The Beavers Back

[Beaverslayer]

Sand the area that is marked off, and also the outer edge of the inbetween piece, or gusset. You should sand it about 1/4" wide on all edges.

Next, apply a bead of glue to all the sanded areas, be sure to clean the dusted leather away before glueing.

Now, align the gusset with your marks, and press together, being careful again not to stretch the leather. Once in place use your roller and seal the bond.

[Beaverslayer]

We want to use a diferent hole spacing on this area as there tends to be extra strain put on this as the wearer puts on and takes off the vest. We will be spacing the holes 1/4" apart and 3/8" wide seam.

Start your marking 1/8" above the edge of the gusset, then every 1/4" thereafter until you've reached the end. Then again 1/8" past the bottom of the gusset.

When you punch these holes, keep them 3/8" wide, this will make a real nice tight lace and give this area some good strength.

[Beaverslayer]

We are going to change lace here on this piece as well. The reason for this, is that we have been using a 4/5 oz leather for the rest of the vest, which makes a fairly heavy lace. We want to use a 2/3 oz garment leather to make the lace we will use here, and on another part of the lining. The 4/5 oz lace is just a bit to bulky to use in such a short stitch, and it will not look or feel right.

So start your lacing just as you did on the front pockets, glue down the tail, and the first loop on the backside. Lace all the way to the end, then on your last stitch go back through the hole shown in the picture.

On the backside, 3 or 4 loops up, run your lace through the loop.

When it's close to the end, place some glue on the lace and gusset and pull tight. Press down and roll. Then cut the tail off leaving just a bit sticking out.

Here's what the tail should look like when done.

Continue onto the other side and lace the same way. Also remember that you want to have the lace to have a "Mirror" image of the one you just did, so this entails lacing the other direction that you may be used too. Some people have a hard time with lacing left to right, but with practice it can be done quite easily.

[Beaverslayer]

We now have to put a "Finished" edge on these pieces. This will give the "cut" edge of the leather that will be showing, a real nice clean edge, and a very proffessional look to it.

First you want to mark all along the edge 1/2" in, follow the cueve as best you can. Then sand this 1/2" area and clean the residue.

Now cut some strips of your suede 1 1/4" wide. Cut strips from this about 1 " longer than the edge of your gusset edges.

Now apply a bead of glue that covers the 1/2" wide area on the gusset, and a thin bead about 1/8" on the "Suede" side of your strips.

Starting on the left side, press the strip down onto the gusset, you'll have to play with it a bit to get it in the right place, you only want to attach it by the 1/8" that you've glued on the strip. Work your way along to the curve, and tweek it to go around.

Now, apply glue the exposed area, leave about 3/8" unglued as you will need this to hold onto and you don't want the glue to get on your fingers and make a mess.

Once this is tacky, gently fold the strip over, looking to make sure you're not folding it past the glue area on the gusset. Press this down and roll with your oller.

Now, flip the piece over and apply glue to the rest of the strip and the area on the gusset that the strip will be pressed onto. If you put too much glue on the gusset, this is no big deal, as it will not be seen when we are finished.

Fold the strip over snug to the edge, you can feel it with your fingers as you are folding it. Roll this real goo, and then snip the excess off the ends.

And there you have it, a nice finished edge. If you want, you may want to practice this procedure on some scrap before hand. We have a WHOLE lot of this to do later on.

[Pauly]

Man that cobra is so baddarse cool I went back for a second look and zoomed the screen in 400% for MAXIMUM VIEWING POWER!!!

[Beaverslayer]

Hi every one, just remembered something that should have been mentioned in "Post 53" damned me and my old memory.

The length of the lace you want to have when doing a 1/4" spaced lace, is 7 times the length of the seam. Sorry about just remembering this now.

Thanks so far for all the compliments as well. Oh yes, has anyone been counting the holes that we are punching? Because we will be testing you all a bit later on.

Ken

[Beaverslayer]

Here's a picture of the finished Gusset.

