I sew. So?
When I first decided I wanted my crazy slide-rule wath back in July or so, I sketched this plan for an awesome trench-style band to replace the stock steel bracelet.
The plan was to use two 10mm straps because a single wide one would give it weird proportions. The backing band was to be handmade by yours truly out of leather, and as you can see, there was some debate over using rivets or loops to secure the straps to the band.
The original plan was to make the backing band of leather, but WalMart's craft section didn't have any and there weren't any suitable old boots at the Goodwill. Stupid small town with no Hobby Lobby.
I did get the overstraps (a pair of Timex 10mm women's ones; if you do this, open the packages and compare lengths in the store -- they're not meant to be used in tandem, so the lengths aren't uniform), though, and I wanted it now, so I spent all last night sewing the backing band out of some twill suiting I had laying around. It looks so good I'm not sure if I even want to redo it in leather. It's a hair over 2" wide, and the ends meet perfectly on the other side, the latter happening purely by coincidence -- I meant them to overlap a bit, but forget about the seam allowance.
The edge stitching on the main part is black embroidery floss; everything else is fastened with Oxford Grey thread to match the fabric (mainly because I ran out of the heavy stuff). There's a bit of midweight canvas between the two layers of the main band to give it more stiffness.
The original idea had a very Captain Jack Harkness look (the idea was to make it look like his wrist-time-machine thing), but the grey fabric version looks a bit John Sheppard.
Note the snap between the straps that holds the whole thing together while I fasten the straps. It's really hard to get on without that, with three pieces all trying to go in different directions.
Unfortunately WalMart didn't have any straps with stainless buckles, so the buckles don't match the watch. If I find any silver ones, I'll get them for this one and put the gold ones on Jeffie's watch.
Eventually I'll make some sort of snap-on cover flap to protect the crystal. That might have to wait for the leather version and be molded over the watch, though -- I don't think it'd work in the current materials.
In other news, last weekend we bought yet another typewriter, this one a big Selectric I. It's like our green Selectric II, only more curvy; just like the one in Fear and Loathing, except it's office beige instead of red. Got another font-ball, too. This brings our total typewriter collection to 13 or 14, depending on whether you count the black Selectric II we threw out because it was broken and a duplicate, and seven Selectric balls. I think we may have a problem. But once you get locked into a serious typewriter collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.
Also, I'm off tonight and tomorrow (and last night, obviously); the plan for the weekend includes lots of drinking and possibly buying a Mercury. If anybody has a version of "Mercury Blues" other than Alan Jackson's cover, send it to me please. The same goes for any other songs about Ford's midrange brand.
The plan was to use two 10mm straps because a single wide one would give it weird proportions. The backing band was to be handmade by yours truly out of leather, and as you can see, there was some debate over using rivets or loops to secure the straps to the band.
The original plan was to make the backing band of leather, but WalMart's craft section didn't have any and there weren't any suitable old boots at the Goodwill. Stupid small town with no Hobby Lobby.
I did get the overstraps (a pair of Timex 10mm women's ones; if you do this, open the packages and compare lengths in the store -- they're not meant to be used in tandem, so the lengths aren't uniform), though, and I wanted it now, so I spent all last night sewing the backing band out of some twill suiting I had laying around. It looks so good I'm not sure if I even want to redo it in leather. It's a hair over 2" wide, and the ends meet perfectly on the other side, the latter happening purely by coincidence -- I meant them to overlap a bit, but forget about the seam allowance.
The edge stitching on the main part is black embroidery floss; everything else is fastened with Oxford Grey thread to match the fabric (mainly because I ran out of the heavy stuff). There's a bit of midweight canvas between the two layers of the main band to give it more stiffness.
The original idea had a very Captain Jack Harkness look (the idea was to make it look like his wrist-time-machine thing), but the grey fabric version looks a bit John Sheppard.
Note the snap between the straps that holds the whole thing together while I fasten the straps. It's really hard to get on without that, with three pieces all trying to go in different directions.
Unfortunately WalMart didn't have any straps with stainless buckles, so the buckles don't match the watch. If I find any silver ones, I'll get them for this one and put the gold ones on Jeffie's watch.
Eventually I'll make some sort of snap-on cover flap to protect the crystal. That might have to wait for the leather version and be molded over the watch, though -- I don't think it'd work in the current materials.
In other news, last weekend we bought yet another typewriter, this one a big Selectric I. It's like our green Selectric II, only more curvy; just like the one in Fear and Loathing, except it's office beige instead of red. Got another font-ball, too. This brings our total typewriter collection to 13 or 14, depending on whether you count the black Selectric II we threw out because it was broken and a duplicate, and seven Selectric balls. I think we may have a problem. But once you get locked into a serious typewriter collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.
Also, I'm off tonight and tomorrow (and last night, obviously); the plan for the weekend includes lots of drinking and possibly buying a Mercury. If anybody has a version of "Mercury Blues" other than Alan Jackson's cover, send it to me please. The same goes for any other songs about Ford's midrange brand.