Leather Bag

I have found that, at least when working in small scale, leather is very easy to work with. It is flexible enough to get almost any shape you want, yet stiff enough to hold that shape. It also takes to super glue very well. Anyway, I needed a few vintage leather bags for a scene and did not want to spend any money on them.

To do this, I cut up an old laptop case for the body, and an old belt for the sides. The belt leather is quite a bit thicker and will help the bag to stand on it's own. I then ironed folds in the leather to define the edges of the bag.

Using super glue, I glued the first piece of the belt leather to the bottom of the bag.

I then glued the sides in place...

and glued the sides to the front...

and finally back of the bag. Very simple.

I wanted to add straps to give it a little more character so I cut some thin strips of leather out of the old laptop case.

I took a paper clip and bent it around the rounded edge of a pair of needle nose pliers to make...

tiny metal loops for the straps.

I then glued the rings into the small straps...

and glued them to the front of the bag. I glued the long straps to the backside of the bag and threaded them through the metal loops on the front. Finally, I added a metal button to the front flap.

Using sand paper, I roughed up the leather to make it look well used. And that's it!

Clothes - Part 2 - Shirt

Shirt. I found this pattern at undeadthreads.com. It is actually for a trench coat but I modified it to be a dress shirt. It was very easy, I cut the length in half to accommodate my model, shortened the sleeves a bit and omitted the flaps in the front. Because this pattern was made for a doll, I did not need to resize it in Photoshop. Instead I just cut away what I did not need after printing.

I pinned the pattern to my material. I used an old pillow case for this one.

I started with the vest.

I hemmed the bottom and the front. The seam on the front was curved for the extra flap on the trench coat so I sewed it straight to make it a dress shirt.

I attached the front and back together at the shoulders.

I then attached the arms to the vest.

To make the collar I started by drawing a straight line for the seam on the pattern.

I sewed up the sides and trimmed away the excess fabric to make it easier to turn inside out.

Tada! I actually had to make the collar twice. The first one I made was too short for the neck hole. But that happens to me a lot.

I then folded the cuffs in half a sewed them together.

I attached the cuffs to the end of the sleeves. Before I put the collar on, I noticed that the shirt was a little bigger than I wanted. I decided to take about 1/2 inch out of the back of the shirt. I did this by folding the back in half and sewing a straight line from the bottom to the top. I then cut off the excess material. Then I could attach collar to the neck. 

Finally, I ironed the collar down and sewed up the sides and the sleeves. I folded the top front directly underneath the collar at a slight angle. I did not think I could sew this piece so I used a bit of Stitch Witchery to hold it down.

I will need to add buttons to the front at a later date.

Contemplating his next move. 

It is at this point that I began to have nightmares of this model coming to life and trying to kill me. I guess that means it's working.

Up next... accessories, and buttons probably.

Clothes - Part 1 - Pants

Pants! I am not the best at sewing so this is actually the hardest part for me. I tend to make a lot of stupid mistakes, and end up redoing quite a bit of work. Anyways, I started by finding a free pattern on google, which for pants, is very easy. I took the pattern into Photoshop and resized it to my needs. I printed the pattern and pinned it to my material.

I had already added the seam allowance in Photoshop so I just cut along the outside of the pattern. 

From there, I hemmed each piece along the top and bottom. 

Here is where I made my first mistake. I hemmed each piece the same way, so all of the pieces where right fronts. So I actually had to start over and recut two new pieces and re-hem them the right way.

Making sure the pieces where facing the right direction, I sewed the two front pieces together and the two back pieces together.

Placing the fabric face to face I sewed the front and back together. I turned them right side out and...

Pants!

Up next... Shirt.