Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Simple Steampunk Leather Stitchery

Greetings, good folks.  I realize it has been a long time since I've posted.  Manfred, do fetch our good readers some lemonade.  

This is a brief little summertime show-and-tell sort of post, to show you my solution upon finding myself finally in possession of some lovely little brass doodads (at long last!), with no way of attaching them to my belt.

And one evening, sitting at home, I found myself staring at these little items, a brass magnifying glass, a pocket sundial and compass, and a boxwood & brass folding rule, and decided to fix it.  Right then.

After all, I had a bit of lightweight scrap leather matching what I used to made a key fob a couple of years ago.  And I had a sewing machine.  Righty then!

So ... here's what I made:

For the magnifying glass, I took a narrow strip of leather, doubled it over lengthwise, stitched it closed, and made a loop, doubled and stitched a second much narrower band to make a restraining strap.  Details are shown below:  left is taken partway through the process through, and right is it completed.
There is a loop to attach it to the belt (shown above left as the reinforced top joined portion, which was folded back and attached to the suspension loop when the narrow restraining band was stitched on.
Next was to create a pouch for the little sundial / compass dooflicky.  (That's the technical term, don't bandy it about too much!)  I simply took a long piece of leather, folded it into two equal pieces, which I stitched together to form the pouch, and one shorter piece I cut in a curve as a top.  Turned it rightside out after stitching, handsewed on a button and a loop of cord to close it, and voila. 
Before stitching the sides together, I machine stitched a loop on the back so I could run a belt through it.
The pouch for the folding ruler was made of two pieces of leather, folded over to make a belt loop at the top, and with a pocket added onto the front (since it was long, and narrow, I wanted the double layer of leather to give it some body and support.
So, short, sweet, and simple.  And no need for professional leather-working skills, or awls, or punches, of any of that sort of thing.  Just scissors, a small piece of leather, some imagination, and my trusty 50+ year-old Singer sewing machine.

5 comments:

  1. This is amazing. Thank you so much I have been looking for something like this!!!

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  2. This is very cool and looks super doable for me. Thanks for sharing!
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  3. Found your blog via pinterest. I was wondering would this work with faux leather? My steampunk mouse mechanic cosplay needs a utility belt.

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    1. I'm sure it would. I've never sewn with faux leather myself, but I can't see why this wouldn't work.

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  4. This is so exactly the DYI I've been needing to find! Thank you!!

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