Stick a Fork in it, I'm Done

Purses are ready for final assembly - stitch the dee holders in place, lace together, and put the shoulder straps on. Which is not an insignificant amount of work, but the stitching and lacing are fairly simple/brainless.

I told Robin that I was comfortably certain the cutting dies weren't in the dining room, and after looking in the tool drawers (which I hadn't technically looked in, but I've been in most of them for this and that thing over the weekend), he looked in the basement. In only a couple minutes he'd located them. I should either have him bring them up and put them on the shelves I expect to find them on, or else have them put them on the stand for the big press.

Worked on making belt loops for pouches - cutting out little rectangles. When I was cleaning/looking for the dies, I realized I had a significant amount of leather set aside for them. I was working on that after getting the purses to where I wanted, while waiting for Robin and Marmaduke to finish the miniature game they were playing on the cutting table.

Once they finished, and cleared most of their gaming paraphanalia, I cut strips for braided belts. I cut mostly wide ones, but I cut a few experimental narrow braided belts. Wide belts get a 5-strand braid, I'm going to see how a narrower belt looks with a 3-strand braid. Actually, I have a pretty good idea how it will look, the question is if they'll sell. I cut 2 or 3 in black, and a couple dark brown. I didn't need to cut wide braided belts of the other two browns, so didn't cut any narrow ones either. After cutting down the pieces of black and dark brown to no-longer-usable-for belts width, I brought them upstairs.

I needed the black for the new steampunkish project, which is a pair of vertically-stacked pockets. I got them fairly far along, but a few minutes ago I realized that I'd reached the point that I'm too tired to do any more safely. I still need to make the stitching holes for the belt loops and install the studs for the belt loops, and figure out where the latches go on the pocket fronts and install the latches. After those tasks all that will be left is lacing the pocket flaps and then stitching everything together. Survey of Robin and Marmaduke agreed with using rotary latches for the pockets, small version on the smaller upper pocket and larger version of the latch on the larger lower pocket. So that's what I'm doing.

However, a few minutes ago I realized I was too tired to continue safely. Er, um, I see I'm repeating myself. In part because this post isn't being written in the order you're reading it. Anyhow, I might be able to finish the things on the pockets listed above safely, but there's also a good chance I'd screw something up and make a mess. I'd rather not take that chance.

I did the stitching holes on these differently than I did Robin's, in part because I wasn't going to be able to glue to the leather I'd dyed black (at least not with rubber cement). The change was slightly more work in some ways, but it simplified things significantly in others. The test will be in stitching them together.

The chili is calling me. I think it's time to get myself some dinner, then probably go sit in the tub. Nighty-night...