#leather working

[searincosplay]

Here's a breakdown of how I made my Archaic sandals for Link! I don't have many progress photos because of course I was crunching these for no good reason so be prepared for a long description below the post break. I was following the step-by-step process laid out in the book The Sandal Making Guide. If you're looking for a detailed introduction to sandal making, get this book! It tells you all the tools and materials you need and the photos and explanations are super concise and clear.

I started with a plastic wrap and masking tape copy of my leg and foot that I drew the placement and size of the straps on and then transferred it to a paper pattern.

The straps are made from a lovely grainy textured milled veg-tan leather and the footbed and outsole are regular veg-tan leather that I custom dyed. The main foot straps I wet molded to my feet and then marked the placement for the strap slots onto the soles.

Where the foot straps go behind and under the heel, there's a couple small, hidden pieces of elastic that connect them so they can stretch enough for me to slide the sandals on.

The straps and sole layers are contact cemented together with the ends of the straps shaved down to reduce bulk. I trimmed down the sole edges and evened them out with a surform plane since I don't have a belt sander. The last step was to rough up the bottom of the leather soles and contact cement a very thin rubber shoe soling so the sandals actually have some traction 😂

At this point I've walked several con days and at least over 10 miles in them. Overall, they're really comfortable, durable, and the custom fit is so nice! Only downside of this particular style is there is no arch support, so my muscles do get pretty tired and sore after a full day of walking.

I know this is super wordy with not a lot of WIP photos, feel free to ask any questions you might have!

[comfortabletextiles]

How's the isopod bag practice phase coming along? I've never done any leatherwork before and wanted to ask someone about their experience before I make any attempts.

Welp, I made one small leather bag, and that's it 😬

I still have a leather bag kit that got advertised with real leather, but I'm not to Shure about that... Also didn't work with it yet...

Punching the holes you need for sewing is kind of loud, so I didn't do anything more yet. And cutting the leather in a way that looks tidy was VERY hard... If you want to do the isopod bag, I'd advise you to do a few practice pieces... (The artist has some free patterns, and a YouTube channel)

All in all I enjoyed it. Seeing how everything goes together and forms a bag was so cool! But without a workshop I'll won't be working with leather a lot.

[cheavystims]

>>👞🪵 Sniper with leather working & wood carving stims 👞🪵<<

>> credits under the cut<<

https://www.tumblr.com/trollstims/714933056806551553/a-new-set-of-metalworkingleatherworking-gifs-for

https://www.tumblr.com/talos-stims/699481576542699520/making-a-leather-belt-quiver-source

https://www.tumblr.com/talos-stims/681525252501667840/making-a-leather-belt-source

https://www.tumblr.com/bubbly-stims/708257850792820736/wood-carving-stimboard

https://www.tumblr.com/stim-robot/695518027293310976/x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

https://www.tumblr.com/abelstims/676579546640924672/mondo-owada-stimboard-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-not-a

https://www.tumblr.com/flowerfaeries-stims/718584971745460224/stimboard-for-murdock-from-pok%C3%A9mon-horizons-gifs

https://www.tumblr.com/radiostationsensations/659875608716853248

[scopostims]

augustus sinclair stimboard for 🗺️ anon :•]

[ID: A 3x3 stimboard themed around Augustus Sinclair from Bioshock.

GIF 1: Someone holding a cigarette holder up as smoke lightly wafts off the end, a record spinning in the background.

GIF 2: Someone putting a rivet on a leather belt by the belt buckle.

GIF 3: A cigar on an ash tray with smoke lightly wafting off the tip, a glass of whiskey next to it.

GIF 4: Someone thumbing through a stack of $50 bills.

Image: Augustus Sinclair from Bioshock.

GIF 5: Someone wearing a white button up and black suit jacket pulling a beige tie snug.

GIF 6: Equally spaced holes in a black strip of leather being cleaned up with a hollow punch.

GIF 7: Footage of a cigarette being lit with a lighter, the footage becoming slow motion as the fire lights and rises up.

GIF 8: Someone cutting along a marked line in a sheet of brown leather.

End ID]

[hachama]

Husbff made a thing!

It's a waxed leather notebook holder. It could be decorated with pyrography, or he could make one out of embossed leather. It's water resistant, the strap can be closed two ways, there's a flap to keep your pens from flying out. He spent a good chunk of the last week figuring out the design and finished it today.

