Making a bucket list booklet, part 2

I finally finished this! The leather got here quickly but it took a lot of work to get the cover made. But I'm happy with the finished result, considering it was the first time I'd tried making a leather cover and only the second booklet I've ever made.

The leather was supposed to be green but no matter what light I look at it in, it looks brown to me. I don't mind; it's still just what I needed. It's thick leather but not stiff. I ordered it from TheLeatherGuyMN on etsy and got it within days. I ordered two pieces, so I had to sew them together.

First I trimmed the top of the pieces to just a little larger than the cardboard cover already in place. Then I sewed the two pieces together using the same technique I used for my lawnmower handlebar grips that I made this summer.

Once that was done I measured the piece again with the sewn edge over the spine of the booklet. I wanted the cover to be snug but not so tight that it would stretch. I trimmed the ends so that they would come right up to the inside edge of the first and last pages. Here's a picture of how I arranged the cover, before sewing.

After I was sure I had everything cut to just the right size, I glued the inside front and back flaps to the cardboard. I did not glue anywhere else, just here to keep the leather in place while I worked.

After that I had to sew the top and bottom edges in place. That's what took so very long. First I had to punch holes with the awl through both thicknesses of leather (and sometimes the cardboard), then I had to sew carefully to make sure the stitches were taut but not so tight they might pull through the leather.

I sewed from the edge of the cover to the spine, then knotted the threads from both sides and cut them short. Unfortunately, I cut them too short, forgetting that the upholstery thread I used is tough but thick so tends to untie itself if given half a chance (that's a problem with one of my lawnmower grips too; I need to repair it already). To keep from having to resew both sides, I cut a tiny piece of vellum paper (not real vellum, just the thick but transparent paper they sell to scrapbookers in craft shops) and glued it down over the thread ends to hold them in place. I then did the same thing to the other side even though the knot held, just in case.

Once it was done, it looked good--but there was a problem. I accidentally tore the paper edging the spine a bit, and that worried me that eventually the page might tear through. In the photo above you can see how flimsy that blue piece of paper is and it is pretty much the only thing holding the pages in place (there's a strip of cheesecloth too, but it's not that strong). Major oversight, plus that signature of the booklet wasn't as tight as it should be so it needed stabilizing anyway.

I wish I had realized this before I had glued and sewn the cover in place. It would have been easy to put a strip of vellum or something down before I'd made the cover. But it was too late so I did the only thing I could really do at that point without starting over: I cut more vellum (it's fairly tough paper, and I also had some on hand already) and glued it in place. I used as little glue as I could because I knew it would look bad and I also didn't want to wrinkle the pages.

I put a strip in front and one in back, then let them dry overnight while weighted. The vellum was almost invisible on the paper, and is prettily patterned anyway, but the vellum glued to the leather just looked horrible. To make the best of a bad situation, I drew all over those sections, front and back. At least now anyone looking at it will be too busy thinking, "What is that supposed to be, an octopus?" to notice anything else.

But despite the hiccups I'm happy with the result. It's handsome, sturdy, and I made the whole thing. I left room to add photos, and I already have some to add.

Distressing a garment really fast

Sorry, no pictures of my complete DragonCon costume yet. I'm not done with the bag, plus my photographer has vanished from the face of the earth (or at least the part of the earth with cell coverage). So here's a quick tutorial on how to distress a garment--in this case, that jacket I dyed.

I actually dyed it three times total, none of them very well, and it ended up an uneven brownish-gray. There are splotches of darker color in the back that are very obvious, so I can't wear it as part of a polished costume. But I was thinking of only wearing my full costume on Saturday at DragonCon, and coming up with a simpler, toned-down costume for Sunday.

The idea I had was more dieselpunk than steampunk, with a grimy, oil-stained jacket over crop pants, corset, and a bright top, with my old beat-up leather boots and a pair of lace-trimmed socks. It might have worked, too, except that I'm not the right shape. For the most part I'm happy with the way I look, but I'm also very aware that women are judged by appearance, and the outfit is not flattering on me. This is an outfit for a younger, skinnier woman.

But I digress. Here's how to distress a badly-dyed garment.

