Leather Wrist Cuff

To clarify the next few posts for those interested: I went to the Ohio Renaissance Festival this last weekend, and I made a few crafts as prep for that, and one or two as a result of inspiration gotten there. This particular craft was one I made for my costume. It was supposed to be a full length, arm covering piece of armor... unfortunately, none of my leather pieces were big enough to make an arm guard that big/long, so I made do with what I had. Frankly, I almost like it better this way, since I can kind of wear it just as a chunky bracelet. Maybe a fashion statement. In any case, here goes.

Unfortunately for you guys, the only picture I took of me actually wearing this was after I had started fixing the 'not-covering-the-whole-arm' problem,by making a scale lather guard. Doing stuff scale stuff is harder than you might think.. I'm still not done (I've also been slacking/focusing on other projects)

I also appear to have somewhat manly-looking arm from this angle. Interesting.

 So, I started with this piece of leather. Remember that big bag of leather I got from Michael's? Well, this is from that. I chose this piece because it was the widest of all the pieces I had.

 You can pretty much see how much of my wrist it covers just from this pic. Like I said, not very much.

 I used this strip of paper to measure the length around my wrist. It's hard to take pics like this, but I actually used the hand holding the camera to draw a line there.

 I folded it in half along that line.

 Then I guestimated the middle of that rounded bit on my leather. My pieces actually came with those pre-cut, which it why it has that weird divot in it, but pikers can't be choosers. Or however that phrase goes.

 I used this old parking pass as my straight-edge for this project. No big deal, just a more convenient size than my massive metal ruler.

Major suggestion right here: You didn't, if you did it my way, measure super precisely. ADD 1/4 INCH to what you're cutting right now. You'll appreciate it down the line. Trim it back until it fits, then go to the next step. I had to trim back at least 3 times, be remember that you can always cut more off, you can't cut more on.

 Here's what your piece should look like, more or less. The reason your sides/my sides are slanty is because your arm isn't a straight tube, it widens as you go towards your elbow. Thus, more leather is needed back there.

 You can round the corners at this point, or leave then pointy. I find/found it more comfy to round them, but I also had a nifty template to do so with.

 And I was left with a piece of leather looking something like this.

 At this point I did something I should have done before I trimmed back my edges or rounded my corners- I soaked it. Just fill your sink with warm-ish water, and leave it to soak for 15-20 minutes. This is a trick I found since last time, and I can vouch for it doing wonders as far as ease of working goes.

 The real trick is to let it soak until the bubbles go away. My bubbles were small, yours might be big. In any case, just FYI: if you get pre-dyed leather, that's fine, but apparently this is what happens when you soak it. Perfectly fine, doesn't stain your sink or anything, but you get some pigment down there.

 Towel off the drippy-ness, then set out your leather o your work space.

 Get your spoon (I got this tool at Micheal's, but honestly a spoon works just as well). Use the rounded end, and go along the edges of the leather with it. You won't think you're doing much, and you have to press really hard TO do anything, but if you do it right, all in one direction, this should 'finish' the edges of your leather.

This is the point at which you decide how many holes you want on each side. I decided on 3, but however any you want is fine.

I  then stenciled a 'pattern' into the leather. This, at least for my piece, was exhausting and hard, just because of how thick the leather was, so I just did something simple, as you can see. This can be done with a tool, or with anything pointy, even a golfing tee.

 At this point, I threaded my cuff and left it to dry overnight. You'll need overnight for a cuff so wet to completely dry, and you want to lace it up so it'll dry in the shape you want it, no flat.

 And this is the final product all mink oiled and such. Remember to mink oil your stuff (see my other leather bracelet post for how), or your leather will dry, crack, look bad, and be uncomfortable much faster.

And now you can look, wear, and enjoy!

T-shirt Infinity Scarf

   I've really started wearing infinity scarves a lot lately. I'm not quite sure why, but something about scarves I've always liked, and combining that with the no-ends-to-get-in-the-way factor of infinity scarves just make them perfect. Plus, I don't have to constantly feel like I need to fix or rearrange my scarf this way.
   In any case, now that we've established that I like wearing these scarves, lets also establish that I really like making them, too. There are so many different ways of doing this, and this is just one of many. This way is, arguably, harder than many other ways, but I'm pleased with the result.

This is the scarf looped twice around my neck. At the end of the post, you'll also see pics of it looped once (not at all), three times, and four times. Each way is just a different look, all of which have some sort of application. I wear my scarves this way usually when I'm trying to look slightly more formal.

 I started this project with an old T-shirt I got by abandonment, and I felt no problem with cutting it up because
1) it had holes
2)I've been wanting a stripey scarf, and this material looks/feels comfy
Unfortunately for me, this particular Tshirt had a funky elastic thing in its seams, I'm sure to be stylish somehow...

 This is a close up of said annoying elastic. I unpicked this, but it turned out to be something of a redundant step.

 This is the tshirt after I unpicked the elastic (bigger looking now, can you tell?)

 And this is the shirt after I cut off the side seams and sleeves, and cut the shirt in half. This is the reason unpicking turned out to be redundant. Of course, it made it easier to measure half, but not a big deal.

 At this point, I had two strips that looked like this in the middle.

 I solved this by cutting the whole neckline piece out. The nice thing about my stripey shirt is that I could just cut along the stripe closest to the seam, and end up with a straight line that way.