[not-a-bad-dragon]

Been a while since I posted art and I am currently VERY sick with the flu or rona (I'm vaxxed, it'll be fine it just sucks)

But here's my book binding journey so far

Just the silver leafing to go and then she's done!

I should add, I used roo leather because I found a place that ethically sources it and since they're wild animals the leather has so much more personality!

[ghoulish-arts]

Made a new plague doctor mask in leather and it's so much more comfortable than the old one I had omg

[m3dieval]

Repairing Turn Shoes

Notes from this video by The Welsh Viking and Nicole Rudolph.

Soak the leather and grease your awl

Sole leather is different from regular leather. For turn shoes the sole leather needs to be not too thick. Insole leather is sole leather but thinner and can work for turn shoes.

Upper can be glued to the sole to keep them together while sewing

Fishing line or wire can be a substitute for boar bristle (needles can quickly get too chunky). Boar bristles can sometimes be bought at fishing tackle shops.

[steorransaluki]

good to be back at it!

cute lil red tailed hawk feather keychain for the new car (since I somehow lost my main keys after the accident...)

[sable-viridariis]

One more design prototype made, one more thing I need to continue refining. But I am excited to have a nicer pen holder for my moleskine planner.

[elegantfeatherduster]

While Vic was tackling our cloaks, I was working on our accessories. I knew I wanted to add detail and texture to Olruggio’s belt, but ended up letting the process guide me. I’ve never tooled veg tan leather before, but had a basic set of tools. So I started with the major shapes from the comic that would make the belt read, then started adding textures like the organic grain on the band and the burst on the disks.

I also knew that I wanted the belt to be adjustable. But it has no visible closure in the comic and you guys know I RELISH clever cosplay engineering. So not only do the disks sit on Chicago screws that can be changed to one of three invisible holes on each side, the disks themselves secretly vecro to the center piece for both micro-adjustment and easy on/off.

To “stain” the leather, I actually started with gold angelus leather paint I had on hand. Which was a great base, but didn’t really bring out any of the tooling or leather texture, so I experimented on scrap pieces and eventually found that dabbing on a layer of normal brown stain and immediately wiping it off highlighted the piece BEAUTIFULLY (and brought the gold down a little while warming it up)

Immensely happy with this belt! I want to tool more leather ASAP 👀

[polycraftory]

Critical Role Leatherworking Projects

I wanted to write these all down in one place so I can link back to finished project photos and how to guides later.

These are the cosplay projects we currently have in the works: Nott Level 10, Laudna Level 3, and Imogen Level 13! These will all be completed by NY Comic Con 2024. I also have notes on my Imogen Level 3 cosplay that is currently on hiatus and I'm also planning a Jester cosplay for NYCC 2025.

If anyone would be interested in buy guides or even how tos on this sort of leatherworking for cosplay (general ones or cosplay specific), please let me know! I feel like leatherworking was a hard craft for me to break into because a lot of info on the internet is not at all written for a queer femme or a younger person in mind. If I can make this incredible craft more accessible, I'd really love to!

All the cosplay notes & links under the read more since it got long.

I also include the links to the tag I use to track each of the projects and some of our general cosplay/crafting tags in case you are curious about the rest of the cosplay construction other than the leatherworking.

Also psst if you like critical role we run an etsy and we already have some critical role shirts.

General Links

These all link to tags on our blog for easy navigation. Someone in our polycule has decided to specialize in every element of cosplay construction and I'm trying to document it all! We also just do a lot of general crafting. You can check out our pinned post for a larger tag directory!

Leatherworking

Crafting

Cosplay

Critical Role Cosplay

Specific Projects

Projects that are in bolded italics are completed.

Nott

Level 10

Our Project Tag: Nott the Brave Cosplay

This is her goblin look but with the yellow dress. For belt accessories, we decided to take some inspiration from her level 11 Veth outfit as well as her earlier level stuff instead of sticking close to the official art for the leatherworking.

WIP Photos With All Accessories & Belt

Double Wrap Belt - to hold Many Things. Most of this belt is complete with progress photos to be posted soon. All that's left to do here is sew around the entire border for longevity and finish. I attached the buckle and belt keeper with snaps instead of rivets so the hardware could be changed out for other cosplays. I am creating a guide on how to make a double wrap / super long belt (it usually requires seaming two belts together).

Button Pouch - Completed Photos - Progress Photos & Buy Guide - This is a belt attachment designed to hold buttons to hand out at comic con.