1. Try to send it through the reel mower's workings. It won't go through, but it will get a bit rumpled and grimy if, like me, you never clean the mower's blades.
2. Use the tail of the shirt to rub the top of a rusty, gummy oilcan.
3. Hang it over a chair and snag it several times with the screw poking out of a block of wood that you just happen to have on hand.
4. Try to cut it with a really rusty old pair of loppers that aren't sharp anymore. They will put a few small holes in the cloth but mostly they chew at it.
5. Try to cut it with a really dull boxcutter.
6. Cut it unexpectedly quickly with an X-acto knife.
7. Poke holes along the edges of the big X-acto knife gash with an awl, and use the holes to sloppily lace up the hole with a leather cord or an old bootlace.

That's what I did. The lacing looks particularly good, I think.

I'm sure I can use this jacket for an outfit sometime in the future. Heck, I may wear it Sunday after all, but with jeans instead of the brown pants that aren't flattering. But so you can see what I mean about the outfit, here's a picture of me in it. Sorry, I didn't have my boots on.

A net to catch an imaginary owl

This took entirely too long to make considering how simple it is.

First, start with a dowel and the center piece of a wooden embroidery hoop. Screw them together and saw the dowel off at the desired length. (I wasn't able to screw the screw in all the way since the flimsy hoop started to crack, but it doesn't really show.)

Then spraypaint the whole thing. I painted it what was supposed to be brown but looked really gray, so I spritzed over it a bit with some copper spraypaint. Let it dry overnight.

Cut a thin strip of leather (or fake leather) of really any length. You can stop wrapping when you think it looks good or add more if you want. Lay a line of glue (Gem-Tac! My favorite! It smells just like Elmer's but it holds better) along the back side of the leather. Then press a few inches of the leather (glue side down, of course) along the dowel and over the end, then twist it around and wrap the strip around and around the dowel, covering the strip you laid down initially, until you run out of strip or decide it looks good and stop wrapping and cut off the rest. This took almost no time at all--seriously, I think it took longer for me to figure out how to explain what I did than it took to actually do it.

Then get a lot of string and...make a net.

The net took me hours. But look! I caught an owl.

(If you find the owl as adorable as I do, you can buy your very own on etsy at Green Owl Curiosities, and the proceeds go to an owl/raptor rehabilitation society. Yes, this little guy is going to DragonCon with me. I need to put my name and number on him somewhere in case he escapes.)

Throwing down th--no, gluing feathers on the gauntlet

Look at me, updating on a Friday! Only three weeks left until DragonCon.

In a "thank goodness I finally came up with a plausible reason to dress like a steampunk owl" moment of brilliance, I've changed the focus of my costume slightly. Instead of an actual owl, my costume is that of an owl catcher. Because to run a time machine, you need a live, unharmed owl, of course. And I'm the one to supply it.

What does an owl catcher need? A gauntlet! Because owls nip and pinch. I didn't want a regular falconry gauntlet, mostly because they're big and heavy and therefore hot, partly because I would just look silly without an actual owl to carry on it. But I found this tutorial to make a leather bracer, and that seemed like a good starting place.

I don't have any really thick leather. The thickest I have is a scrap too small to do much with, so I went with a thinner, more supple piece that was big enough. I pretty much followed the tutorial so I won't repeat it except to say that it's a lot different with thin leather. I could not get the stupid edges to bevel no matter what I did with the spoon, mostly. They look okay anyway, though. At least, I'm okay with them. I have low standards.

For lacing, I decided to use a length of the laces that came with my corset. The corset I ordered turned out to be too generously sized for me (yay dieting! yay doing situps and hiking all the time!) and I cinched the laces in, knotted them, and cut the excess off. So I have two lengths of tough black laces. I used my leather punch to make the holes, then got worried that the thin leather would tear with all the adjusting of laces I'd have to do. So I decided to add grommets, of which I have an awful lot.

I'd never used grommets before. I just watched the first online video tutorial I found, but it was easy. Basically, you push the bigger piece of the grommet through front to back, set it on a firm surface that you don't mind if it gets dented a bit, put the other half of the grommet over it on the inside, put the pointy end of your grommet tool thingy on top of that, and hammer that metherfeckin thing hard with a hammer. Trust me, it works. It's also kind of fun.

After lacing the gauntlet, I decided it needed some extra decoration. I'd never tried embossing leather and it turns out that I didn't press hard enough. Once it dried, most of the drawings I'd made were almost invisible. But that's okay, because I have Sharpie markers.

Above: I let the gauntlet dry overnight while sitting up like this.

Before I put the feather trim on this evening, I wanted to make it look like the gauntlet had seen some use. Since I don't have an owl, and since an owl would probably slice its way through the leather without even noticing it, I turned to the one sharp-clawed creature I do have access to: Jekyll. You know, my cat who bites me all the time.