 Of course, this left me with 4 pieces rather than 2, but it's fine, since the end sizes were all the same.

At this point, I sewed three of the pieces (the two longs and one of the shorts) together, just adding on until I got the length I wanted, then sewed it into a tube, and finished it off, in much the same way as in my earlier scarf post.

Sorry for no pics, but it didn't occur to me until afterwards to take any.

One thing you should take note of: If you are doing stripes, make sure to line them up when sewing your tube. It doesn't have to be perfect, but being completely off will just look bad. With smaller stripes, this gets super obnoxious really fast. Stick with it- it's worth it, trust me. You'll have a lot more satisfaction with your end product.

As you can see, this scarf turned out a bit thinner and ropier than some, but it's also about as long as you want an infinity scarf. Or, at least, about as long as I  want one.

 Doubled over, as seen earlier, it looks like this.

 If you add another loop, it looks like this.

And another (4 loops total, now) looks like this. Usually  can only fit 3 around my head, but since this material is a bit stretchy, and the scarf is a tiny bit longer than some others I've made, I could get this many around.. and I think I like it the best this way. For casual wear, anyway.

In any case, enjoy! These are by no means the only ways of wearing your new scarf, so experiment and enjoy!

Little Book of Earrings

My sister is about to embark upon a one-and-a-half year long volunteer mission trip for the LDS (Mormon) church, and in light of that, she's been doing tons of shopping and etc.

One thing that she found and absolutely fell in love with was a 'Little Book of Earrings'. Of course, with that price point, not to mention the international shipping to deal with, she asked me to make her one. This is my attempt to do so, and I'd say it turned out pretty well.

 Unlike most of my projects that I post on here, this was a multi-day process, if only because I had to wait for glue to dry.

 All this project took was some felt (color of choice), the sleeve from an old leather jacket, card stock, white Elmer's glue, and a sewing machine.

And some scissors, pins, thread, etc that you always need...

 So, to start with, I go felt. roughly paper-sized sheets can be found anywhere, I got mine at Micheal's.

I started by folding a sheet of felt over and sticking a piece of card stock in the middle, to form one page of the book (I thought).

 I then pinned it on tight, so there wasn't any slipping going on with the card stock and felt, and sewed it.

 I tried to use a rather small seam, but that's up to you. what you should make sure you do, though, is to practice before you actually sew. Try sewing with different tensions, stitch lengths, etc. This gets especially important when it comes time to sew the leather on later. Everything you're going to be sewing is thicker and tougher than normal materials, so just keep that in mind.

I also sewed around the edges for good measure and a better look, and this is what I came up with. I thought the page looked a bit big, so I folded it in half.

 Which, of course, formed two pages. My thought on this pic was that I would, as in the original product, bore holes for each pair of earrings to go. However, I adjusted that thought, thinking she can put her own earrings in, but this was still the best pic I had of the folded-over page.

With two sheets and four pages done, I decided it was enough, and started the binding process. For those of you who've never bound a book, or seen one bound,  you want to be careful, because you need a big, long needle to get through, you can't have your stitches too close to each other, and stitching too many times can weaken the binding, rather than strengthening it.

 This is what the binding looked like when I was done. I used doubled-over thread, and I glued the ends to keep them from going anywhere.

 I then started making the cover. I cut out two pieces of card stock a bit bigger than the pages, like so. I didn't want too much overlap, but you might want a bit more than this.

After that, I got a sheet of white felt, wrapped it around, and sandwiched it in with the two pieces of card stock.

 I wanted this tight, wince this is going to be the cover.

 I then glued the card stock onto the felt, and stuck the whole thing under a box of books overnight to dry. sorry, but the pics I tried to take of that step didn't come out super well.

 After it was done drying, I attached the pages to the cover by sewing. Once again, I used the 'X' pattern. Note that it was much harder this time to get through all of the layers.

 I trimmed the excess white felt, and voila! the book is done.

As long as you don't mind 'done' meaning 'ugly', etc.

 This is the inside, currently.

 Now I started on the pretty part of the cover. This piece of leather is from an old leather jacket of one of my sisters, but you could use sheet leather from a craft store, fabric, or whatever you want.

 This is its size relative to the book.

 It wraps around a little more than 3 times. Perfect, since my sister wants a flap closure.

 To attach this was a bit of a process. First, I positioned it,

 Then I glued the card stock onto the leather, and let it sit overnight again to dry.

 I then trimmed the excess leather around the edges. I wanted to sew the sides under, so I left about half an inch on all sides, but you could be done here.

 The flap closure is still small, so I'll have to trim it.

 This is after I sewed it. As you can see, I'm by no means a professional at this, but I think it worked pretty well.

 I extended the back cover seams all the way down, so when I wrap it around, it should be the right width now.

 Like I said, everyone makes mistakes. My sister is ok with this, though. Or she hasn't noticed it. Try to avoid folding over your leather, because it's a mess to try to fix.

 Here's the length before I trimmed it.

 Here's the length she said she wanted it trimmed to.

 Here's me having cut it into a rounded closure flap. I decided not to hem this one, since leather doesn't fray, and hemming rounded leather just looks bad.

 It was all good, except that it had no way of staying closed.

 This is the book open.

I solved the closure problem with some velcro. I sewed this on, as you can sort of see.

And there we go! Your very own 'Little Book of Earrings".

Enjoy!