RavenAus

This is the blurb from the ad - They want AU$600 for it... What do you think?

Or, you know, actually give your customers what they pay for, or don't sell outside your country! Funnily enough, not every leatherworker in the world is American, and to get ME to move there would take more than a Hollywood stars income. You like your country, fine. Don't treat the rest of the world as second class because we don't live there.

I love how people are jumping all over the OP here - 'look to yourself', 'teenagers breaking up' etc.. If this post had been about Tandy you'd all be chiming in on how terrible they were, how you'd never shop there again, how the OP was right to be appalled... Did any of you read the OP? One order in four actually delivered correctly. One sent to a completely different address, one sent with incorrect items and one sent with missing and unusable items. That is not the OP's fault, and neither is the bad customer service. That is down to Springfield. The owner may be a great guy but it sounds like the people he needs to fire are his staff, not his customers! Last time I had a wrong item sent out in an online order I rang up and they sent me a replacement by return post, no charge. That was Tandy, and it was a stamp. I rarely order online but I know I'm safe with them when I do as they care about their customers. If I'd received an email like this from a supplier I'd be telling the world too! It's just about the worst press you can give yourself, Springfield.

Thanks for the pattern Look forward to trying it out.

I don't have any internal pics at present, but yet I line the entire thing. Use the same pattern for the lining - either cloth or lining suede - and sew it up, clip the seams and stitch to the leather along all edges. Oh, and leave enough room between fastenings for your sewing machine! I didn't want the rivets through the lining so I put all the buckles and straps on, then had a bitch of a time getting them out of the way to sew the suede edging on

Hi Thanks all. The silver is Tandys silver dye - https://www.tandyleatherfactory.com.au/en-aud/search/searchresults/2800-51.aspx - I oversprayed the Cobblestone dye with it and it seems to wear quite well. It's not as 'in your face' as paint would be. Those rivet holes... Yep, I did miss a couple. I actually punched a few holes I shouldn't have, I had problems sewing the edging on the Black Queen corset as I'd got rivets in the way so I'd meant to leave the ones right at the top and bottom out but didn't cover the hole in the template. Live and learn As for learning, this one's based on a Butterick pattern. Word of warning though, the stated pattern size is nothing like the finished size - make a mock up first! Also, as I was riveting this, I removed half of the seam allowance completely. If you have a machine that works better than mine you could sew it though, I'd still remove the stitching allowance from one side unless you were going to use it as a boning channel. Talking of bones, if you use anything heavier than 2mm you only really need bones if it's to be a tightlacing waist reduction corset. The leather does a good job of keeping its shape (and hers) as it is without needing bones.

Plus size corset in purple with silver swirls on the front panels. Size in cm as it sits on the mannequin: 110 bust 90 waist 108 hips 8 buckles on the front panel, fully lined and edged with black suede.

Stitching chisels are useful, I wouldn't be without, but yes you will need an awl. If you read what I started with, I said a box cutter, and awl and needles. You don't *need* anything more than that to make something, but you'll *want* more than that to do a good job

As far as brands go, you're going to have different ones in the US than in Oz Have a look at Ian Atkinsons videos on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/user/satansbarber - he does a great job of introducing many of the tools and techniques you'll need

