The Beavers Back

[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

[Beaverslayer]

Now to place the gusset in the right position. You want to set the gusset down on the shell, then by folding the edge over on the side, so that the outer edge of the shell you see a small thin bit of the garment leather showing. Straighten the gusset so that all the way along the edge the space is the same.

Next, do the same thing to the top corner, moving the gusset up or down to get in the right position.

And again do this on the bottom of the gusset.

Now that the gusset is in the right place, using your gel pen, mark the inner edge of the gusset on the insed of the linner. To do this, you want the mark to be just underneath the edge of the gusset. Hold your pen on an angle when marking.

Now apply a liberal amount of glue to the area that you've marked off, also a liberal amount of glue to the inside of the gusste.

Place the gusset onto the shell, using the line to be sure it's in the right position, roll this seam real well to make a good bond.

Now, fold the outer edge over the gusset, and make a mark where the inner edge is. Measure the distance from the outer edge to this mark. It should be right around 1 1/4". Whatever your measurement is, this is the one you want to use to mark all along the outer edge as shown in this picture.

[Beaverslayer]

Long day...I forgot to show you something...

To get the right mitre on the corners, fold one over the other and from where the two meet on the inside, make a mark to the outer point of the corner. Cut this bit off.

Then fold the two down again and use the cut edge as a guide to make the second mark. Cut this bit off as well.

This will give you the proper mitre. I know it looks like hell now, but once it's in place, it looks real good.

Now, using a sharp knife, cut the edge trim away from the edge of the gusset as shown here. Be very carful to just cut deep enough to cut the suede. Then sand this marked off area around the edges.

Apply a bead of glue to the entire are that is shown here in this picture. Let this get tacky, then fold the edge over and press and roll together. Be sure to get the fold nice and straigth.

After folding the edge over, marking and measureing the distance from the outer edge (yes do this each time to be sure, in most cases it will always be the same as the first measurement, but let's just be sure) continue on with the rest of the outer edge. Notice the mitred corner doesn't look bad at all.

Here's waht the edge should look like from the outer side of the vest.

[Beaverslayer]

Once I have this section of the vest done, I like to place the grommets, this will help to hold everything here in place when we are pulling and turning the vest when we lace it.

Find and mark the centre of the gusset and make a mark. From this mark, measure up 1 1/2" and place another mark, then 1 1/2" again. Do the same in the other direction. This will give you 5 locations evenly spaced apart.

Now using a grommet, place it centred with each hole and mark the circular centre.

Punch these holes and insert and assemble the grommets. Always put the grommet ring on the inside of the vest, as this gives the outer side the finished grommet.

[Beaverslayer]

Now we are ready to start punching a million holes.

You want to punch these two holes first. These holes are placed as close to the mitre corner as possible, allowing enough space on the inner edge not to beak the mitre. From there you can start to mark your holes 3/8" apart.

Do the same thing on all the corners as you've just done on the last one.

What I do is work from both directions, and if the last 2 holes are not 3/8" apart, I will correct this in the middle of the run.

[Beaverslayer]

On the outer edge of this, your first hole is NOT 3/8" away from the mitre hole. As shown, it is inline with the first hole on the inner side. This is to keep the lace seam straight from the corner on down.

This is what the holes should look like when punched. The corners will all look the same as this.