So a little about each piece:
The pocketbook is finally finished. It is bound with navy wool tape from William Booth Draper. As I understand it, this method of binding the edges of an item with tape is called "ferreting." Please do correct me if I'm wrong. I learned this from "The Glossary of 18th Century Costume Terminology." They don't specifically list pocketbooks as something this term applies to, but I'm inferring...
The inside of the pocketbook is constructed very simply, with no little gussets at the edge of the pockets inside. This is a personal preference. I have never actually seen this method of construction on an extant wallet, just to note. Also, a lot of original wallets have a piece of the wool tape, connected to each corner, creating a bit of a triangle, which I think is supposed to keep the flap edges down. I didn't do this simply because I never really liked how it looked.
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| The papers are reproduction 18th century American money from Williamsburg. |
Below are some originals. You can see the triangular tape I mentioned and some other methods of constructing the inside pockets.
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| Man's wallet. Live Auctioneers. |
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| Man's wallet. Live Auctioneers. |
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| MFA, American, New England 1750 - 1800 |
The shoes are leather Devonshires from American Duchess. The design in based on this pair of original shoes. I do not know where they are housed. If anyone does, please do share.
The original shoes are made of cloth. I can't tell what type of fabric, however. The design seems to be painted on and the edges are bound. Perhaps they are bound in silk because it looks shiny and smooth.
For mine, I chose to use leather shoes to try something different. I went totally non-traditional and decorated them with permanent markers. It worked fantastic! I find, you can get a much smoother and more precise fine line with markers than with a paint brush. It was cheating a little, but who's counting... I would have loved to be able to bind the edges, but I couldn't figure out a good way to do this, since the shoes are already constructed, and I wasn't going to go opening up seams!
I did not seal the design in any way. No more scotchguard for me! I don't think it works on leather though... I think there is sealant you can use for when you stain leather, but I don't have any. Also, I was a little timid to mess with them further after the scotch guard fiasco on the last pair. These shoes can probably go outside and be just fine. I will have to see and report back.
The buckles are from Fugawee. A note about attaching buckles to the latchets: a lot of reproduction buckles do not have very sharp prongs. To help this, mark the spots and use an awl to make the holes. Please don't ever use a leather punch. It will leave too large holes in leather and you will never be able to adjust the size again without the previous holes showing, and if the shoes are fabric, there is a good chance the cloth will start to fray.
In my last post, about the black silk shoes, there was a lot of attention paid to the antique buckles I shared. I wanted to show them in closer detail, since there was quite a bit of interest regarding how they poke through the latchets. I mentioned they have very sharp prongs, making them incredibly easy to attach without ruining your shoes. Please excuse that they are a bit tarnished. See below:
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| I think the lower prong may be broken off a little. |
