Almoner - a medieval coin purse

Pockets had yet to be invented back in the medieval ages. Since holding on to a handful of money wasn't the best laid plan, the people had almoners to carry coins (their alms) and other small necessities. The almoner was tied with purse strings and tied to ones belt.



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Today the kids made their own almoners. They used fleece, yellow to make it look like it could be leather or fine cloth, and cotton yarn. We chose fleece so that they wouldn't have to worry about fraying edges and because we have boat loads of it. They laid out the fleece, put a plate upside down on the fleece, traced around the plate and cut out the circle. All around the outer edge of the circle they cut little slits with a sharp scissor about 1/2 inch apart to lace the yarn through. To make the lacing easy, we folded a bread bag twisty in thirds for a make shift needle. Once the yarn is laced through just cinch it up and it is ready to use. Dancer really like this and made one large and one small one. Hers is pictured above and Spark's is below.