In my stash I have some nice thin goat skin leather. Unfortunately, it was wrinkled and was starting to feel a little dry.
I used a generous application of Weiman’s leather conditioner to ease the wrinkles and return the suppleness.
Other leather conditioners, such as mink oil, would have also worked to add oils back into the leather.
My sister brought me some linen towels from the 70s. I liked the prints on them, so decided to use them as decoration. They all had a narrow sleeve at the top, so I cut down wire hangers to make hanging rods.
I took leather cordage and tied it to the wire loops.
I didn’t like how the wire sagged, so I tacked the linen to the leather about a third of the way in with cotton thread.
The production of calendar towels began in the 1950s and was an invention of Stevens Linen Works in Dudley, Massachusetts.
This is a wrap bracelet that I made for my sister in April of 2015. It is made from red leather cord, 4mm garnet and quartz beads, and beading thread. The remarkable thing about it is that it was sitting next to my chair next to the fireplace when the house caught on fire in March of 2015. I had been working on it and it was in a project bag. I needed to give everything a rinse to get rid of the ash, but I was able to complete the bracelet.
I really missed an opportunity to do a morse code message in the beading.
Reveal! Here is a picture of the two leather cosplay pieces I made for a Link costume.
I think the pieces came out well, especially for cosplay. I hope that they hold up to use. The sewn areas should be fine, it is traditional construction for leather. It is the foam and hot glue that I worry about.
I did put a sealing coat on all the leather to help protect it from accidental spills. It put a nice shine on the leather as well.
For the finishing touches on the cosplay Link armor, I used leather cement to attach the leather to the EVA foam, so the leather didn’t loose form when worn. To retain the rolled edge, I glued in cotton macrame cord.
I sewed on metal buckles and hardware using a saddle stitch and corset stitch with waxed linen cord.
For future reference, when placing grommets, make sure your pliers can reach the intended location. I set my grommets in too far, and had to use a vice to attach the metal, which was a pain.
Tomorrow, the reveal.
Critters and Craft 