[Beaverslayer]

Okay, now we are going to tackle the liner. This is a bit harder as the material we use is not as easy to wrk with as the heavy leather is.

You will need to puchase some Nylon Mesh material, this is the stuff they make sports jerseys out of. The reason we want to use this, is to give the back of the vest some breathing room. This will help to keep it a bit cooler to wear. You also need your pigskin suede.

You will want to make a template for this part. What you need to do is to take the template you have for the shoulder piece and copy it. Then, as shown in the picture, make it square at the bottom. From the centre of the template, it is 4" down to the squared off bottom. Then place on the suede, and mark your pattern out. At the bottom, we want an additional 1/2", I know, why not make the pattern this 1/2" already, well I use this for other items as well, and it has to be 4" for them, so I just add to do this part.

Along the bottom of the template, just make a dashed line so you can use this for reference later. Mark the suede side of this as well, not the underside. Cut the piece out, and we are ready for the next step.

Lay your nylon mesh out, and using the template that you have for the back of the vest, and also the template you have for the shoulder piece, lay them as if you were assembling them together. Now lay the new liner templet on top and aling it with the other templates. Where the flat bottom lays on the back template, draw a line. We will use this as our marker for the top of the mesh lining.

As you see in the picture, have the line on your template about 1/2" down from the straight edge of your mesh. As it is hard to mark this nylon with a gel pen, I use my roller knife to cut it. Don't worry about being exact, as we will be trimming it at a later time, just get the basic shape.

Heres what you should end up with.

[Beaverslayer]

Now, on the underside of the suede, apply a bead of glue 1/2" wide all across the flat side.

Then lay your nylon onto the glued area, and roll very good with your roller. Any extra nylon that is sticking up past the glued area, just snip ot off, for a clean line. Then using your painters tape, make an area 1/2" wide above the nylon liner, and apply glue to this area.

Now, fold the nylon over onto the suede, using those dashed lines we made earlier as your folding reference, and press down and then roll very well.

Here's what it should look like.

On the exposed strip of suede at the bottom, apply glue to this area as shown.

Now, fold the nylon back over the glued suede and press it down and roll again very well

Now take one of your 1 1/8" wide sude strips cut to length, and use it as a guide to show you where you have to apply the painters tape to make the next glue area. Line the bottom of the strip up with where the fold is in the suede, then apply your tape at this width, as shown in the picture. Then apply glue to both the area and the strip, press down firmly and roll the seam.

This will help to protect the nylon when you punch the holes to lace this area.

You should now have a well sealed nylon back liner, just like this picture.

Edited March 27, 2008 by Beaverslayer

[Beaverslayer]

To layout the holes for this seam, we want to start from the centre of the back. Place a mark at centre, then start 1/8" from there, then every 1/4" from there on out. Only mark holes until you are 1/2" away from the edge, this gives us room for when we attach the liner later, and these laces will not get in the way.

Now, as you can see in the picture, I did not punch the first mark, this is because there would be to many holes right there. You want to have 3 hole in a row in the centre and also on each end. Punch the holes 3/8" apart so the seam is not that wide.

Here we are also going to use the thinner lace that we've cut. This is always the case when we are doing something on the liner, as it is a closer stitch and we don't want a big bulky seam. Cut your lace 7 times the length of the seam to be laced.

On the backside, starting in the middle, and also in the middle hole, you want to glue the tail down just like we have previously, making sure that it will be held in place by one of the following stitches. Then lace outwards to the edge just like all the other seams.

Now when you reach the end of the seam, run the lace through the middle hole that you punched. Now run the tail under one of the stitches and glue the tail down, cut off the excess and your done. Start again in the middle and lace outwards to finish the other side. When your done, be sure to roll the laced seam from the backside of the piece.

Here's what it should look like finished.

[Beaverslayer]

We are going to make the liner sides now and attach them to the rest of the liner. Using the same template you used to make the front panels of the vest, mark out and cut a left and right side using your suede. When you are marking the "Yolk" at the top, add 1/2" to the piece, as shown in the picture. This is needed to attach the two together.

