Pattens documentation and pictures

Pattens By Engeline Vonfoxridge
Name of piece and what layer it represents:
These are pattens and they represent the accessory layer.
Period and origin of time:
The period of origin I am using is the 1300’s my persona is of Austrian decent so I am using Austria as the place.
What material was used in period:
The materials that were used in period were alder, poplar, willow and beech.
Material I used:

The material that I used was poplar wood.
How I assembled the pieces:
I went to the store and picked out the poplar to make my pattens. I traced the bottom of Mike’s shoe on a piece of paper and then traced that onto the wood. I cut the shape with table saw. Then I used a grinder to smooth out the shape and sand the rough wood. I oiled the patten with Linseed oil. I measured, cut, and attached leather straps to the pattens.
What I did and the difference between:
In period patten makers had blanks that they shaped to each person. Then they chiseled and sanded the wood to make the patten. They used hand tools.　

History:
The earliest patten fragment in the collection [of the Museum of London] is part of a plain toe strap... dating from the early 12th century, but the earliest complete patten... belongs to the early 13th century. ... By far the largest group of wooden pattens may be assigned to the second half of the 14th century."Shoes of the period had thin soles; because of this pattens were commonly used. Pattens are an overshoe with a raised sole to raise the wearer up off of the dirty streets, above the mud and the dirt ( including human waste from chamber pots that were usually thrown directly into the street and animal dung.) In a time when road and street paving was minimal and indoor stone floors were very cold. Pattens only make contact with the ground through the two or three strips of vertical wood that made up the bottom of the sole and raised the wearer up, sometimes by as much as four inches. The sole was made of wood, with a leather vamp that tied over the foot with leather or cloth bands. The wealthy had a pair of pattens for each set of shoes so they would match. Medieval and early modern overshoes are now all usually referred to as pattens for convenience. In some cases the overshoes had small pieces of metal on the bottoms, used to protect the shoes.

References:
Egan, Geoff & Pritchard Frances (2002) Dress Accessories c. 1150-1450. Boydell Press, Woodbridge.
Newton, Stella Mary (1980) Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince. A Study of the years 1340-1365. Boydell
Press, Woodbridge. Nockert, Margareta
Piponnier, Francoise & Mane, Perrine (1997) Dress in the Middle Ages. Yale University Press. New Haven and London.