Making Bracers/Vambraces/Gauntlets Part 3: Assembling the Bracers, How to make thin leather into thick leather (or at least act like it)

See Tutorial Part 1 and Part 2 here 


The 5 part tutorial is here.

Assembling the Bracers
STEP 1: Cut out your pieces
You will now cut out your bracer pattern in leather, in your 'sandwich filling' quilting medium (batting or felt or fleece. I found felt to be a bit stiff for me, and batting to be too expensive, so I used fleece. A fleece blanket actually...), and in canvas/broadcloth etc whose color roughly matches your leather. I was using brown leather, and I used a brown twill canvas that was already somewhat broken in (my favorite skirt in college...).

Leather, Canvas, and Fleece

STEP 2: SEW YOUR MIDDLE AND BOTTOM PIECES TOGETHER
Now I found that trying to assemble all 3 pieces together at once meant pieces shifting around, etc. which is a pain. Especially since even if you rip stitches out of leather you have a little trail of needle holes.
It saved a lot of time if I quickly sewed the filler/fleece to my bottom canvas piece first, so to make the next step simpler when I sewed it to the actual leather.

Ta-Da, Fleece sewn to canvas.

 Note, if your fleece sticks out a bit past your canvas, trim it to the canvas. Its like, we don't want the sandwich filling to be coming out the middle (especially in my classy bright blue) so we want the top and bottom sandwich pieces to be bigger than the filling.

STEP 3: SEW THE LEATHER TO THE CANVAS/FLEECE PIECE, LEAVING ONE SIDE OPEN
You'll want to put the "right sides together" which means, the side of your leather you want showing, against the canvas side. So on the outside you see the wrong side of your leather, and the fleece. It's like sewing a pillow case. And like a pillow-case, you'll want to leave one side open so you can flip it inside out.
I sewed across the wrist, down one side, across the bottom, and stopped at the other side.

Note, I left one side open.

STEP 4: FLIP IT INSIDE OUT, SEW DOWN THE OPEN SIDE
Now, we'll flip it inside out, (or rather, right side out).

Ta-da...now we'll sew down the open side.

Now its looking a lot more like a bracer. But note in the picture below how "puffy" it is, it looks like a sleeping bag, and not like a thick piece of leather.

Puffy sleeping bag effect.

STEP 5: TOPSTITCH IT ALL AROUND THE EDGES
This is where you make it look like a thick piece of leather. It will now behave like one piece, and less like a puffy sleeping bag with the opening sewn shut.

Top-stitched all around the edges.

No more puffy effect. Acts like a thick piece of leather.

 This technique works with thin leather for everything, even making hauberks out of thin coat leather. The trick is in the topstitching (and quilting does it even more) in anchoring the thin leather to a thick base, so it bends like its thick (and doesn't shift and wrinkle)

I should have used it more in Josh's Faramir 1.0 hauberk, instead I left it at the 'puffy sleeping bag stage' and so while the thin leather was attached to canvas, it wasn't anchored, and thus still shifted around and wrinkled when my son pushed on it.

Here, it looks great, because there's not little toddler putting stress on it.

Here, you can see how its wrinkling---because I didn't anchor it to the canvas properly. Thus when Isaiah stuck his hand there, he could get the leather to still wrinkle and look thin. If it were anchored better to the canvas, it would not have wrinkled.

In the next post, we'll cover quilting the leather, putting in grommets (without a hole punch...who has 1/4" hole punches lying around their house?), and weathering/dyeing it.

 COMING SOON....

VERY IMPORTANT TIPS FOR SEWING WITH LEATHER
First off, use the thin cheap(er) leather to quilt. You don't want to be forcing hauberk thickness of leather through your sewing machine. You can (with grit and determination) hand sew the thick stuff. Killing your sewing machine is not worth saving a little time. Test on a scrap, if your sewing machine sounds like its straining, don't do it. (Also, thick leather won't quilt very well anyway)

I CANNOT STRESS THE IMPORTANCE ENOUGH, OF USING A BIG NEEDLE. Thinner needles will bend (especially with all the layers of fabric, quilting etc) and cause you all sorts of tension problems. SO. NOT. WORTH. IT.
You can get a pack of sewing machine needles(6 needles) from Walmart for 2 bucks. There will be some size 11 (quilting cotton), some size 14 (jeans), and some size 17 or 19 or something (I forget).
USE THE BIGGEST ONE. 
I never paid much attention to needle size, and spent a lot of frustration on bent needles and messes of thread that ensued. This size 19 (or 17?) one has lasted me through 8 sets of bracers without bending so far. So much time saved.

