Sydney trip part two: leatherworking

The fabric-centric post is here.

The reason I went to Sydney was to do a series of leatherworking classes at Birdsall Leather. I first heard about Birdsall at Gamma.Con in A.K. Wirru's Leathercrafting session. I had been looking for leatherworking classes for years so this was great news.

On Saturday I did the beginner class that covered stamping, stitching, dying and burnishing, as well as an overview of leather types. We each made a coaster to try the techniques. On Monday I had an all day private lesson to work on my Assassin’s Creed pieces. I kept working on these during the free work class on Tuesday.

First thing was to buy a hide. Everything except the glove and the pouches will be made out of 2.5mm vegetable tanned leather. I bought a 15ft hide which will be a bit more than I need but will mean I don’t have to go back to Sydney straight away if I mess something up. And of course there will always be new projects.

My large hide is represented by some pieces cut from it because it’s very unwieldy to move around.

I bought a 1.5mm hide for the pouches and a garment leather for the glove. Besides that, there are dyes, rivets and eyelets, cutting tools, and embossing tools. Turns out kitting out a completely new skillset is not cheap.

Not quite all the belts needed for two Assassins.

My private class involved cutting all the belts using a strap cutter – a fancy device that I didn't purchase. Then we went over embossing.

To prepare my designs prior to the classes; I "traced over" the promo image of Ezio using Gimp and a Wacom tablet.

Then my very kind mother converted them by hand to neat, usable swirls.

This is my first attempt at embossing. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I do need a bit more practice but having been a child who was incapable of colouring inside the lines it was better than I was expecting. I've tried a few different techniques in this sample – haven't yet decided which ones I will use on the final piece.

On the second day I started working on the belts and a bracer.

Leatherworking is a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to working on this project. The classes at Birdsall Leather were excellent. I'm now confident that I will be able to make everything I need.

2017 Review

This year, it was like I decided to SEW ALL THE THINGS.

Costumes
In 2016 I did very little costuming but I got back to it in 2017. Firstly, I finished off Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite. The skirt and shirt were mostly done last year but this year I finished them off and added the choker, scarf, chemise, hair bow and handbag-disguised-as-a-book.

I actually made 3 chemises this year, but only one that was worth photographing.

The eternal Assassin's Creed project continues. This year I made the belt for my costume and cast all the resin pieces for AC II and Brotherhood. This included a second version of my AC II buckle because I wasn't happy with the paint job on the first. I also took my Dad's doublet apart and remade it because it didn't fit properly and neither of us were happy with it.

I've got leatherworking classes booked for early next year and I bought a Dremel last week to encourage me to stop putting off sanding the resin. I'm partly excited and partly ready for it to be over.

I made an 1830s dress, that I adore, for the Jane Austen festival. To go with it I made a corded petticoat and a bonnet. It was very nice to get back to some historical sewing after having spent 18 months or so focusing on videogame outfits and everyday wear.

In the week before Jafa I made a regency ballgown and evening spencer for a friend.

First photo by Steven Shaw

I also made a couple of regency petticoats and new stays – I will get the regency silhouette right eventually. (I mean, I won't; I'm not built that way, but I will get it as right as I can.)

I made a new Victorian corset as part of a workshop. I was very happy to finally get a corset that fits properly and I very much liked sewing with silk and hope to use it more (the muffled whimpering you can hear is my bank account).

Real Clothes
My Bioshock-induced 1940s habit is still going strong. I bought a couple of antique 1940s patterns not long ago; I haven't made them up yet, but I did use the collar and sleeve of one for the light purple dress. The write-up for the dark dress is here.

I had a foray into the fifties with the lovely Butterick 6018. I also made a slip, based on an original I own.

The slip turned out so well I made a summer dress from the same pattern. Also in summer wear, I made a dress and swimming togs with the au courant halter neckline.

I've worn this black knit skirt, McCalls 6608, so much it feels like I've had it forever, not just a year. I also made another maxi-dress. The fabric was beautiful but a bit cheap and nasty; I'm almost surprised it's survived being worn nearly every week since I made it.

Learning
I made a shirt and pants as part of some sewing classes I took this year. Learning how to adjust patterns properly has made a huge difference to how comfortable my clothes can be. With the 1830s dress and the 1950s dresses particularly, I noticed that I was able to fix fitting issues I would normally have just put up with.

This year I've started to focus more on my sewing-adjacent skills, like make-up and photography. I had my first studio photoshoot (not counting the family portrait when I was 3). Since attending a photography workshop at Gamma.Con, Mum and I are putting a bit more thought into the photos we take for the blog and are leaving the house to find different settings – you can expect a vicarious tour through Canberra over the next year.

Events
I had an excellent year of going to costuming events. Having friends to go with makes them so much better. First was the Jane Austen Festival, then Gamma.Con. We've got plans for more outings next year, and the preparatory sewing bees are already underway.

