note:  this is the documentation for a pair of shoes I entered in the A&S faire a few years ago.  I haven't had the opportunity to revise this document.

 

Children's Shoes
Based on the paintings of P. Bruegel the Elder

c. 1568

P. Bruegel's Peasant Dance shows a woman in the foreground of the dance wearing buckled shoes which look like "Mary Janes".

 

 

 

I designed this pattern for this small pair of shoes based on the shoe in the above picture.  I cut the pattern from a very small piece of leather, a pretty red scrap of unknown provenance.  The soles were patterned around my daughter's foot, and the toe area was enlarged and rounded.

I attached the sole to the shoe (with waxed linen thread) like a turnsole, except I sewed the shoe right-side out, so that the sole was flat and there was only one raw edge inside the shoe.  I did this because my daughter hates things inside of her shoes and I was afraid a regular turn-sole (or more modern sole) would bother her.  I then tunnel-stitched an outer sole on, however, my daughter scuffs her feet and so I thought she might eventually turn the sole edge outward and trip upon it[1].

Since my daughter still has problems with buckles, I wanted to give her a method to open and close her own shoes that did not involve a buckle, elastic, Velcro or ties.  Aside from a slip-on (or off!) the only other method I could think of which she could handle was a toggle, which was a very common shoe closure.[2]

This pair of shoes has been worn constantly since February.  They have been through salty, muddy water, and had a brush with pickle juice.  She's also decided to wash them several times because she's seen me do it.  In all, the leather has held up very well, but I have noticed that it has "changed" in places.

 

Although red leather would have been a luxury, it's such a small piece of leather that it could have come from just about any source – an old pouch or anything.  I did find one pair of red shoes in Bruegel's Adoration of the Magi, pictured above.

Here is a recipie for a red leather dye:

Having annointed, washed, wronge and layed abroad the skin, as is aforesaied, wete it with water that white wine lees and baye salt hath ben boiled in, and than wring him. Take than creuiles or crabbe shelles (be they of the sea or of the river) burned into ashes, the whiche yon shall temper with the said water of the lees and salt, and rubbe well the skinne therwith, than washe him well with cleere water, and wringe hym. This done, take ruddle tempered in water of lees, and rubbe the skinne well over and over with it, and than with the foresayde ashes, wasshinge, and wringinge it thre times. Finallye, after you have wasshed him, and wringe him, if you thinke it not be well ynoughe, you shall geue him one dienge with brasyll. The paste or masse of Rubia Tinctorum, must be made with water that lees or tartre hath bene boiled in, and the sayed water must be luke warme, and whan you make the paste of ruddle, than leave it fo the space of a night. After this, put upon the sayd Rubra Tinctorum, a lyttle alom, dragges,or lees, or Alome catinum, steped in water. You maye also adde to it the colour of the shearing of scarlet, whiche hath been taken oute boylinge in lye, which is a goodly secrete.[3]

 

Bibliography

 

Alexis of Piedmont The Secretes of the Reverende Maister Alexis of Piemount, ANNO 1558. Retrieved from the Internet April 22, 2001. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/5923/leather/ld.html

Grew, Francis and Margrethe de Neergaard.  Medieval Finds from Excavations in London: Shoes and Pattens.  The Stationery Office, London. 1988

Hand, John Oliver, J.Richard Judson, William W.Robinson, Martha Wolff. The Age of Bruegel: Netherlandish drawings in the sixteenth century.  Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1986

Jacobs, Betty.  Growing Herbs and Plants for Dyeing.  Select Books, Tarzana, California.  1977

Klein, H. Arthur.  Graphic Worlds of Peter Bruegel the Elder:  Reproducing 63 engravings and a woodcut after designs by Peter Bruegel the Elder.  Dover, New York:  1963

Panofsky, Erwin Early Netherlandish Paintings: Its Origins and Character. 2 Volumes
Harvard University Press, 1958

Roberts, Keith.  Bruegel.  Phaidon Press, London, 1971.

Zupnick, Irving L. Pieter Bruegel -- Color Slide Program of the Great Masters
McGraw Hill, New York. 1968