Another thing sewing with leather (if it isn't all suede-like) is that the 'waterproof' side has friction issues with my presser foot. I could probably get some fancy foot that would fix this, or sew with a layer of tissue paper, etc, but all I did was sew with my cloth side up, and my leather side against the face-plate (which didn't have as many friction issues.)

I fiddled with stitch length, I liked something between 8 and 9 stitches per inch, it seemed to give a darker 'line' and thus seemed a tad more like tooling. (But not so tight that you essentially perforate the leather, and make it tear easily). Figure out what stitch length you want on a scrap, with the proper layers of quilting.

A NOTE ON QUILTING: It is essential that you don't quilt the lines too close together, or the design doesn't really have space to "puff" and look 3 dimensional. I found that when I quilted lines closer than 1/2" apart, the whole thing just went flat and boring.
Also, the design seems to puff up more as you vigorously rub it with shoe polish on a cloth when you are done quilting. If you don't want to dye or polish it, just rub it with a cloth at the end. It helps the whole thing fluff up and look cool.

Everyday Lord of the Rings inspired Wear: Eowyn Refugee Jumper Type 1

This is what I wear on a normal day. Its comfy, and practical, and I feel awesome.

My version. Don't worry, it doesn't make you look pregnant. I am pregnant. Almost 20 weeks.

It's loosely inspired by Eowyn's Jumper ensembles ("Refugee Outfit").

I really like Jumper outfits with shirts rolled up to the elbow. It just looks so....awesome. Like your life is full of action and adventure. Of imminent battle and defense, or chasing small children and keeping them alive.

Mine is based on the "Gothic Fitted Dress/Cotehardie/14th century women's dress", made by 4 panel construction, self lined from the shoulder to the hip. Laces up the front (yayy nursing!), and is *very* supportive which is very nice. (Here is a picture of one, Here are instructions to making your own) It is a very economical way of cutting, with gores inserted which makes for almost no waste. This dress was made from 4 yards of 33" wide fabric, which translates to about 2-2.5 yards of 60". There was literally a handful of scraps left.


Authentic ones have sleeves, and are made out of wool, linen, or silk.
Mine is made from cotton twill (medium weight) canvas I got for $1/yard on clearance at Jomar in Philly. I dyed it myself with RIT dark brown dye and salt (in a bucket, alas, hence the blotchiness). The lacing cord is a 4 strand braid of the cheapest yarn at walmart. The eyelets were poked through the fabric with an awl (or a chopstick) and hand-sewn with DMC floss from walmart. I stiffened the hem with a braid of scratchy twine from Lowes. (alot cheaper than horse-hair braid...).
All in all, I think the dress cost around $7.

The circlet is gauge 20 steel wire from lowes (110 ft for 5 bucks), around my head twice, wrapped in cotton thread. Worn like this.[insert link] I think it looks good with a braid.

I wear this outfit surprisingly a lot. I love how supportive it is, it lifts the bustline giving the illusion of a waist to this 20 week pregnant woman.  And the gores mean it fits at 20 weeks although it was made from an unpregnant me. And the front lacing means I can nurse in it.
I guess medieval styles were meant to take pregnancy/nursing in stride...
.....almost like its normal or something :)

Baby and me at 19.5 weeks

Somehow, in self timer pictures I always manage to look deranged. Josh took all the other pictures, which explains why they're so much better.

More Elven Cloaks: Tips and Tutorial How to Sew a Lord of the Rings Half Circle Cloak.

I'm in the middle of a mad sewing dash, trying to finish outfits for Halloween.


AND I SEWED 2 ELVEN CLOAKS!

