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The Book of the Quest
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John's Shoes
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| Tudor Court Shoes These shoes are flat-ended light English court shoes in the style worn during the 1520s and beyond. The beginnings of this style can be seen in shoes from around 1490, where flat ended shoes are seen in the same paintings as medium length late Gothic Poulaines. Although examples of similar shoes to these can be found in many sources, these shoes are based on two portraits - one of Henry VIII, standing with legs astride, and the other of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (Fraser 1992: 98,143) Construction: These are turned shoes, made inside out, and then turned the right way round after sewing is complete. Period shoes were made in this fashion until Elizabethan times, although most would have been made using a last (foot-shaped mould) to make shaping easier. As I do not yet own a last these have been made without one. From the end of the 12th Century many shoes were made with a rand (Grew & De Neergaard 1988:47), a small triangular strip of leather stitched into the seam between the upper and the sole. I chose to make these shoes without one, as being slashed, they are clearly light court shoes and should have little need of waterproofing, not being intended for outdoor wear.  On examination of the pictures on which these shoes are based, I concluded that they are of a slip-on type and need no fastenings. One can see some evidence of a narrow either turned or added reinforced edge binding on the Henry VIII picture, and given that these are slip-on shoes I have added an edge binding around the foot hole on these shoes to prolong their life. I made the shoes with two seams simply as a means of conserving available leather. This practice was common in period, as evidenced by the variety of patterns with added sections in the book Shoes and Pattens (Grew & De Neergaard 1988). These shoes were cut out with scissors rather than with the half-moon shaped shoemaker's knife used in period for the simple reason that I do not own one of these knives. They were sewn using edge-flesh stitches (Grew & De Neergaard 1988: 46) using two curved leather needles. |
 Holes were marked using a rotary hole spacing tool, and punched using a straight awl. (A curved awl should have been used, but at the time of making this pair of shoes I did not own one). Thread is waxed plaited cotton. Nylon thread was used on the upper seams simply for colour matching, thread of this colour not being available in thick shoemaking thread. Slashes were cut with a knife once the shoes were constructed to ensure that their position on the shoe was accurate. References: Fraser, A (1992) The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Illustrated Edition, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London. Grew, F & De Neergaard, M (1988) Shoes and Pattens, The Boydell Press, Woodbridge.  |
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