*** The official and awesome DIY thread ***

[Todah]

Hi, I’m a leather artisan and I make leather products. I’m selling handstitched luxury watch straps. Please pm me if you’re interested.

 

[dieworkwear]

Obviously not my work, but I really like this woman's YouTube channel, which has a ton of DIY projects. It's on womenswear, but very creative and cool.

Posting a random video here, but they're all good.



If you go to her list of videos and sort by "most popular," you'll also find some things that may help you in some menswear projects. A random selection

 

[Oldsrocket27]

I found this vintage (50's?) cardigan at a thrift store with a handful of moth holes in it, and picked it up to try and do some fun contrasting repairs.






Fortunately, my mother used to own a yarn/knitting shop and still has tons of old inventory, including spare partial skeins, which she was willing to let me dig through for yarn to make the repairs with. Here's what I settled on:


The red yarn is pure baby alpaca and the blue is 75% Merino 25% Camel. I chose them for their colors, but the fact that they're both fantastically soft and beautiful yarns in a nice bonus.

The results:










I'm particularly pleased with how the cuff turned out. It's more what I saw in my head when I imagined the repairs. The other holes were too small to really do that with. A part of me thinks I should have let them really go big or should have worked in a few really long vertical lines off the repairs, but I settled on just making them look like the little hamfisted home repairs they are. There are a few spots where some yarn in wearing thin as well that I've left alone for now instead of reinforcing, with the thought of waiting until a hole develops to do repairs.

In any case, this was a fun and easy little project on a cozy wool sweater.

 

[flowcharts]

That's a double-like from me. Great idea & execution

 

[kenucklehead]

Follow up to my first attempt to make boots...

Here is my second attempt. Very happy with how these turned out!

• Brown Horween horsebutt chromexel
• Japanese roller buckles
• Unstructured toes
• Neoprene half sole and Catspaw heels

 

[d4nimal]

Follow up to my first attempt to make boots...

Here is my second attempt. Very happy with how these turned out!

• Brown Horween horsebutt chromexel
• Japanese roller buckles
• Unstructured toes
• Neoprene half sole and Catspaw heels

HOW.

I remember the first post you did and if your other hobbies are anything like this, man do I want to try your cookies.

Seriously, though, what did you use to cut and stitch? Your lines are generally really clean and dense, especially considering at some points you quadruple stitched. Can you go into this a bit more about what the process was like? Don't worry about getting bogged down in the details, I love being bogged down, and reading about it more would help me not feel as bad about myself after seeing your boots.

 

[kenucklehead]

HOW.

I remember the first post you did and if your other hobbies are anything like this, man do I want to try your cookies.

Seriously, though, what did you use to cut and stitch? Your lines are generally really clean and dense, especially considering at some points you quadruple stitched. Can you go into this a bit more about what the process was like? Don't worry about getting bogged down in the details, I love being bogged down, and reading about it more would help me not feel as bad about myself after seeing your boots.

haha (see pics)

process? Slow, contemplative, lots of tweaking, research, and more fine tuning.

these aren’t perfect. Had to adjust for a few errors. Still tweaking for the next pair. Trying to perfect the design. With that said, I’m very happy with how these turned out.

 

[havensk]

Follow up to my first attempt to make boots...

Here is my second attempt. Very happy with how these turned out!

• Brown Horween horsebutt chromexel
• Japanese roller buckles
• Unstructured toes
• Neoprene half sole and Catspaw heels

This is AMAZING work... damn. Cordwaining intimidates me because of working with lasts and all the stitching involved.

 

[havensk]

I just finished this purse for my wife. It's my first bag and first anything of this scope aside from a small clutch a made a couple years ago.

• Wickett & Craig Burgundy Bridle leather with matching thread
• I made a paper pattern before cutting a single piece of leather out. I based it off another purse my wife owns
• We sorta went back and forth on the design, she said she wanted one interior pocket for keys and stuff but we wanted to keep the exterior clean and free of stitches so the pocket is floating and anchored at the top stitch
• Speaking of stitching. This was saddle stitched by hand. I did the math and its over 750 stitches by hand. Only 3 lines of thread, each stitch is casted so if one breaks, the rest still hold together.
• The buckles are so that if the strap breaks (unlikely) I can make a new strap without having to reattach any hardware. 3 holes on each side so its adjustable.
• Edges are painted to match and finished with beeswax.
• I had fun with it and I'm hoping to make a bag for myself sometime very soon.

Spoiler: More Photos

 

[Kwaker]

I like how you repurposed belt buckles as strap attachments.

 

[havensk]

I like how you repurposed belt buckles as strap attachments.

Yea I could have gone with a more traditional trigger bolt or a D ring but I thought this was cool looking and a nice solution to if the strap were to ever break, I'd just have to cut a new strap.

 

[ynnod]

Not a super new diy, made I made this jacket with an attached scarf out of EG deadstock fabric. Shirt is J.Crew chamois, pants are also DIY from cotton twill, and shoes are Padmore&Barnes x Rag&Bone

Scarf detail in spoiler

Spoiler

Hat+Jacket+pants of the fabric in spoiler

Spoiler

 

[el Bert]

Damn. That fabric is one of the best they’ve done.

 

[g transistor]

wait where the **** did ou get that fabric looks so good

 

[ynnod]

wait where the **** did ou get that fabric looks so good

From an NYC fabric store. I got it for 40% off sometime last fall, and they recently just had a different 40% off sale. Since they cycle through them regularly, maybe wait to buy if you want it.