Thanks Joe Trav, I started out on a shoestring budget and went down from there. A box cutter, an awl, some horrible big eyed needles and thread that was so heavily waxed it was basically a spool of wax taper - hell, it was damn near a slow match! Half my tools are hand-me-downs from people who bought the kits, got into it for a few months then didn't pick them up again till I met them 10 years later! Personally I wouldn't bother with the kits. You're unlikely to need half of what's in them and they are aimed almost exclusively at tooling anyway. For me, the tools I use every day are the box cutter (yes, still - it's the easiest knife to use), stitch groover (or dividers - something to give you a line to work with), an edge beveller to suit quite thin leather, stitch marker and stitching chisel or pricking iron, a good rotary punch and a set you can hammer, and plenty of cardstock. Get a bag of offcuts and practise on them. Make bookmarks, keyfobs, whatever you can fit on the pieces, just to get the techniques - stitching, edging, cutting out, dye and the godawful messes you can create with it... If you want to do something like a plague doctor mask, get the cardstock out. It's a lot cheaper and less frustrating than going through hides getting the the shape wrong AGAIN - ask me how I know... Leather wise, you want a thin veg, nothing thicker than 2mm unless you're a masochist I usually use 1.5-1.8mm Go visit www.tombanwell.com - that guy is the master of mask making and especially plague doctor masks. Look at how he starts them, how he works out his patterns. He's on here as Banwell and he's given a few patterns away free over the years.

For me the airbrush is invaluable. I can get a perfect finish within half the time, to the colour saturation I want. I can do fades and stencils I couldn't dream of with a sponge brush. Cleaning the airbrush takes less time than cleaning my brushes did too! My airbrush kit was AU$120 with mini compressor and dual action airbrush. It's not a fancy name but it does everything they do and unless you're going to be doing bike bibs to rival Orange County bikes then it'll do just fine.

Yep, pretty much as I thought Tom - I don't make em like that either, for that exact reason!

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=30270 From the sounds of it you'd be doing rolled edges like in the link above on both sides of the strap, putting the 2 together and sewing. Can't think of any other way without some godawful bulging at the edges of the straps, anyhow!

How do you mean by dirty? They usually darken when you burnish, if there's other colours appearing though, you should have a look at your burnisher, maybe swap the sander belt?

Nice to see some good words about Tandy I would love to be able to visit one here but there's only one in Australia and it's an 11 hour drive - or as the Aussies say, 'Just down the road, mate!'

Hi, I'm having problems with Cobblestone green dye. http://www.leatherfinishingproducts.com.au/index.php/cobblestone/ I airbrushed the dye on in exactly the same way I do with all the other colours. I then oversprayed with a gold dye (tandy brand) for detail. Finally I airbrushed Cobblestone finish, in this case extreme gloss, over the top to seal it. I've had this same problem with the gloss finish as well - as soon as I apply the finish it strips the green dye out. I end up with a faded, barely green, streaky finish that is completely useless to me. This is not the first time it's happened. It doesn't seem to affect the other colours in the range, just the green. Has anyone else had this sort of issue with a dye reacting with a finish, especially Cobblestone brand dyes and finishes?

Your best bet would be to get a local metal shop to make a set of dies for that Meagain. You might even try your local college or uni that do engineering courses as they would be a good test piece for the students. Failing that, ask locally to see if anyone has a metal lathe

I tried the rivet setter with my usual 8mm rivet through a piece of 2.5mm scrap veg. There was about 5mm sticking out the top. It still set perfectly, something you couldn't do with a hand setter

That's a really good hack, brilliant work

I received my dies for the line 20, line 24 and 8mm rivets today :D. It's an absolute joy to be able to set snaps straight off without worrying about the cap suddenly being at a weird angle or just not setting right at all because the dratted thing had shifted just as I hit the setter. Tried them all out and they are fantastic. Never want to manually set another snap again!

No, I certainly agree there! I'm trying to work on the muzzle as a friend wants a dog mask like this but closer to a Labrador or Husky (they have 1 of each) but so far the results have been terrible Would you have any hints?

Thanks Tom, you're an inspiration to me!

That site redirects to Tandy, David

Hey here in Australia we have Supanova, and I've got a stall there this November! A friend of mine won the WA heats of the Madman Cosplay competition too so she'll fly over to Brissy for the finals as well. Looking forward to it :D

Oh yeah, I know exactly what you mean! I did my pattern as a half head, just the one side, and had to completely remake it as I overestimated the width of the top panel. Trying to sew this one-handed with a hand-cranked patcher was not remotely fun either! You did a fantastic job on this, great construction and execution. The customer looks fantastic