This page teaches how to make a set of medieval pants called Braies and leggings known as Chausses to wear over them. If you would like to see documentation for these items, please see the page: Chausses and Braies.
 

    This page is intended for medieval enthusiasts such as members of the Society For Creative Anachronism, who may wish to make appropriate medieval clothing. I am including instructions on how to make both the civilian and armor versions of the chausses. Some knights and men at arms did wear gamboised (padded) chausses as a primary leg defense. I am unsure as to whether gamboised chausses were actually worn under mail chausses, but I know that civilian weight fabric chausses were worn that way.
 

    

    The pictures here are meant to show how the chausses and braies can be worn. On the left, we see a civilian chausse tied to the waist band and a wallet which is also secured to the waistband. Notice the lines of the fabric folds which make a vee shape from the crotch up to the casing. I have found that the braies are most comfortable when the extra material over the lower torso is tucked up under the casing. This also creates a certain set of fold lines which we recognize in 13th c manuscript illuminations. I believe that tucking is the reason we see those lines in art of that period rather than explaining them as due to an abundance of fabric.

    The bare leg in the left picture shows how the corners of the hem of the braies may be caught up with the same thong one uses to garter them below the knee. It passes through the hip slit and over the belt cord. The picture on the right shows how the bottom of the braies are gartered with that cord just under the knee.
 
 

    The above illustration shows a pair of braies I made for myself. They are ca 1300, and so they are less full than the braies of the mid 13th c. They are made of a medium weight cotton, and are very soft. A more appropriate material for medieval braies would have been linen. These are fastened with a simple belt made of tied 3/8 inch diameter rope. My waist is 37.5 inches around at the top of the buttocks and below the ilium (top of the pelvic protrusion). However, the braies are 47.5 inches around. They could be even larger if I wished. The distance from my crotch to the proper waist level to wear braies is 10 inches, but the corresponding length on the braies is 16 inches. That spot is the center of the square gusset depicted below. The gusset is 7 inches square and the inseam is 21 inches from center of the gusset to hem. That is about 5 or 6 inches below where I would tie it and leaves some hem beneath the garter.
 
 

    The red lines above show where the seams are on one half of the garment. Your good eyes may discern the actual seams on the other side. The previous picture shows the braies laid out, and you should be able to make your pattern based on that. This illustration shows the three pieces. The numbers I give here for measurements do not include a seam allowance, so you will need to add that in. My casing for the belt is 2" high, so you need to make the fabric 4 inches plus another half for seam allowance. The hems and slits are all bound with stitching.

    There are only three pieces. They are a right side, a left side, and the gusset in the crotch. You will need to decide on measurements based on the documentation discussed above. You know what percent bigger my braies are then my body by the figures given, and you saw what it looks like on me. You will need to decide on lengths and bagginess yourself.

    I start by pinning the pieces together inside out. Don't worry about the casing yet. Sew the pieces together with the gusset in place. I suggest you then put it on, pull it up to your crotch level, and then look at it and decide how far you want the slit on the inside leg to rise. Keep in mind that it shouldn't go too high, or you will have some of your bare leg exposed. This would be very gauche!

    Now you can make the belt casing. You can double check the length between the crotch and belt, but remember that you will be tucking some of it up under the belt, so keep it long. While it's still inside out, fold the top down to what will eventually be the inside (but is now outside) and pin it so that it will be 2 inches tall when sewn.

    You can now turn it right side out. Put it on and belt around it so you can get the bunching distributed evenly. Now you can locate the area which will fall in front of your hip bone. That is in front of you, not to your direct side. NOTE: My civilian version is located correctly, however my gamboised version was built several years ago and the shape makes them need to attach at the side of my hip. Don't do that.

    To make the slits, cut only on the outside layer of the casing. You will absolutely need to finish the edge by folding it in and hand stitching it. This should also open them up somewhat. You should make them just slightly short of the top of the casing. Finish the edges on the hem and hem slit as well.

    You are now finished except for the belt. Cut a length of something you can tie so it is as long as the circumference of the braies plus a few inches. Otherwise the casing will swallow it! To get it through the casing take a wire, like a coat hanger, and bend a hook out of one end. Then grab up the cord with the wire and pass the wire through the casing. Voila!
 

    These chausses are made of wool and have an extra decorative band of black fabric sewn to the top. Early period manuscripts which I have seen have shown sumptuous chausses on royalty with massive embroidered or woven bands at the top. The blue line drawn at the top of the foot is to show you where the seam continues down from the front of the chausse, straight to the center of the big toe. There is a grommet hole at the top of the chausse to correspond to where the slit in the braies will be. The height of the chausse is almost to the crotch, and it usually rises to almost the waist in a sweeping triangular shape. Artistic license may be implying that a straight top was stretched into that triangular shape by the strain of the cords on the stretchy fabric of the chausse, but I doubt it. The MSS show it way too often and way too extendeded to be artistic exaggeration, and the later period illustrations which are more realistically drawn show it as the intended shape.

    Notice that the leg pattern is cut with the knee slightly bent and the toe somewhat extended. If you don't cut it this way, you will not be able to get full range of motion.