At Jafa: I made all the dresses and hats in this picture.

At Gamma.Con I won the sewing section of the Cosplay competition with my Elizabeth outfit. Elizabeth also got a first place in the Canberra Show and my Assassin won non-professional champion. My 2018 entry form is already on its way but I was saddened to see that there were no historical or costume categories. I had to enter in 'Other'.

Last year I thought I would aim to do a bit more sewing in 2017. I definitely managed it! In 2018 I might do a bit less. Although I've been enjoying it so much I don't want to stop.

Gamma.Con 2017

I attended Gamma.Con again this year, this time with my friend, Lady B. The event was several weeks earlier than last year – well and truly in winter. Saturday began with a half hour wait outside queuing for admission, during which it briefly snowed. I wore my Misery costume again and so had layers, long sleeves and gloves, but poor Lady B's Belle costume didn't provide much protection from the weather. The best protection from the weather is, of course, wearing something you want to be wearing so it wasn't as cold as it could have been.

Inside the temperature was much more agreeable. Belle was very popular, with young children especially, so we were often stopped for photos and occasionally hugs. I even managed to find someone who remembered Ruby Gloom and was excited to see Misery and that was quite nice.

On the second day Lady B went as MCU Scarlet Witch and I dressed as Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite. I dyed my hair to go with the costume. While the hairstyle looks simple, it took a few practices and an extra pair of hands to get the hair to have body in the right places.

I made the bow the night before, of course.

Because I was entering the cosplay competition I wanted to do character makeup to go with the costume. I don't normally wear makeup irl so I contacted Simone Turnbull, a makeup artist I met at a photoshoot a few months ago, and asked if she would give me a lesson. Her training and product advice proved very useful and after a few night’s practicing I managed to get an outcome that I was very happy with. I think it adds a lot to the overall look (even if it means being paranoid about touching my face all day).

The costume is worn over my Edwardian corset which, I realised in the car on the way there, I had never actually worn for any length of time before – only for photo sessions and fittings. Turns out it’s very comfortable. I also made a new chemise which was an opportunity to do lace insertion again (yay!) and more tucks (less yay).

From Laughing Moon pattern #100.

Also very comfortable were the shoes (Ellie Shoes: Amelia) which I bought, from eBay, for the occasion, although I will never quite forgive them for having zips. I mean they lace up anyway!

I won the sewing category of the cosplay competition. The prize was a voucher for a sewing machine. That's two sewing machines I've won in two years – not a particularly useful habit to get into. However, the sponsoring store, Cardif Collective, has said they are willing to be flexible about the prize.

I struggled for a bit to work out what kind of handbag to wear with this outfit since Elizabeth doesn't have one. Then I remembered that she's a bookish character that we first meet in a library. So, a few days before Gamma.Con I went looking for a book that I could cut out and modify to serve as a handbag. Or a fake-book container that could be adapted. The first shop I went into had something more perfect than I imagined I could find. Not only did they have light-weight magnetic closing book-shaped boxes, they had one that was a scrapbook about Paris – the place Elizabeth dreams of going. All I had to do was glue a zipped pouch inside.

With the book I never had to put my purse down for photos and it gave me something to pose with. I appreciated this a lot as I often feel awkward posing for photos and don't know what to do with my limbs.

Photo by Tony & Dave Cosplay Photographers.

The event itself was small but good. There were more cosplay-focused panels than last year and I found the leather working one (given by A. K. Wirru) particularly useful. I will definitely be embossing leather on my costume for next year.

Finding closure

I have now finished my re-creation of Elizabeth's first outfit from Bioshock Infinite.

When I last wrote about the shirt I said I was dreading the buttonholes. Turns out it was most fortuitous that I left them for a while as eventually I noticed something else in my reference images.

Elizabeth's shirt doesn't have buttonholes. The buttons are on the right front (the side that is on top) even when the shirt is open. Cue great rejoicing.

Fake buttons over other kinds of joins is also period accurate so after this discovery I lost no time in finishing the closure. Buttons on the outside, snaps on the inside, and hooks and loops at the very top, as, in the picture, her outfit has no visible fastenings when the neck is open.

The yoke is attached with flat-felled seams. The back has a central pleat and is gathered (unevenly) into the yoke.

To keep the bulk of the shirt at the back, the pleat is secured below the skirt level using a technique I found in Authentic Victorian Dressmaking Techniques.

The scarf is a bias-cut rectangle sewn into a tube. I used the wrong side of a soft satin. The choker is made from eyelet lace with a ribbon running through the middle. The ribbon is used to fasten it at the back of the neck.

I entered this outfit in the Canberra Show and won first place in the Summer/Winter Garment category.

Bioshock Infinite belongs to Take-Two Interactive Software