Leather Bottles

We've been making some leather bottles for our viking affairs.

We started with making paper templates. The shape was then drawn to the cow leather with a ballpoint (chalks and pencils don't do the job).

Then the outline was glued (both pieces) from the stitch line to the edge.

We pressed the glued pieces under wooden planks until it the glue dried.Then we grinded the edge so that the two layers looked like one.

I drew and cut out a groove for the stitches.

Then I punched the holes for the stitches. I did it from one side, from the other side and I made a groove at the back.

The leather bottle was sewn and dived to hot water until it became elastic. 

Then the stopper of the right size was picked and the lower side was narrowed.

We stuffed the bottle very hard with grain and put the stopper in.

As the glue is water soluble, we put office clips at the seams to reseal the glue. The bottle dried overnight.

We poured the grain out. We put in some screws and nuts and shaked until the last grain went out.

When the bottle was dry, we poured it in hot wax (it must not boil, so it is warmed upon hot water). It takes about five minutes from both sides. There must come no more air bubbles from the seams.

The bottle must be very very dry before this step! We 'boiled' one bottle - it was not perfectly dry and it got wrinkles.

Punching the holes.

Our bottleeees!
Mine are the right light two and my husband made the left light tree (one of them is the boiled one).

Blue-brown Renaissance Costume - Corset Pattern

Yeah, I made a new corset pattern and I am proud of it :-) I made out my own way and it quite worked.

So to the measuring: measure the waist, hips (at the lowest point of the corset), bust (really tightly - for me it was normal bust measurement - 3cm) and the measurement just above the bust (also tightly), where the corset would end.

Then add some more: measure (from waist) where the lowest point of the corset would be - both at the side and at the center. Waist to armpit. How much the front piece would be higher than the rest.

Some of these measurements are just about design, so e.g. for my corset I used 5 cm higher front piece, the lower edge is lower than waist: 10 cm at the sides and 15 cm at the center.

 And you can measure where the side seam would be, so the width of the back.

Start with this construction, using the measurements for back, armpit, lowest edge, hips and front piece hightening.

This will be half the corset with back middle at the left and front middle at the right, so don't forget to divide every width measurement by two!

Here's how to draw the pattern in eight easy steps :)

Measure the front piece from the right edge - the back and front pieces toghether must give you the bust measurement.

As the corset will form the figure, I substracted 1.5 cm from each side edge and drew vertical lines there.

In the middle between them I splitted the lower edge and drew nice hip lines from the waist to this point. You really should imagine women's hips there to get the shape right.

Measure the side lowest point and drew the lower edge. Decide where the 'tucks' will be.

(In fact the left tuck on the front pieces was straight like the other one, but this should work as well. It is always easier to fit and sew straight tucks.)

When you distract the waist measurement from the bust measurement, you get a width that you will divide to the tucks. I used slightly more of this for the front piece, and the least for the tucks closer to the center.

Draw about a middle between the bust and waist line at the front piece. Add the same widths for the tuck as at the waist line.

Join the tucks with lower and upper edge.

Prolong the auxiliary front center tuck line above the bust line. For the other front piece tuck, make a parallel line.

Substract the above bust measurement from the bust measurement and you'll got the width of the tucks at the upper edge. At the three front pieces, I only changed left and right piece. Draw the edge.

 Join all the tucks.

Draw the final shape. At each sharp corner, draw a nice spline.

And here's the reality after the whole afternoon of fitting :-)

(If you ever used my pattern, please leave a photo of the corset in the comments :-*)

Blue-brown Renaissance Costume - Skirts

Two full circle skirts, one from waist to the ground, the other one shorter with uneven edge.

I cut out twice half of a circle, the inner one with 30 cm diameter.

And a bias tape for rubber band tunnel.

I sewed the sides of the skirt and tape (leaving opening for rubber band), and I serged one edge of the bias tape.

I pinned the tape to the waist of the skirt, right sides together, the serged edge out. I marked quarters on the tape and the waist, and I started with pinning these four points together.

I ironed the seam allowance to its proper position and I also ironed the upper edge.

Then sewed through the waist seam at the right side of the skirt.

I inserted the rubber band and hemmed the lower edge.

Here they are!

