New Steampunk-Ish Pouch Progress

Our Sunday trip to Cabela's was not just to look for winch mounting plates. We were also picking up parts for the more steampunk-ish modification to the vertically-stacked pockets. I'm still keeping details of that secret, I'm just a creep that way, grin.

Sunday afternoon, after Safari on the iPad crashed and I lost a big chunk of blog post, I stomped out into the dining room and cut out the top part of the vertical pocket stack - just the small pocket and the belt loops. It was supposed to be a test for the steampunk-ish modification as well as machine-sewing. However, we realized that part of the modification wasn't going to work out as well as we'd thought, and also that I need to make a modification to the pocket flap. Happily, we figured that out while it was still in pieces, so making changes are easy (and less annoying to boot).

After we made the big sewing machine accessible and usable, and Ron gave it a good going-over last night, I re-claimed my chair and cut out the modified pocket flap, punched it for lacing, and got the lacing done before going up to bed. That means that things are pretty much ready for Ron to start final assembly.

Going back to the basic vertically-stacked pockets, on Sunday afternoon I finished the first pass of sewing , and then tacked together the rest of the parts - the pocket fronts to the gussets, and the flaps. I think it's going to come out pretty well, now that you can really see how it's going to turn out (click to embiggen):

 

The fabric pockets these are based on have a strap toward the bottom that goes around the leg, to keep them from flopping around (kind of like on an old west gunfighter's rig). I had semi-forgotten about that until Friday night when Xap asked me if I was going to add one. We dithered a bit, since the backing leather makes mine less floppy, and then we had Robin put them on. The consensus was that the strap would be unnecessary, which is a bonus for kilt-wearers. After trying the pockets on, Robin was asking how hard they are to assemble, as he's only done a paperback book cover. Not hard, I said, especially if machine-sewing them works out. We then digressed on to discussing the more steampunk-ish modifications to the pockets in general, and what Robin might like in particular.

I was waiting for a friend to get back to me on sizing for some jewelry findings, but this morning decided I wanted bigger bits and pieces. This morning I had a little, um, accident at Fire Mountain Gems. I am told, however, that it was the kind of accident that it's easy to have when ordering from Fire Mountain. Yes, this is relevant to this natter.