Here's what the piece should look like. Make an opposite one for the other side.

Now on the front of the side panel, mask off the 1/2" extra lip and apply glue. On the BACK of the shoulder piece, mask off a 1/2" area and apply glue.

Now press the two pieces together, be sure that you have the front panel facing the proper direction. Then roll the seam.

Now on the back of the piece we want to add some 1 1/8" strips for added strength. Cut and glue down these strips just as we have in the preceding steps.

Now, take some more 1 1/8" strips and apply glue to backside, fold over part way as shown in the picture.

Then fold the other half over, roll together for a good bond.

Cut hte strip so it follows the "V" of the yolk, and apply glue and press and roll together. This is to add some bulk to the suede for lacing purposes.

Mark, punch and lace the same way you did the yolk on the outer shell. It should look like this when done.

Then do the same with the opposite side liner.

[Beaverslayer]

Take the template you have that we used for the liner on the outer pocket. Use this as your template for the inside pocket. You want to lay it out as shown in the picture. Just make a small mark at the top on each side as references. Flip the template over, align with the reference marks, and finish marking the pocket.

You should have a piece of suede that looks like this.

Now apply a bead of glue all the way around the outer edge.

Fold the piece in half, using those 2 reference marks as your guide, press together and roll the seam.

[Beaverslayer]

First off...IGNORE the 2 1/2" demension in this picture.

You want to mark where the inside pocket is to be placed. If the person is right handed, then it goes on the inner left side, vice versa if they are left handed. Place your template 2" from the outer edge, and 4 " up from the bottom point. Mark all along the edge but only a small dash at to top corners.

Now, just to be on the safe side so you don't get glue on places that it isn't supposed to be, mask off the entire area that we are going to apply the glue too. Then apply glue to this area, and also the outer edges of the pocket.

Once you've placed the pocket and rolled the seam, flip the side over and you should see the outline of the pocket in the backside of the suede.

Do the same here with the tape and glue as you just did on the front of the pocket. A;so cut some 1/2" strips and apply glue to them as well. You want this glue seam to be 1/2 on and 1/2 off the seam of the pocket. This will give the suede some bulk for the lace.

Here's what the backside should look like when done.

[Beaverslayer]

We want to use a 1/4" hole spacing on this seam as well, also the thinner lace. Start by making a mark 1/8" past the top of the pocket, then every 1/4" past that. Mark fro one side to the bottom middle, then the other side to the bottom middle.

Start lacing the same as you did on the front pockets. Glue down the tail, and also the first loop on the backside. When your reach the bottom middle, glue tha tail down as shown.

Here's the completed pocket.

[Beaverslayer]

When you attach your "Makers Mark" or "Label" centre and glue it to the front of the liner. Flip the liner over, and with your roller roll the area where it is glued. This will show you where to place a piece of suede to use as bulk for lacing.

Cut a piece of suede to fit the area including lace hole and glue it down. Then you can punch holes and lace in your label.

Here's the completed liner.

Now get a good nights sleep, as tomorrow I think we may have a big job ahead of us. Thanks again for all the compliments, and hope you are all learning as we go.

[Pip]

I am getting excited to see this fnished, its looking realy cool.

[Beaverslayer]

Okay, as I said before, I want to put a weave pattern on the back of this vest. What we need to do is to make a template so we can not only mark the holes, but also see just what it's going to look like before we punch holes through the back of the vest.

Then, once you've made the template, lace one side of it just to get the feel for what it will look like. Better to do this, than to punch all the holes, lace the vest and find out it just does not work right.

You will always want to use an "odd" number of laces for this, using an even number makes one edge of it look way diferent than the other and it takes away from the whole look.

Once you've decided that it's all going to work okay, then cut the lace out of your template and use it to mark the holes on your vest. Make sure that you have it centred where you want it.

Once marked, then punch the holes.

[Beaverslayer]

To weave with lace you want to make your laces 4 times the length of the outer edge of the area to lace.Start at the outside edge, and run your 5 laces through from the back on the 5 outer holes. Glue the tails down and roll.

