Male Nightingale Armor Skyrim - WIP

[PerniciousDuke]

1 hour ago, spacedog said:

Nice looking set up. The finish on your leather is pretty shiny.  Kidding. I'm looking forward to more updates.

Haha, yeah I'm not going to make my own boots.   If you've ever cosplayed at an event for 8 hours you would know why.

We did learn that faux leather is shiny because of a polishing process it goes through and that household products like rubbing alcohol can reverse the effects. 

 

 

Edit: I realized you might have been talking about the clear wrap and not the boots. Lol

 

 

Update:

So I needed to hold the leather on the mannequin to form it and my only thought was how saran wrap loves to cling to itself. So I wrapped the mannequin, put a piece on and wrapped more over top.

One downside is satan wrap holds the moisture in so not only does it take longer, but there is a good chance of mold growing. Once a piece is half dry (8-12 hours) I take it off and try to prop it up somewhere else to finish drying.

Something new I learned is that if the piece is not fully wrapped in saran while drying then the moisture will get sucked out of that one spot so fast that it creates what looks like a burn mark! Crazy!

Edited February 3, 2019 by PerniciousDuke

[YinTx]

4 hours ago, PerniciousDuke said:

it creates what looks like a burn mark! Crazy!

I've never seen that.  What brand of leather are you using?

YinTx

[PerniciousDuke]

2 hours ago, YinTx said:

I've never seen that.  What brand of leather are you using?

YinTx

https://www.tandyleather.com/en/product/economy-tooling-side-8-to-9-oz-3-2-to-3-6-mm

[spacedog]

I was joking about the plastic wrap, but I have spent hours in costume at a convention. You are absolutely correct about footwear. I feared I wouldn't ever walk right again after the first time when I wore borrowed boots. Anyways, I've never seen anything like that "burn" mark before. It's amazing that escaping moisture would do that.

[PerniciousDuke]

You're telling me @spacedog I have 3" heel raises in my Spartan suit and I don't walk well for a week after a day in that costume. But people get so excited when they see me!

 

 

Update:

Starting up another Skyrim building weekend. 

I did some stitch tests... which one do you think I'm going to go with?

 

(Hint: it's the one @YinTx recommended) 

Edited February 9, 2019 by PerniciousDuke

[PerniciousDuke]

Well, since you asked lol... I had to do another practice one to be sure it worked with my beveled edges anyway...

This is the only video I found: 

I changed it a little to make it even more hidden, but it also means less strength. The costume won't encounter as much wear as a pair of shoes, so I think it will be fine. Plus I added glue on the middle of the stich to give extra support.


My Hidden Stitch:

First I lined my pieces where I wanted. I moved the upper piece about 1/8" higher and scribed the line.
 

Using a 4-in-1 tool I made my holes along that line.
 

On the upper piece (where I want the stich hidden), I made a diagonal cut along the edge, very shallow and about 3/16" wide. You don't want to cut too deep into the rough side otherwise there will be very little holding the piece together.
 
You also don't want to cut too shallow or the threads will appear as humps under the smooth side. But, you do want to cut a good way into the leather from the edge towards the center of the piece. This will allow you to be able to peel back that top layer and work underneath.

Use an awl through your first punched hole and pierce the underside where your first hidden stich will be, about an 1/8" from the edge. You can use another piece of leather as a bracket for support and so you don't pierce yourself.
 


Insert the 4in1 in the incision you made. Making sure not to distort the peeled back smooth face, punch your holes like normal.
 

From here it's pretty straight forward. Do a traditional stitch, two needles on one thread passing through every hole. I back stick at the end by 1.5 holes.
   

Once you're done you can take access leather cut into a triangle and slowly apply leather glue to both sides of that incision. Be careful! Smooth leather does not like getting glue on it. Use as little as possible. Let it set 5-10 minutes then press pieces together. Viola! Hidden stich.
  

I then put some glue in between the two pieces for a little extra strength.
 


In 20 minutes, when I pull on those pieces of leather... the leather itself stretches before the stitch even moves a fraction. Success.

 

 

[Ragingstallion]

ive been waiting for someone to do some armor from skyrim, and it is looking awesome. can't wait to see the final piece

[PerniciousDuke]

Thanks man!

 

Update: (do you guys mind these thumbnail pictures? Do they enlarge when you click on them?)

 

Stitching leather is no joke. My hands feel like they're going to fall off and I've only connected 12 pieces. 
 
(Don't mind the rough edges. I will redye them, or paint them) 

I did manage to dye most of the pieces last night. 
 

Next challenge will be the chest. I think I'm happy with this set up:
  

I also took a couple passes with my router to make a jig for wet forming the chest strips:
  

[YinTx]

If you use a different photo hosting service, your images may be lost on this site in the future, which has happened to many older posts.  

Everything else is looking good, nice job on the hidden stitch!

YinTx

[Viking]

I’m really enjoying following this topic & learning from your whole process.  Keep the updates coming!!!