He didn't want to bite me today. Or scratch me. He just wanted to be petted no matter how much I tried to awaken his hunting instinct by teasing him with the laces or with one of his 10,000 cat toys scattered throughout the house. This is the cat who woke me at 3:30 a.m. last night after trying to climb into the (capped) chimney, and when I picked him up--groggily afraid a rabid raccoon had found its way into the chimney and was after him--he almost casually bit and scratched my arm. This is the cat who lies in wait for me to walk by in the mornings when I'm trying to get ready for work, and leaps out at my ankles and seizes the hem of my nightgown or the cuff of my pants. This is the cat who lies under my computer table while I'm online, purring and occasionally nipping at my bare toes.

Anyway, finally I managed to get him excited enough to tear into my gauntlet. Authentic battle damage! I decided that was enough for now, and took the gauntlet off to finish it.

I had bought a feather boa to use as trim, so I measured a piece off and cut it. I then trimmed the feathers short on one side of the piece, laid down a line of glue (my favorite Gem-Tak) and pressed it into the inside of the leather cuff.

Then I was too impatient to let it dry before I took pictures. Hopefully it will stick to the rough side of the leather. But for now it looks good. Here's a clever photo I took to show both sides at once. The fist of justice! Note that I put on my awesome hat even though I knew it probably wouldn't show in the picture, because I wanted to get in character a bit.

And finally, here's a hopefully readable close-up (backwards--you know, I could have taken it off to take a picture, huh?) of the embossed-and-Sharpied design. SOC stands for Society of Owl Catchers. (If SOC stands for anything else, especially if it's something nasty, please don't tell me.) And that's not the best owl ever drawn, even by me, but it's at least recognizable. Don't think of it as a bad drawing, think of it as an original American Primitive.

How to Darken Brown Shoes that aren't made of leather

I searched and searched the internet trying to find advice on how to darken brown leather shoes but could only find advice for leather shoes. These shoes are not leather. Since I have a solution, here it is, internet.

First of all, I bought these shoes for my DragonCon steampunk owl outfit. They were on sale and I like them, but they were more tan than brown and I wanted them darker. So I removed the laces and got a tin of brown Kiwi shoe polish.

I didn't use any kind of fancy shoe cloth, just a paper towel. It worked just fine. I spread a layer on the "leather" parts of the shoe (I think they're polyester) and was pleased that it acted just like leather. The polish soaked into the grain and darkened immediately.

I did two coats, then did the other shoe. The lighting in this picture isn't great, but hopefully you can see the difference in the darker rear shoe and the lighter fore shoe that I hadn't yet worked on. They darkened a bit more overnight too, I guess as the polish soaked in more.

The next day I took a clean paper towel and buffed the shoes. I was worried the polish would come right off again, but it didn't. It just buffed to a nice shine. I replaced the laces with darker brown and threaded a fake key on one to see how I like it (I don't; I'll probably replace it with something else eventually). I was going to glue something to the shoes themselves to make them more steampunk, but so far I haven't found anything that I like well enough. But I think they look good as they are.

They're going to kill my feet, but I'll look stylish.

Owl Goggles

I hadn't planned to add so many feathers. I'm still not completely happy with them, and of course I still need to make a strap. And they won't sit on the brim of my awesome hat so I'll have to figure out some other way to display them that doesn't involve wearing them. But here they are, my very first pair of goggles, and a pair of the original welding goggles they started life as:

For those of you who are interested in making your own, it's a lot easier than I thought it would be. My first step was to remove the original strap, the plastic piece over the chain connecting the eyepieces, and remove the lenses (the eyepieces unscrew so you can remove them easily). Then I spraypainted them copper, making sure to get all the surfaces including the chain, and let them dry overnight.

Once they were dry, I put the lenses back in and adjusted the chain so that the goggles fit me. You can move the chain while the eyepieces are unscrewed; trim off excess so the ends won't gouge you in the eyeball. That would be pretty ironic if your eye protection blinded you. I noticed that there were two round pieces on the sides of the goggles, attached with a plastic pin through a hole. I have no idea what these are for, but I removed them and set them aside.

At this point I wasn't sure what to do. I had planned on painting decorations on the sides and then gluing some feathers on, and then I figured I'd be done. But they looked kind of boring, and I have all this leather scrap. I idly picked up a piece of pliable brown leather and wrapped it around the edge of an eyepiece.