    There are essentially three pieces to the chausse. The inside half, the outside half, and the sole. Anything else is extra. One of these "extras" is padding the sole. If you wear modern boots with these, don't pad the sole because you won't fit into the boot. If you wear leather medieval shoes, you will be very happy for the padding.

    Start by placing the sturdy fabric you chose for the sole under your foot and draw a chalk outline. Add a half inch seam allowance.

    Next, cut the same basic shape of the chausse leg out of your wool. It is best to cut on the bias (diagonal of the weave) so that it will be more stretchy. You should check that the width of the pieces is going to add up to the circumference of the leg every few inches. I also add a few inches on each side beyond that measure.

    Put on a pair of shorts and safety pin the top of the chausse outer piece to the shorts. Then place the second piece up to it and pin the top edge  with a couple of temporary pins. This is just because you want everything to stay in place long enough to do the real pinning.

    Next, join the edges all the way down the leg with pins and when you get to the bottom, step on the sole and pin it to the leg pieces at floor level.

    The next step is to do a serious pin job up the leg. Start at the center of the big toe on the front, and at the center of the heel on the back. Pin both front and back seams close all the way up the leg. Make sure the top edge matches.

    You will not be able to remove your leg yet. Take out the temporary pins at the top, releasing from your shorts. Now try to slip off the chausse from your leg. You will need to back off some of the pins at the ankle, and then you are going to need to let out some at the thigh when you kneel. This method of backing off the pins until it fits and you can remove your foot is the best way I know to get it as close fitting as possible.

    Once you have the pins where you want them, sew the seams joining all three pieces. The extra may be cut off, the top edge hemmed, and the whole thing turned right side out.

    You will make some form of anchor point for the cords which attach to the braies. One method is to sew a fabric reinforcing patch there and make a button hole or nice modern metal grommet. Another method is to sew on a leather tip at the top of the triangular rise.

    Another option for the foot is to not have a foot. There are several illuminated manuscripts which show the chausse ending in a stirrup.

    The padded sole option is also a really comfortable alternative. I cut two pieces of the same fabric I was already using for the sole, but I cut a third piece from a stout mover's pad. This padded piece is cut exactly the size of the foot drawing WITHOUT the seam allowance. This gets sandwiched inside and pinned. The three are sewn together a half inch INSIDE of the padding outline. That leaves the two layers of cover fabric as the seam allowance to be joined to the leg pieces as described above.
 
 

    These padded chausses were made many years ago and are still holding up very well. They are a bit warm to wear, but they are a great protection against armor bites. The only thing I would change is I would prefer the triangular rise for the attachment cords to have been in the front rather than the side. They took a lot of effort to make, and I am deeply appreciative of the efforts of Mistress Dulcinea for having created them.

    There are a few exceptional features which you will need to consider. Otherwise it is built essentially like the civilian version.

1)    This version has two layers of fabric with a standard mover's pad quilted diagonally to the inside. The mover's pad was removed from the area behind the knee so that the thickness would not bunch up there. The perimeter of the unpadded area uses the same trick as the padded sole. Sew it to the two outer fabric layers about a half inch inside the edge of the padding.

2)    Front and back seams are reinforced with bias tape seam binding. I strongly suggest that this not be used. Both the outer layer of fabric and the seam binding fabric should be made of very stout material. They will be up against rivet heads and metal edges so they get a lot of abrasion.

3)    There is a slit at the ankle in the back of the chausse. It allows the chausse to be close fitting like a mail chausse, and like a mail chausse it is drawn together with a cord. I have four holes with grommets on each side and lace it up with a leather thong. This idea was based on extrapolation of the mail chausse on a 12th c. sculpture of Roland on Verona Cathedral.
 
 

 

4)    Instead of using a leather sole, I too have a shoe under the chausse. However, my shoe is one which is worn over all sorts of terrain, from outdoors in the woods to indoors on polished (slippery) gymnasium floors. Hobnails would just be a bad way to go! My solution was to buy very inexpensive boat shoes. They have rubber soles, canvas tops, and a plastic shield in the toe. I go through about a pair every 9 months. The soles wear down.

    The top of the foot of my chausses ends at floor level. The edges are bound with seam binding. They are made deep enough to fit all the way over the shoe tops. Once there, they are sewn onto the juncture between the canvas shoe top and the rubber sole. One of the places my padded chausses take a lot of wear and tear is this lower area. Another is on top of the big toe. I guess I drag the top of my foot as I step forward sometimes. There is another place prone to heavy wear. It is where the bottom of my 16 ga. steel greaves rest against the padding.

    One last thing I would like to mention is that even with a steel polyn (knee cop) worn over the padded chausse, the chausse alone is insufficient for minimum armor standards of the Society for Creative Anachronism. I dress for battle with a modern knee pad under my braies. My steel polyn straps either around the padded cuisse, or in the past several years it straps around a gamboised cuisse which I wear over the gamboised chausse. Yes, with a full gambeson (Tee tunic style with no arm vents) I tend to get very warm. Consider this while you plan your kit. I have a LOT of flexibility, and my gear is very light, but I heat up fast. Wetting the gamboised materials helps a lot, and so does getting into condition.
 
 
 

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