Now on the front, you want to take the bottom 3 laces and lay them to the side for a minute. The last of the top 3 goes into the second hole on the bottom edge. The next lace goes through the next hole on the bottom, and then the lats one through the next hole.The take the second of the bottom 2 laces and run it under the first lace, over the next and under the next, then through the second hole from the edge. The last lace goes over then under, then through the next hole.DO NOT pull these laces tight, just pull them enough that they lay flat to the vest back. If you pull them too tight they will bunch up the vest back and make things go all funny on you.

Now flip the vest over, and the 2 laces that are at the top edge, bring them back one hole each and pull them back to the front of the vest.

Flip the vest back over, and the first lace on the top pull under then over then under, then through the next hole. The last lace over, under then through the last hole. Thus will give you all 5 laces on the bottom edge, and at the backside of the vest.

Flip the vest back over, and with the first lace, go back one hole and pull to the front. Then do the same with each of the next 4 laces until all 5 are back in the front. Continue on until you've reahed the middle of the weave pattern. It's hard to explain with out actulally pointing to this, but when you reach the middle 5 holes, DO NOT go back a hole and pull to the fron, you only do this on the outer edge of the weave.

Cut the tails off and glue down as shown here.

Now if you flip the vest over and look at the top right of the weave, you will see that there is a stitch missing, the same is with the bottom right. Take 2 of the left over pieces of lace that still have needles on them, and use this to fill the missing stitch. This picture shows you the back view once you've put the 2 stitches in place. Now cut and glue these tails down also. You can make these fairly long to help them from coming loose. In my experience they are never a problem if glued down good. Once done this, take your roller and roll this weave real good to help lay the weave in place.

Here's what the weave should look like on the front and back.

Now you can continue on to the other side, just remember that you want it a "Mirror" image of this side, so do everything the same but backwards...Here's a picture of the completed weave. There will be a lace that runs along the outer edge of this, once we are finished the vest. So it will not look like it is jusy hanging out there where it shouldn't.

Edited March 29, 2008 by Beaverslayer

[Gremlin]

171 pics and still going ..... WOW!! I'll say it again, great tutorial Ken.

The applique on the back looks great. I've done a number of appliques and they can be tricky/confusing for someone that has never done them. Very satisfying once completed tho.

[Wolf]

You are definitely a talented individual!!! Great work! You inspire me!

Wolf

[Beaverslayer]

Thanks all for the compliments, I just hope that at you are all learning something from this, and if anyone has questions, feel free to ask, I will answer any and all questions, no secrets here.

Okay we are going to tackle about the hardest part now, installing the liner.

Lay the vest shell out flat, then lay the liner on top of it so it lays nice and flat, position the liner so that it is lying where it aligns with the shell. Now on the neck section, make some reference marks on the shell and the liner.

Be sure to mark the centre of the neck on both pieces, we want to be sure that we glue this in the right place the first time.

Mark the place where the top of the seam of the back piece is on the shell. This is an important mark. Place these reference marks on both sides of the shoulder piece.

Also mark about 6 inches up from this mark on both the shell and liner.

[Beaverslayer]

Starting on the top of the neck, apply a bead of glue about 1/4" wide, you can be wider if you want, but 1/4" will do. Apply this bead from one reference mark all the way to the other.

Now on the liner, apply a bead to the same marked off section as the shell. Align the "Centre" marks up with each other and gently press together. Now carefully lay each side of the neck liner down, making sure that when you do this you are not stretching or pulling the liner. Align the marks and press down. Be sure to roll this seam with your roller to make a good bond.

Now, apply a bead of glue to the area where the nylon meets the suede, up to the reference mark you have on the shoulder piece. You want to be a bit liberal with the glue right where the laced seam is, put a bit of glue on the back of the lace as well. Also run a bead of glue on the liner. Gently align the liner with the reference mark on the shell, and lay this piece in place. Using your hand in a "flat on table" way, gently press the air out of this area (you'll get what I mean by that when you do this). Roll the seam good.

