Valkenburg/Castleford style caliga step by step

[Martin Moser]

Time to start reporting on the back seam: this time I wanted to do it the way portrayed in Göpfrich's Lederfunde aus Mainz (op cit), i.e. with a double running stich from the inside and another one from the outside. Here is the diagram from the book:



Reportedly two different yarn strengths were used with the finds, I did this with the first of the pair, this time, for possible comparison in the long run, chose to use the same yarn. First I marked where the stitching holes should be. This of course needs to be done both from the inside (flesh side) and from the outside (grain side), as we have two seams. With the first I put the holes only 5 mm apart, but that seems a little too narrow to me, as the holes from the other side come in between those, so in the end you have a piece of yarn passing from one side to the other every 2,5 mm! I went to 8 mm distance this time, but 10 mm would be ok, too I guess. Making those rows of holes neatly and exactly lined up is the most important thing for an even seam ...
(Edit: I went back to my sources in the meantime and found that at least one original with the finer thread has 5-6 stitches per 10 mm(!) and the stitches of the other seam 6-8mm apart)