P.S.: At the end the color seemed too khaki to me, I made a better (pronounce longer) one that really is brown :)

Blue-brown Renaissance Costume - Preparation

Hi, can you remember my old costume for renaissance village dance? I had to leave it in the previous dance troup...

So now I'm going to make a new one. It will be light blue long skirt, brown short skirt and black bodice.

(Yeah, now I have a cat like a real seamstress:-D)

I bought 4,5 meters for each skirt and tent canvas for the bodice. This time it will go over the belly (yes!) and have no shoulder strips, so maybe I will add an extra twill layer for toughness.

I found out I hate hanging the long fabrics dry, I just take them out of washing machine, let dry out a bit and then iron them. No wrinkles, no nerves (I hate when you hang a fabric on a long slack string and then you try to remove those folds at each side that prevent the fabric from laying flat), I don't even use steam at the iron, as the steam goes out of the wet fabric :)

Wedding invitation

I was making invitations for our wedding.
They are made from two layers of paper white and red, that are sewn together.
The edges are cut with a decorative paper punch.

Photo Album - Finished

Today I was making the cover for my new photoalbum. I bought a strong folder for documents and cut out two rectangles slightly bigger than the album (the allowance for the top, bottom and one side). On the other hand, the spine was cut slightly narrower than necessary.

I laid the pieces on the wadding and cut it along, without drawing anything. And there's the problem - for such thick fabrics, leave rather a cm between the spine and the board. I left about four milimeters, which appeared to be very few.

I put the wadding on a fabric and quilted it with a stipple pattern. Even at this step it shrinked a bit.

I sewed on a satin ribbon to the middle, for the fastening.

Then I glued the boards and the spine to the wadding. I let it dry a bit before I went on. 

I glued a piece of thin canvas to the inner side of the spine and to the album binding as well. It makes the binding more tough and protected from undoing.

Then I could glue on the allowances at the book cover. I tried to pull quite hard so that the fabric laid flat on the paper.

As the last step, I glued the outer sheets of the album to the inner side of the cover. It must dry very well and it's great if one can put some weight on the book at this phase.

I haven't made slits at blank sheets yet. For every photo I'll have, I must place it on the paper, make dots with a pencil about half a centimeter from the corners, put a protective board inside and cut the slits with an office knife.

Photo Album - Binding

I want to make a photo album.I don't like white paper very much - I bought the paper that's used at the post office for the packages.It's cheap and nice and tough.

I folded the paper and cut the size with these two layers. The size of one layer is photo plus one cm at the sides and one cm at the binding.

I drew a line with a sharp tool I use for dressmaking. It's easy to make a fold at such line. I ironed the sheets and pressed them several days under a pile of books.

 I took three pieces of twill band, measured the distances on the book and drew marks at each sheet. I pricked the holes with a pin.

The outer sheets are single. In the end I sewed one outer sheet and one common sheet together, so this photo is not really real :)When I sewed first two rows, I tied the two ends together in a knot and went on with the longer one.

 I glued the little overlap to the outer sheet, cut the twill band and glued it on too.

Ironing Board Sleeve - Finished

I drew the shape of the upper part to the treshold that is not carved. I got a new electrical saw - I attached the wood to the table and cut it carefully. I was surprised that I had to press quite strongly forwards. And downwards when the saw was slowing down.

I glued both smaller wood pieces, let them dry a bit and pressed together to form a T.

I marked the holes, drilled them with a narrow drill. Then I put the pieces together and drilled them through with the same narrow drill. I widened all the lower holes with a bigger drill and two of the upper ones two. I glued the pieces, put them together and fastened with two screws. Then I widened the rest of the holes and put in all the screws.

 I laid the arm to the wadding and drew the outline. I cut it twice, then cut two more layers with allowance for the sides and the biggest piece from twill with about three more centimeters of allowance.

I folded the edges and hammered a few nails. The fabric must be tightened well on the arm.

When I had some of the nails on the place, I added quite a lot of them in the gaps.

At the back, I even nailed the fabric under the upper layer for the fold to hold well on place.

When I was adding the stand, I put it on with two screws already sticking out - this helped me to lodge them to the right place :)

When this happens, you either charge the power screwdriver to full battery and try to drill it out, or take a pair of pliers and take it out with a bit of swinging.

I love this tool! You need to make conical holes for the screw heads to dive.

The V-shaped cut in the middle lets the sleeves and legs to be ironed at the very back of the board.