Plaid Sidelacing Gaiters, 1850s

The last part of my new winter 1850s ensemble was a pair of side-lacing gaiter to match my new basque outfit with its knit under-sleeves. I did have them finished for both Christmas events, as I had hoped. The green and purple gaiters are single-soled, so I've only been wearing them for indoor events, while the low shoes from this spring have had a busy year of wear and need some fixing, making them less than ideal for a rainy December day.

New gaiters.

I'm really happy with how these turned out, and how simple they work to make. If nothing else, this was the first time in a long while that I was able to take a pattern I'd previously used (for the re-made plaid gaiters) and just cut out a new project without needing to re-do the fitting and tweak it further.

To expedite matters, I basted and stitched the uppers on machine, with only the eyelets and binding sewn by hand. I also used rubber cement to attach both insole and outer sole, which greatly sped up the process. 

The shoes fit fine, though with the double sole I didn't have enough room to add supportive insoles. They were still a bit chilly when I had to walk over damp grass at the first event, but gave adequate comfort indoors and on pavement. I would like to experiment with adding a warmer period insole (such as the knitted one in The Workwoman's Guide), but didn't have time to make such a thing between the Nisqually and Steilacoom events. I'm also planning to make better laces, probably by dyeing some cut-down corset laces and adding aiglets, but the thick cotton cord seen above worked adequately for a single event.