That's part of what I'm digging about steampunk, the whole DIY aesthetic and the value placed upon creativity in finding/reusing materials. There's a cool goggle tutorial here where the guy used the leather from a baseball for the headband! I mean, reusing a baseball way outdoes reusing shoes, LOL. But since most people make steampunk goggles out of leather belts or leather jackets, I think I'm still pretty high up there on the creativity curve. :) It's always a creative challenge to construct something from scratch with new materials, but having to ponder reusing available materials sort of makes it a mental challenge as well as just a creative one, yk? I'm digging it.
I just think it's all totally fantastic. And I'm really glad you're getting into it. I loved the reuse of the shoes -- something I *never* would have thought of. Do you have plans for the rest of what's left of the shoes?
ATM it's just all in a bag while I decide what else to do with it - there's definitely some usable strips of leather left over, and I also have the four eyelets and the shoelaces (which are round-shaped, tan/white, and have a cool old-style look to them) that haven't yet found a purpose.
One idea I had was making cuffs/bracelets (I have a heavy-duty snap-fastener kit I could use to close the cuffs) and attaching cogs (taken from inside a dollar-store kitchen timer that we bought for Moo, but it doesn't ring the bell on time so it's basically useless - you can set it for 5 minutes and it'll ring anywhere from 3 minutes to 10 minutes later, LOL) as decoration. If I piece the leather to make a wide strip (wouldn't be hard, just glue the smaller strips to a wide black-felt backing - say, 7" by 4" finished, since 7" will go around my wrist just fine), I could punch holes along the two long sides and lace the shoelaces in/out of the holes as edging, and have the cogs sewn to the leather along the center.
Awesome visual guide. I just recently used a pair of sandal straps in the construction of a pair of armoured bracers, so I can appreciate the use of old shoes. Thanks for the tip re: the pipe caps. :3
One note about the pipe caps: hot glue is NOT sufficient to hold them to leather. I tried doing that first and the caps, because they're solid and the leather flexes, will gradually peel away from the headband. It really does have to be sewn on. :) (Hot glue is sufficient to hold on the leather decorations on the side of the caps, though, since no flexing/stress is occurring there.)
I've actually been using rivets for the leather bits so far. I'm going to wait until the outfit is done to post pictures. I'm designing it for the 17th, so it'll only be a few days.
Comments 14
Reply
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Reply
Reply
Reply
*off to ponder creative things*
Reply
One idea I had was making cuffs/bracelets (I have a heavy-duty snap-fastener kit I could use to close the cuffs) and attaching cogs (taken from inside a dollar-store kitchen timer that we bought for Moo, but it doesn't ring the bell on time so it's basically useless - you can set it for 5 minutes and it'll ring anywhere from 3 minutes to 10 minutes later, LOL) as decoration. If I piece the leather to make a wide strip (wouldn't be hard, just glue the smaller strips to a wide black-felt backing - say, 7" by 4" finished, since 7" will go around my wrist just fine), I could punch holes along the two long sides and lace the shoelaces in/out of the holes as edging, and have the cogs sewn to the leather along the center.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
One note about the pipe caps: hot glue is NOT sufficient to hold them to leather. I tried doing that first and the caps, because they're solid and the leather flexes, will gradually peel away from the headband. It really does have to be sewn on. :) (Hot glue is sufficient to hold on the leather decorations on the side of the caps, though, since no flexing/stress is occurring there.)
Reply
I'm going to wait until the outfit is done to post pictures. I'm designing it for the 17th, so it'll only be a few days.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment