fredk

you design one and get it made

the client has cos you have put the price on each item

nice suggestion: glue some magnets on the jaws, at the lower level of the outside leather. most useful for attaching a needle to whilst sewing. I have several magnets on mine

I'll chip in. When I had to get a stamp made for a club it cost me £26. This, with anything I have to get especially to do a job I price into the cost of the main job, by pro-rata. In this case the club wanted 10 items - my choice of what to make. So I made them coffee cup cuffs. Pro-rata the stamp was £2.60 to be added to each cuff, but I didn't add that as I knew there would be a repeat order. I added £1.50 = £15 covered.(cos I like the club) Year two, the club wanted 16 items made, so I made them luggage tags and key fob purses. I added £0.70 to each item. = £11.20 + the previous £15 = £26.20 = stamp paid for Year three the club wanted 14 items. I made them small valet trays. No need to add any extra. Year four - this year, I reckon they'll be wanting about 12 items. If you charge $100 for the stamp right off the client may be ok with it, but if you hide its cost in the price per item its easier for them to swallow. eg $100/50 items = $2 per item. Can you add that to the price of the item? I like to have the stamp made and keep control of it. Means that client has to come back to me (muhaaa!), they can't take the stamp away and get stuff made by a competitor.

Hoods were made of leather as well as other materials. Although leather hoods were mostly worn by soldiers Look for 'Simplicity' patterns. They did a whole range of clothing patterns, mostly in association with the SCA, who sort-of supplied the general information for accuracy. Patterns range from Viking to Medieval, leggings/trews, surcotes, bodices, hoods & hats, you name it they had it in their range of pattern packs. The packs can be hard to find and can be expensive now A couple of examples; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Simplicity-Sewing-Pattern-1552-Medieval-Tunic-Cloak-And-Accessories/401924648368?hash=item5d94936db0:g:cvYAAOSwpDZcrGdQ https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Simplicity-Sewing-Pattern-9753-Mens-Medieval-Costume-Size-XS-M-Uncut/173927637220?epid=1643030098&hash=item287ee520e4:g:EXMAAOSwantbinUj I don't know what style you are needing but I have a couple of basic patterns for hoods I could share with you

I'd go for the Osborne. afaik you can't really trust that the steel in the Stohlman is top grade these days.

Le Prevo in Newcastle used to do 'bag lining'. A very stiff fabric type stuff. I have some somewhere but I've never used it With upholstery leather I double up the layers, sandwiching cereal box type cardboard in between. If a soft gusset is needed than that it left as a single layer

Punter = an Ulsterism or Scots for a paying customer

you can buy magnetic tape, by the metre. About £3 for 2 metres. Its the same stuff as used on fridge magnets

The OP edited his post after mine

I think you need to put your asking price. Its in the rules I think

Thats another nice piece of work. Bestest wishes for the contest

a suggestion, extreme measure - have you tried steaming it? get it into a sauna type place, let it steam for a while and whilst in there apply nfo by the sponge full I use to do this with my motorcycle boots about once every spring to soften them up after the wetting and salting they got over the winter months, although I used leather feed and olive oil

This is not the case in the UK or Europe. Unless the originator of the pattern has given you permission to make items for commercial sale from the pattern then you may use the pattern only for personal use, you may not make multiples of the item and sell them, but you may give those items away as gifts

For small size thread: 0.5 or 0.65mm pre-waxed polyester. It is available in a great variety of colours and even shades of those colours With 2oz or so I don't mark a stitch groove. I just draw a line with a pencil then use a 'pounce' wheel stitch marker to mark where the stitch holes will be. I can then sew up to four thicknesses of 2oz by hand without pre-punching or using an awl for making holes.

very nice indeedy

a. There are/were a great many different styles (fonts) of letters in 3/4 inch. Which font do you need? * b. Was there ever a lower case set made for the type you have? as far as I can find out very few lower case sets were made to match certain type sets c. Presuming there was a set. Start checking every Tandy re-seller around the world to see if they have them. No. I'm not joking. It took me over a year contacting Tandy re-sellers in Europe, Asia, Australia and US to find one set of 1/2 inch lower case**. They had it as NOS, on a dusty shelf d. consider getting one of the Tandy Craftaids or books of designs and cut & carve the lower case letters - in fact do all the letters that way for consistency. e. if you think you're gonna use them often, consider getting them made. I went that way. I sent the lower case alphabet for a 3/4 inch type, with some repeat letters, to Le Prevo in England and they made me a sheet of the letters. I have to cut them out as blocks yet. They use a photo-etch system. I got the letters done as well as some designs for stamping. The lot cost me about £90. The letters are about 1/3 share of that f. * & ** I bought the lower case set first then bought the more readily available upper case set

Bestest I can find is the Tandy on-line library https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/product/1411/leather-flowers Adjust the pattern and dye 'em pink and you got roses

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-51176409 Quote from the article linked to " Can the coronavirus be transferred through items bought from Wuhan and posted to UK? - Stefan There is no evidence this is a risk. Some diseases - including the coronavirus that causes Sars - can spread through surfaces contaminated by people coughing or sneezing on them. It has not been shown this new coronavirus can do that. Even if it could, there would still be questions about whether international shipping would be a major problem. Cold viruses tend to survive less than 24 hours outside the human body although norovirus (a severe stomach bug) can last months outside the body. The most reassuring fact so far is that cases seem to require close contact with another person - say, a family member or healthcare worker - in order to spread." (end quote) I've checked the addresses of the suppliers I buy from and none are in Wuhan nor even close. Most are close to Hong Kong

Dilute your PVA with something 'Astonish' floor 'polish' which is a thin acrylic varnish. It makes the PVA totally waterproof when dry. I put about an egg-cup full in about 500ml of PVA. It dilutes it only a bit but still makes it water-proof when dry.

In a life in another universe a long time ago I was a postie for the Royal Mail. This question came up once when there was a massive flu outbreak in the UK. We were told not to worry about it, no virus could live for any length of time on any package. A virus is not like bacteria or a germ which can live on certain items

a. 3mm = 1/8 inch, 6mm = 1/4 inch - close enough for government work, b. I use a big heavy weight on the template to hold it down c. I suggest you use a rotary knife on thin material

a. I use both 3mm clear acrylic, which is cut to my requirements by a company, and 3mm MDF also cut by them or me b. Most times I just trace around the template and cut with a knife or shears along the marked line. If I have to I will cut using the edge of the template as a guide and with care I've never taken any slices out of a template yet c. I think to be totally free of that threat you'd need a template made of hard metal, like steel, as you can still take a slice from the edge of aluminium d. Unless you need to see through the template I'd recommend 3mm or 6mm MDF. Its much cheaper and easier to get

What do you mean Chris? I've been placing my orders with Le Prevo on-line for about 8 years and they answer my emails pretty speedily. Only rarely do I need to phone them or them me

Does it have to be plastic? I find 3mm MDF good for pattern shapes. I can cut it with a heavy duty craft knife. If it needs to be plastic, corrugated poster plastic. Here its used for politicians pre-election posters. Shops use it as well and it can be got cheaply from them (usually it is thrown away after use) or directly from a printer of posters.