Bigger Belt Bag - Completed Photos & Notes - Progress Photos & Buy Guide - This is to hide a phone / money.

Potion Bottle Holder - Progress Photos & Buy Guide - This is another belt attachment. The leatherworking for this is done, but I'm not posting finished photos until I melt wax over the cork on the bottle.

Flask Holder - Completed Photos Soon - Progress Photo w/ Official Art Comparison - Yet another belt attachment. I'm making my own pattern for this to exactly match her level 10 flask and I'm very excited! It's got such fun cut outs. I'm considering selling these with a flask if there is interest since I made the pattern entirely from scratch.

Laudna

Level 3

Our Project Tag: Laudna Cosplay (link will be added later!)

Attempting to get as close as possible to the official art.

Belt Bag - I am so in love with the shape of this little bag I am so excited to make this. I am going to make my own pattern for this and size it up a bit so Gabe can hide their phone in there, and I'm going to make it so the lace wrap at the front is purely decorative with a hidden snap closure for easier phone access.

Two Brown Belts On Top Of A Black Belt - Even though I try to usually make my cosplay leather projects more modular / more adaptable for other cosplay or day to day use, this is So Specific and it's got to be designed to sit right despite all the stuff attached to it via rope / ribbon. My plan is to make a thick (3-4 inches?) black belt/panel (with corset lacing in the back). I decided to directly attach the two brown belts to the corset belt so they'd stay in place and so I can hide rivets to support the ribbon with stuff on it and due to the fact that I'm using 3D printed belt buckles that are decorative rather than functional. WIP pictures soon!

Imogen

Our Project Tags: Imogeon Temult Cosplay, Imogen Temult Level 3 Cosplay, Imogen Temult Level 13 Cosplay (link will be added later!)

Level 3

Currently On Hiatus - her new outfit fucks so hard (and I'm a black leather girlie at heart) so I set aside a bunch of already done cosplay work to pivot but I will get back to this. The plan here was to be as accurate as possible to her level 3 official art.

Waist Double Layer Belt / Harness - I have a design already worked out for this that very closely mimics the design in the official art. I planned for it to be modular so that you could snap the harness on and off as well as detach the belt pouch so it might be flexible for use in other cosplays/adventure core wear.

Coin Pouch - Completed Photos - I modified a pouch pattern to add the x criss cross lace detailing down the one side. This was my first ever leatherworking project.

Knife Thigh Holster

Project Note: Dyeing leather light brown/saddle brown is not very forgiving (I really hecked up my belt dip dye the first time) so if possible buy the leather already dyed the right color or practice on darker colors first is my recommendation to save yourself some heart ache (or, like, actually use dye reducer and dye in multiple passes but I couldn't figure out how I was going to store a bunch of reduced dye in my tiny apartment so c'est la vie)

Level 13

Knife Thigh Holster (but black & gold this time) - also a custom design. I'm giving this an attachment via swivel clip to my belt loop to act like a garter belt and keep the holster from sliding down. Instead of fucking around with tooling when I don't have time to learn a whole new skillset, I'm cutting a second thin layer of leather to add 3d moon and star embellishments.

Leather Corset - I'm probably modding an existing leather corset since I don't know if I'm Emotionally Ready to make one from scratch. Her corset doesn't look like it has boning but I want mine to because I like the structure. Trying to find gold moon hardware that doesn't have a face on it may be the death of me (why moon buckle have face on it!?!) - Update: I've decided to table this for this year and use a plain black corset that fits me well. I'll probably return to this as a later upgrade to the cosplay.

And Then What?

Jester Level 2 and whatever else my partners decide to cosplay next year. I also have some non-cosplay leather projects on the docket but I'll leave that for another post.

[anielskaaniela]

learn how to sew leather with regular sewing machine

In this post I show you how to sew leather at home on a normal sewing machine. Are you eager to create beautiful and original accessories from natural leather, but you don’t have access to an expensive specialized sewing machine? you may think can you sew leather with a regular sewing machine? Don’t worry; I’ve got some tips and tricks that will help you sew leather on a regular sewing machine.…

[aloeverawyvren]

breaking news: making gloves without a pattern is hard actually

[greenpitbullzombie]

This is Not a new hobby. This is still considered leather working I promise. (I bought three new pairs of pliers today.)

[not-a-bad-dragon]

More bookbinding stuff!

This one is a birthday present for my baby sister: a new grimoire~