this is why it takes me so long to get to these things...

[thanate]

Here is the project I have just spent the last two days (full days, in the sort of hours other people spent working) creating:

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, this is neck armor for fencing, which prevents one's windpipe from being crushed if someone hits it too hard...



Ah the shaping, cutting, and attaching of rigid materals. I will be so happy to go back to cloth now... my pattern was sort of a conglomerate of a pattern someone else made, the loaner gorget I had borrowed, and the look of the metal panel ones everyone else seems to have. Then I cut out many pieces of cardboard and taped them together to see if I could get the shape right for my neck.



Here is the final structure, all elegant and prettily sewn with synthetic sinew (which is fascinating stuff to work with, by the way) and so I could have stopped there. But that would never do...



The final, finished, ragamuffin look, which I might someday even make the rest of the armor to match... And then I wore it at practice last night, and (after some initial looks of doubt and skepticism on the part of belfebe) it was admired by all. :)


This morning, however, there must be something wrong with me, as I got up at 5:30 because it was getting light out, and raining (yay rain!) and I was going to get up and draft my coat pattern. Except that I haven't gotten that far yet, because the place for drafting patterns is on the ping-pong table in the basement, and there aren't any windows down there...

Comments

[skittblink.livejournal.com]

Neat.... so what's the base under the suede? Is it more leather?