[Beaverslayer]

Starting at the top of the back, where your reference marks are where the back lace is, mark on the shell 1/2" from the edge of the shell. If you like you can do this before hand, and mark all the way around the shell, as you are going to need this as we glue the liner in. The reason I'm just showing you this much, is because we only want to glue so much at a time.

Apply a 1/2" wide bead of glue to the first section that goes under the arm. DO NOT apply glue to the nylon mesh.

Now gently, and without stretching, lay the mesh down and press it down with a flat hand. Then take your roller and roll this seam REAL good. We want the glue to soak into the nylon. Then carry on and apply glue to the side section of the shell, press down and roll as before.

Now do the same thing on the other side of the shell, just till you reach the end of the underarm section. Once you've reached this point, fold the mesh ober and out of the way as shown in this picture.

Apply a bead of glue for about 6 inches or so, then with a flat hand gently lay the mesh down so that it sits nice and flat, roll this seam.

Now with the last section folded back again, apply glue to the remaining section, lay down and roll the seam.

You've most likely noticed that the liner is a bit bigger than what is needed and are probably asking yourself, "Why not make the liner the right size to start with?" Well, it's simple, if you did make the liner the right size, there is NO ROOM for any errors. Leather tends to stretch a bit whether we want it to or not. This is the best way to do this and you have no worries about the liner not fitting the way it's supposed too.

Carry on glueing the front of the liner in the same way we have done for the nylon mesh back. Work your way around from the shoulder piece till you reach the "V" at the bottom front. When you get here, fold the "V" back out of the way, apply your glue, and press down. Remember what I was saying about "Press the Air out?" you will notice it here when you are placing the front liner down. When you are pressing the liner down around where the front pockets are, you will want to sort of press the air out of the pockets, so the liner lays at the best possible place it can. If you didn't do this, the liner is going to be smaller that it supposed to be, and will make the front of the vest curl at the edges.

Edited March 30, 2008 by Beaverslayer

[Beaverslayer]

Okay, now we want to trim the excess liner from the vest. Be sure to let all the seams dry and bond for about an hour before doing this. If when cutting the liner extra away, the seam comes apart a bit, just apply some glue to the area that's come apart and re-roll the seam.

Using scissors, hold the liner between your fingers and gently pull it away from the shell and cut the excess liner away. Follow along the entire edge. When you get to the are that is where the lace seam is at the top of the back, you may have to cut a bit of the suede folded piece away, just before where the lace seam starts. You want at least a 1/2" wide space all the way around the vest.

The same with the front vest panels as the back. Trim all the ecxess away. Also look on the shoulder piece and trim any overhang away from there as well.

Here you have the liner fully glued and trimmed in place.

[Beaverslayer]

You want to mark a 1/2" space all the way around the outer edge of the vest.

Next, sand this area, all the way around also. Then with a damp cloth, remove any remaining marker lines, so you have a clean area. You will also have to cut some long lengths of the suede into 1 1/8" strips. Makes these as long as possible, as we do not want to have to put splices on this.

I always start on the side of the front section. This is where most of the mitered corners are, and we want to be sure they are fitted correctly. First you want to just snip out a bit of the corners, not too much, just a bit.

Then, as we did previously on the gusset pieces, apply a bead of glue to the vest shell, and also a 1/4" bead of glue to the suede side of your strip. Place this so as the 1/4" wide bead is at the inner edge of the glued area.

Now, apply glue to the area as shown here in the picture, leave abot 1/4" from the edge, so you have a clean area to grab a hold of. Fold this over, and press and roll the seam. Then, flip the vest over and as we did on the gusset, apply glue to the underside, fold over the edge and press and roll the seam.

You should have a nice finished edge now, that looks like this.

On the curved area under the arm, you will have to work the suede a bit so it takes the curve, try not to get too many little creases in it when you do this area, if you have to just stretch the suede a bit, too lessen the severity of any crease.

Edited March 30, 2008 by Beaverslayer