I love how the hood turned out. This one was unlined, but the fabric was thick enough that it worked really well.

I had promised my twin to make cloaks for her and her roomate for a Halloween party. I thought, half-circle cloak?  I got this totally figured out.
Heh.
I learned a lot, I think I've perfected my cloak making technique now.
First, I used the Medieval piecing technique to get the half-circle cloak long enough.

From a Bog Man http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/cloth/bockclok.html

 Last time, I had used 55" wool, and cut that into a half-circle with a radius 55". But I had not accounted for the neck hole (radius 8"), and thus ended up with a cloak only 47" neck to shoulder (after hemming, perhaps 46"). It showed off my awesome boots (too large hand-me-down snow boots with twill tape wrapped around to keep them from flopping. Looks kinda like the boots in Skyrim), but was a bit shorter had wanted.

Last time (no piecing) cloak ended up shorter than I wanted, approx 46-47" from shoulder to edge

So this time, when making cloaks for my twin and her friend, I was determined to use the piecing technique.

See how the "pattern" is wider than the width of the fabric. So you piece in the back edge. (I just haphazardly drew my pieces, depending on how big your semicircle is, you can find the best arrangement for the pieces. You could do it with one piece or as many as you need.

It worked really well. I made my twin's cloak, cutting it with a initial radius of 62-63" (using piecing to fill up the edge on the bottom, like the Medieval example above), with the 8" radius cut out of the top for the neck, I ended up with a shoulder to edge length of 54-55". At my 5'4" height, this brushed the ground. I ended up cutting 3" or so off the bottom and getting a nice length of 51"-52".

What I ended up with, perfect for a 5' 4" person

I thought it ended in just the right spot.

For the closure, I used 2 metal rings we had made from a hanger (instructions here,[ insert link]), and brown cotton canvas I sewed 2 layers together, then flipped inside out and ironed to make an "applique". I then handsewed this to the cloak, and sewed the rings onto it. Its then an adjustable opening, with a leather strap. I did a little quick leave embroidery on them.

And here's a few more glam shots of it.

Ignore my silly expression. Note the beautiful drape of the cloak.

I LOVED the drape of this fabric. It looks like linen, although its actually 100% cotton. It's medium-heavy weight is matched with a loose enough weave, that it drapes really well (unlike canvas, whose tight weave keeps even its heavy weight draping stiffly). I dyed it to its current elvish color myself, with dark green RIT dye, and extremely hot water and salt.

Sadly, I didn't get the best pictures of this. I was up till 11:30 last night finishing the Princess Leia dress, and then spent all morning/early afternoon sewing up these cloaks. Then I had 2 minutes to snap pictures, and then we rushed to the post office to mail them before they closed. Hence I didn't get to show off the drape as well as I wish. Just trust me, it looks awesome.

For the neck-hood attachment, I knew I needed at least a few pleats in the cloak, so it wouldn't pull so hard on my shoulders like my wool one did. I put 2 pleats in on each side, approx 5" from the neck opening, and then another 1" away from that. Each pleat was about 1/2" thick, "eating up" about 1" each. See diagram.

It worked really well, just enough ease in the shoulders that it didn't pull funny, and yet not so fitted (like a bag) that you lose the cool sweep of the half-circle drape from the shoulders.

CLOAK #2
This one, I had some adventures. First off, I didn't have enough cloak fabric for 2 cloaks, so I went to walmart, where the only thing I could find that could possibly work, was a beautiful deep forest green fabric that was sadly, rather light-weight (quilting cotton weight) but was 100% cotton, claimed to be 44/45" wide, and had this beautiful soft feel to it. I bought 4 yards, and washed it on hot and dried it in the dryer to shrink it.

Hah.