It looked amazing! So I got out the glue, Gem-Tac, and put a line of it along the straight edge of the leather (on the wrong side, of course). I separated the eyepieces (took the chain off) so I could handle them more easily. Then I wrapped the leather around the edge of the eyepiece, leaving a small gap for the chain, tugging and stretching the leather to make it fit snugly over the plastic.

Gem-Tac turned out to be perfect for this kind of project. It starts to dry quickly so it held the leather in place as I worked, but it doesn't dry crazy fast like epoxy or superglue, so I could make adjustments after a few minutes if the leather wasn't quite where I wanted it.

Then I wrapped the leather around to the inside of the eyepiece. I didn't try to cover the inside completely and I did a messy job, but keep in mind that at this point I still didn't think the leather was going to actually work at all. I trimmed and cut notches as necessary to make it snug.

When I finished, I was blown away by how good it looked.

I put the chain back in place before the glue had completely set--I was worried I might have glued the lenses to the eyepieces and wouldn't be able to open them later. I also cut a piece of leather and glued it in place around the chain. Then I noticed the plastic pieces I'd removed earlier. I used my awl to poke holes in the leather so I could put the pieces back.

Then I took a break and ran to the store, and while I was gone I picked up some little brass acorn nuts at Lowe's. I was going to buy two dozen, since each eyepiece has a dozen spaces, but they're too damn expensive--almost $2.50 for four. I bought one dozen instead (if I were going to make a lot of goggles, I'd buy the acorn nuts in bulk, maybe from here). When I got them home, though, they looked awfully shiny. I set them out on a piece of cardboard and gave them one quick spritz of copper spraypaint--I didn't try to cover them completely, I just wanted to dim the shininess a bit. I let it dry overnight, then in the morning glued them on along with some other deco.

Next I considered what to do about a headstrap. Saturday I'd made the rounds of thrift shops and got two black leather purses (one for 99 cents and the other, a Liz Claiborne bag, for $1.50. Damn!), but both had straps that were a tad too wide. Plus the black leather looked funny next to the brown leather and copper/brass. So I decided to make a strap from leather scraps, but I wanted it to be a bit wider than the original strap. To solve the problem of getting a wider strap through the premade plastic gaps, I decided to attach loops with D-rings, to which I could attach a wider strap. As it happens, I had two D-rings of the right size that came off one of the purses, so I cut two pieces of thicker leather--in fact, I used the thickest, sturdiest leather I had, the same kind I used last week for my lawnmower handlebar grips.

Getting the straps through the little holes, which I had covered with leather and glue, was not easy. I used an X-acto knife to open up the gaps, then cut each leather strap at an angle. I used the awl to help cram the tip of the angle-cut end through the gap. As soon as I could grip it on the other side with needle-nosed pliers, I was able to pull it through. Then I trimmed the end straight, put the D-ring on, and glued it. For extra strength I also put a few stitches through the leather. I did a piss-poor job of it since I couldn't get the awl to go through all three thicknesses at the correct angle, and ended up using the needle-nosed pliers to force the needle through. KIDS, DON'T EVER DO THIS. It's dangerous! Not only are needles not meant for that sort of pressure and could break, sending a very sharp piece of metal into your eyeball (see irony, above), it's really easy to stab yourself in the finger like I did.

(Incidentally, a good thing to trim leather with is a wire cutter. Works better than scissors.)

Anyway, I got it finished and decided to wait on the strap itself until I can order some things I can't get locally. I almost declared myself finished. Then I remembered I'm going to DragonCon dressed inexplicably like a steampunk owl, which meant I had to add feathers. I probably should have just left well alone, I don't know. I could have created a lady naturalist persona and been perfectly happy, but noooo, I had to stick feathers on everything.

As I said earlier, I never intended to add many. I used pheasant feathers, which looked most owl-like of all the feathers I'd bought (I also have guinea hen, chicken, and turkey feathers). I chose three for each eyepiece, hampered a bit by the light but pleasant breeze blowing through the garage from the open doors. Then I held my breath, because I was about to do something irreversible. I put a triangle of glue on the edge of the first lens, thereby permanently gluing them closed. Then I pressed the feathers in place, arranged them carefully so they'd make a bird-of-prey frown, and held them there until the glue dried enough that I could let go. Then I did the same to the other lens.

