. I refuse to put anything metal on my boy without him being adequately covered so that his resin won't get scratched so the Gambeson and woollen stockings are very important to me, this is the same reason why Salem won't be donning any kind of helmet- I don't want his face scratched.

Also, I'd really like to get his tabard finished as that will be what most displays his red cross. So, if I only get the arm and leg armour complete but not the Cuirass and the Faulds that's not so awful as you wouldn't see those anyway.

If I have time and money, I'd love to get him some jointed hands from the marketplace to go under his gauntlets as well as a sword and shield.

Keep your eyes peeled for updates guys!

 

Hi everyone, it's time for my first update! Yesterday, I began to sketch out some designs for the shirt, braies and boots. I've been trying to find some very simple medieval patterns for these things and from the sketches I'm quite pleased with how they're going to look.



Camera Roll-465 by vegetandaru, on Flickr



Camera Roll-464 by vegetandaru, on Flickr



My Photo Stream-410 by vegetandaru, on Flickr


The undershirt and braies are both to be made out of linen and since I haven't gone and bought my fabrics yet I can't begin work on those but as it happens I did have some spare leatherette sitting around so onto the boots it is.


I thought the boots would be really damn hard! However, the design I found uses a triangle of fabric that you sew up the back and then sew the edges up into place around the foot. They had no laces or buckles or shaped soles and were designed for you to slip your feet into. According to a lot of sources I looked at they were often highly decorated or embroidered despite the simple design. I may go back and embroider mine later if I have time but for now I pulled out my favourite colour thread to give it some colour and jumped into it.



Camera Roll-466 by vegetandaru, on Flickr


It was actually crazy difficult trying to figure out the size for the triangle and I started off pretty big and then by bending it around the foot I figured out what size it actually needed to be.



Camera Roll-467 by vegetandaru, on Flickr


Yay! Boots!



Camera Roll-469 by vegetandaru, on Flickr



Camera Roll-470 by vegetandaru, on Flickr



Camera Roll-471 by vegetandaru, on Flickr



Camera Roll-475 by vegetandaru, on Flickr


Finished Boots I'm so pleased with them.


So, I decided to start on a pattern for the Sabatons which are the metal coverings that go over the boot. As I was making the pieces I was having to blutack them onto the boot.


Some pieces, the back section in particular we're very difficult to make work but I think I just about got there in the end.



Camera Roll-472 by vegetandaru, on Flickr



Camera Roll-473 by vegetandaru, on Flickr



Camera Roll-474 by vegetandaru, on Flickr


I think it looks pretty good, I can't wait to get them properly made out of metal.

 

Heya everyone, sorry for the lack of updates- I've come down with a horrible cold and been unable to get out of the house. It's been incredibly frustrating as I don't have any of the fabric I need for the pourpoint/gambeson/ underclothes or the tabard and cloak; I also haven't got any links for the chainmaille or any superglue (excuse me whilst I scream into a pillow). So until I'm feeling a little better- which I hope will be this weekend- I'm pretty stuck with my project. That said I do have a couple of small updates for you.


WOOLLEN STOCKINGS (Fabric Chausses)


I was originally going to make these pretty true to form and had found some very useful patterns, I even happened to have some good wool lying around. Unfortunately it quickly became clear that it was far, far too thick to look right on Salem. However, whilst looking at medieval stockings online I saw that they were often not only in natural colours or black but also in red and since this is the Redcrosse Knights armour I'm making then that seemed perfect. I had a sudden idea and dove into my draws for a pair of thick red tights from Primark. So, these may not be made true to pattern but I'm pleased with them nonetheless.



Knight 1-0 by vegetandaru, on Flickr


I pinned the tights around Salem's leg, slid them off and backstitched along the pin line and the top hem then finished it by machine.



Knight 1-4 by vegetandaru, on Flickr



Knight 1-5 by vegetandaru, on Flickr



Knight 1-2 by vegetandaru, on Flickr


Yay! I'm so glad that the boots still fit on over the stockings. I may add some ties so that they attach properly and won't slip down if it looks like them slipping will be a problem but at the moment they seem to be holding up fine so I'll consider them finished


SABATON UPDATE


In my last update I'd made a good pattern for the Sabatons and was feeling pretty pleased. However, as with the wool on the stockings I really don't want the metal to be so bulky that it seems out of place on a doll. So I came up with the idea of using cans. They're easily accessible (I sent my partner to Iceland to get me some), thin enough to cut very neatly with a pair of scissors and easy to shape.


I blu tacked my pattern pieces to the can- cut out everything and used a pencil and the curve of my palm to curve the metal in the opposite direction (silver on the outside and the coke symbol hidden).



Knight 1-3 by vegetandaru, on Flickr



Knight 1-1 by vegetandaru, on Flickr


These haven't been finished yet, I need to buy some elastic to go under the foot and the back piece is going to be, most likely, buckled on. On real Sabatons these pieces of metal would be able to move with the foot but as my boy is resin and so has no joints in his feet I'm simply going to pad the layers out with a bit of thin cardboard and glue them all together but I need some superglue from the shops. In the meantime I've stuck some blutack between the layers of metal and card and this is the effect.



Knight 1-6 by vegetandaru, on Flickr



Knight 1-10 by vegetandaru, on Flickr


CHAINMAILLE


Although I can't get any fabric until I can get out and about I have ordered a TON of tiny jump rings- the type used for necklaces. Because necklace jump rings are so small and so delicate I hope it'll look more appropriate in doll scale than real chainmaille whilst still looking more professional than sequins (which I've seen other people use).


My only problem is that I've never made chainmaille before and had no clue how to make it. I checked out a few tutorials for the European 4 in 1 method and decided to give it a go. I wrapped garden wire in a spiral around a pencil and then slipped it off and used snips to cut it into happy little almost circles.



Knight 1-8 by vegetandaru, on Flickr


After about two hours of trial and error (made more difficult because I managed to loose my needle nosed pliers) I eventually ended up with this:



Knight 1-9 by vegetandaru, on Flickr


I placed it over Sam's stockings and because it's large and plasticky and green it looked a bit like he was wearing a chain link fence but hopefully his actual armour will be much more realistic looking!



Knight 1-11 by vegetandaru, on Flickr


So yes, that's it, not much but getting there and I'm happy with the results so far. I still have high hopes for this project despite the delay due to illness and in a couple of days I'll try to get out, get some fabric and get a big old update or two out.


Bye for now x
SK and Sam

 

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Musume- aww thank you ever so much I was hoping to get the Sabatons made today along with a couple of other things but I've come down with what I hope is just a 24 hour cold so I'm taking a day to recover before I start dealing with metal!

Pepperonipizza- Oooh I'd love to see another person making medieval armour, good luck when you do start your outfit! I should really work out what I have to do each day to finish on time but that's far too organised for me XD

Zomjirate- thanks ever so much

Rosslyn- Eeee! Thank you ever so much, those are sure to be such a help rather than trawling the depths on the Internet for everything! You're a star Ross!

 

T4124: Thank you ever so much and I hope you enjoy the metal working when I really begin to get into it

Ipledreamer: Oh gosh, thank you very much both for subscribing and for the links- I checked them out and they were fantastic. Thank you ever so much for your help and support.