It turned into the crinkliest stiffest stuff ever. I washed it 2 more times, trying no soap, air dry, and more dryer dry. It remained stubbornly stiff. Which is what you want for a vintage sundress, but not what you want for an elven cloak.  (the drape is all about the loosness/tightness of the weave ratio to the weight of the fabric.)
Well,  I knew with multiple washings/wearings it would soften over time. Theoretically. Praying. But the color was gorgeous and we didn't have time to go back to the store.
Then I measured it. It had somehow shrunk (?!?) to 38.5" from its vaunted 44/45".
I had a brief freak out.
I tried to cut creatively, to piece, etc, but there just wasn't enough fabric in the 4 yds.
In the end I ended up with a cloak 47.5" from shoulder to hem, just a smidge longer than my wool cloak. I was sad. But it still works, and shows off your boots. I think Faramir's cloak hit him about there too.
So that was the sad part.


The good part, was I spent a lot of time trying to make it look beautiful. I sewed on a strip of brown fabric to the inside edge of the front, and really liked how it made the forest green pop. I then bag lined the inside of the hood with brown, and it really really looks good. (If I say so myself)

You see the facing strips down the front. And how awesome the hood looks. Ignore the weird faces, I was tired.
Strangely enough, it seems it did come down a lot longer than I thought it would. Interesting.

I really like how it looks when the hood is down, how it falls and the brown peaking out.

How the hood looks down with the cloak thrown back. Ignore the face.

I went a little crazy with the applique. 2 layers of brown broadcloth, cut and sewn in the shape of a leaf, flipped inside out to hide the seams, hand embroidered.
Also to make up for the cloaks other problems, I used a fancy clasp that adds instant class. I tried to mirror the leaf theme with the applique.
I think it worked :)

I was quite pleased with how my embroidery turned out. And how the clasps mirrored the effect.

When I was done, I noticed it didn't seem as short as my wool cloak. Perhaps I used a lot more in the hem of the wool cloak, making it shorter. With this cloak I used very narrow hems.
Anyways, at the end of the day, I think it looks pretty awesome :)

Things I learned:

1. French seams are awesome, don't do the half-job of just felling it, taking the time to trim and iron in order to enclose the raw edge is totally worth it (especially for many washings...)
2. Stabilize the front opening. Fold over/hem the front opening twice, or better yet, sew a facing onto it (that folds under, enclosing all raw edges and sewn down on the inside) to stabilize the drape of the front opening.
3. Bag Line the hood. It looks really good. Especially if you do it in brown.
4. When Sewing the hood to the cloak, sew it with a facing strip, then fold down the facing strip over the raw edges, enclosing everything nicely before sewing it down. No scratchy raw edges at the neck!
5. For a 5'4" person, a shoulder to hem length of 51-52 is nice.
6. Keeping circular hems as narrow as possible and try not to stretch as you are hemming, it keeps it from going all rumply.
7. Don't trust the bolt when it says 44/45", bring your measuring tape and measure it. And if you do get 45" wide, buy at least 4.5 yards.
8. You never know what a cotton's drape/weave/softness will really be until its shrunk and washed
9. Avoid quilting cotton weight for cloaks in the first place

Sneak Peak~~~~
update: here's pictures of the finished dress
I finished a (gorgeous) rendition of Princess Leia's Ceremonial Dress for my sister in law. I improved the bodice and sleeves from the original design, in my humble opinion.
I actually inserted in invisible zipper, drafted double French darts and (drumroll) SEWED WITH CHIFFON!!!
It was a series of firsts for me, and it turned out absolutely beautiful. Photoshoot and construction
details coming soon.

It looks like these, only much better :)

And to me, it looks kinda like Arwen's angel dress.

I also sewed Isaiah up a little Luke Skywalker outfit. I haven't finished the outfit yet, more on that too...
And still am working on Jenny's R2D2 dress for tomorrow.... ahhhhh too much sewing.....