And then I realized I'd RUINED MY GOGGLES, because I overlooked the fact that the eyepieces were sitting on a flat surface and not at the same angle they'd be when worn. You know that little scene in WALL*E when Wall-E wakes up and comes back to himself, and he adjusts his eyes until they're at just the right angle? Well, when I held my goggles up to my face, the angle of the feathers changed from fierce bird-of-prey frown to an anxious Wall-E expression.

I had to add more feathers. Then the goggles looked unbalanced, so I had to add a few feathers at the bottom too. They're more feathery than I wanted, but they also have a definitely owlish look, so maybe I'll get used to them.

I realized something while I was working, though. Back in April when I started this steampunk-my-garage project, all I really wanted was a space where I could work on crafts without making a mess in the house or running out of room. Well, I succeeded. Maybe the garage isn't as steampunky as I'd like--I can't afford to do more with it at this point--but I've got an awesome workspace.

Leather lawnmower grips

I'm proud of myself. I got this project done start to finish this afternoon, something I'd been planning to do for months.

This is my lawnmower, before I worked on it (that's an old picture, obviously; I forgot to take a new before picture). I've had it about three years now and really like it. Today I had just started mowing the lawn when a storm moved in fast; I hurried into the garage just as the sky opened up, so I was stuck there for a while unless I wanted to get wet. Then I realized I had everything I needed to try replacing the torn-up sponge handlebar grips with leather.

This is the tutorial I read originally and wanted to try. I couldn't find anything that resembled what that guy calls cotton tape, though. Eventually I gave up looking. But the other day I was in the Dollar General, poking around so it wouldn't look like I'd only really come in to buy a candy bar, and I found some of that rubbery stuff they sell for putting in the bottom of drawers.

Wait, I'm going to do this as a proper tutorial because the project turned out so well.

YOU WILL NEED: some fairly thick leather (most big craft stores sell bags of leather scrap for about $5 each), that rubbery stuff that goes in the bottom of drawers, embroidery needles (they're sharp but have big eyes JUST LIKE ME), upholstery thread or other strong thread, cheap scissors don't use your good scissors what is wrong with you (or an X-acto knife or rotary blade), awl. Not pictured: awl.

The drawer liner goes first, giving the grips some cushion and acting as a non-slip surface. Figure out what size you need and cut two pieces. I used masking tape to hold it in place while I wrapped each piece around the handlebar. I made my pieces long enough to wrap two or three times. Wrap firmly but don't be obsessive about it--this stuff stretches. Once it's wrapped, hold it in place with another piece of masking tape.

Now sew the drawer liner in place. I used a blanket stitch but whatever you want to use will work. No one will see this part. Make sure to pick up all the layers when stitching; you want to feel that needle slide off the metal when you stitch. Knot securely when you're done.

Next cut a piece of leather for each grip, making it just big enough to wrap around but not overlap itself. It's better to cut the piece a tiny bit too small than too big. Leather stretches and you can pull the ends together if you need to, but if it's too big it'll look messy. I used a scrap piece of drawer liner to measure what size piece I needed because it's a lot easier to cut. Then I used that piece as a template, placed it on the back side of the leather, and used tailor's chalk (what I had on hand; anything will work) to mark out the pieces. Then I used cheap scissors to cut the leather. I had to trim a bit to get the pieces just right, holding them onto the handlebars to see how well they fit before I put them in place. This is worth taking your time over.

Now you need an awl. As it happens I do have an awl, and I'm so pleased I finally needed it for something. I didn't measure this part, just eyeballed it, because I'm not obsessive about detail and I like stuff to look sort of homemade and organic. Also I was already getting bored. Just make sure you put the same number of holes in each long side and that they have about the same spacing. After I did one side, I folded the top over to use as a guide for the other side. I still had to add a hole while sewing later.

Now go over to that other guy's tutorial and read it, because he makes it way clearer than I do and also he did a better job with his grips. Basically, you have a very long (about a yard) piece of thread with a needle at each end, and you use those needles to seam the grips just like lacing a tennis shoe. I used a rubber band to keep the leather in place while I was sewing, so I would have both hands free. As you complete each new pair of stitches, pull the previous pair good and tight. You don't want any loose threads that could snag on anything and snap later.

Doesn't that look good? I'm so proud of myself. They're nice and comfortable too.

By the time I'd finished, it had stopped raining, so I took the mower into the driveway and used copper spraypaint to paint the orange discs on the sides of the wheels. The orange still shows through but it looks a lot better than it did. I'm very pleased with the result!

Of course I still need to mow the lawn.