Re-Dyeing the Wool, and StarCraft 2

         So I re-dyed the wool last night, as my husband played to the end of StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty. I tried to follow what I did last time, except I was lazy and skipped the measuring the water temp with the meat thermometer. Then I made a wild guess as to how much Sunshine Orange Rit dye I should use to transform my
              bluish 'Dark Green' --->'Olive Green' ,
             purplish 'Dark Brown'---> warm Dark Brown.
I thought a ration of 2 parts (green, or dark brown) to 1 part (sunshine orange), should do it. So fabric that had been dyed with, 4 oz.(1/2 cup) RIT dark green, I added to 2 oz. (1/4 cup) RIT sunshine orange. And fabric dyed with 1/2 cup RIT dark brown, I added 1/4 cup RIT sunshine orange.
       Then in the pivotal 5 minutes, instead of stirring, I ran to watch a Star Craft cut scene/cinematic.
It was very tense, I wanted to know if Mengsk was going to turn on Raynor after depositing him in Hell/Char. And it was incredibly gripping, Raynor clinging to the hope that she could be exorcised, that there was something left of her, that he fight his way into the mouth of hell to find if there was some soul left.  Anyways. I didn't stir the wool.
      When I came back, the damage was done. The green came out very blotchy indeed, spots of greenish olive drab, and spots of orangey olive drab. More-ever my ratios were way off, I used WAYYY too much orange. I got olive drab instead of olive green. And I got something akin to burnt orange, instead of a warm brown. Also, I learned that when redying wool, as soon as you put it in hot water again, the old color starts to bleed out. Of course. The fibers are opening again. So I lost a lot of green and brown respectively.

This is before....

After, too much orange....

So I learned. Things to do next time

1. Don't be sloppy. Measure your water's temperature
2. STIR STIR STIR (even if it means doing dye batches one after another.)
3. NOT SO MUCH ORANGE.  Next time do 4 Dark Green: 1 Sunshine Orange to get olive green. Or maybe 6 Dark Green: 1 Sunshine Orange. (So 1/2 cup Dark Green, to 1-2 T. sunshine orange). And for the Dark Brown, just add a tad of orange. So 1/2 cup Dark Brown, to 1 T. Sunshine Orange.)
4. Mix all dyes the first time, so there is only one dying process. Otherwise your other colors bleed out into the dye water, and there's no telling what the real ratio absorbed was. And its harder to get the 2 tone blotches that way.
5. Don't try to watch Star Craft 2 while dyeing.

So thats what I learned. I think I will call it a day for my poor wool (its been dyed enough), and make the medieval dress out of it anyway. It isn't quite going to be the dressy medieval garment I had envisioned, prob look much more worn and ranger-y. (Josh brightly pointed out I could think of the blotches as Camo...) And the orangey cotehardie....Sigh. At least Burnt Orange looks good on me. I don't know what 'trim' to pair it with now. The gold looking stuff will look like a mustard 70's couch now. Thinking....

Oh yes, and Star Craft 2 was so intensely symbolic and felt...real. Better then a dress anyways.

Dyeing Wool

I dyed the wool. Things I noticed

Shrinkage. On initial hot ("heavy" setting on washing machine) wash, my nice woven wool went from 7.5 yards to 6.75 yards, and 3.3 yards to 3 yards respectively. Thats shrinkage of around 0.3 per 3.3 yards. After dyeing (at 130 F) each 2 yard increment shrunk by an inch or two. So if buying (nice woven) wool, but 1/2 yard more per 3 yards.

How I dyed them. I cut them into approximately 2-2.5 yard increments of my prewashed fabric. I filled the bucket with around 3 gallons of water 130 F (I acheived this with around 2.5 gallons of hot tap water, and 0.5 gallon of boiling water) and checked it with a meat thermometer. Then I put in a package of RIT dye (dark green) and around 2 T. laundry detergent, mixed it up. Then put in the dry fabric for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. After 5 minutes, I added 1 cup white vinegar, then stirred for 5 more minutes, then cold rinsed over and over. The pieces each only shrunk a couple inches or so. I found putting half a pot of boiling water per bucket was much nicer to the fabric then a full pot (that fabric felted more).

RIT dye errs on the side of being blue. Very blue. So the dark brown had a purple undertone to it (I prefer oranger/tan undertones), and the 'Dark Green' when dyed lightly (10 min) anyway, is kind of a dusky blue green. I want something more like olive. So next time I will always have some 'sunshine orange' (something kind of orangey yellow) to add to my greens and browns. I think I will try redyeing my batch with sunshine yellow, to acheive a warmer brown and olive green.