The Toymaker

The creative impulse takes many forms and often comes from a place of frustration with what's out there not living up to the potential you can see.

When I was a kid, I made many of my own toys.  All of my favorite toy guns came from the crates of miscellaneous junk beneath my grandfather's work bench, not Toys-R-Us.  This isn't because we were poor, but because I thought the toys I envisioned in my head were just that much cooler than the ones you could buy at the toy store.  For instance, the 1980's were woefully short of space helmets and other spaceman spiffery.  I was born twenty years too late for the real teeth of the space race and all the very cool toys that accompanied that space-borne fervor.

Thankfully, my parents and grandparents encouraged this sort of thing.  At least until I went as far as getting into pounding heated nails into tiny swords for my GI Joes.  Dad drew the line at me becoming an eight-year-old blacksmith.

Even those toys I did buy or was given eventually went under the tools.  All of my favorite GI Joe and Star Wars characters and vehicles were custom amalgamations to suit my own fancy, characters in my own extended storylines.

As an adult, I transferred this into sculpture and artwork, but really these are all extensions of the same brain frequency, the translation of a mental picture into a three-dimensional object.  I've made props for renaissance faires and small theatrical productions and science fiction conventions.

My name is Scott and I like to build neat stuff.  I am a Maker and a Modifier, in short, I am a Toymaker and these are my toys.

Buttoning Up - Part One

There are three methods of making your own period buttons that I am going to discuss.

1. Soft Buttons made from fabric scraps
2. Thread-covered buttons with a wooden core
3. Buttons fashioned from beads

I rather like the idea of making soft buttons. As I mentioned previously, Alcega and other renaissance tailor's books go to some length to show you how to lay out your pattern to utilize as much of the yardage as possible. Some of these layouts have pieces lying with, across and diagonal to the grain of the fabric. While I cannot imagine going to quite that great a length, in threads that unraveled from the edges of the cloth! On this project I have taken every opportunity to reduce waste, reuse scraps, and recycle even the little end bits of thread left over from hemming and gathering. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle... a very sixteenth century idea wedged into a twenty-first century framework.

Of all the buttons I've experimented with, this is by far the easiest to master and the quickest to make. All it takes is a little practice (which is a lie, I fooled around with this for quite awhile before I consistently got spheres) some basic stitches and scraps of your "fashion" fabric!

Please note: There are many places to learn to do this. Tudor Tailor has some instructions, as does the fantastic Renaissance Tailor website. Both are illustrated and both contributed in some fashion to me learning how to do this prior to posting this tutorial here. I'm putting this up not because it's never been done elsewhere, but because no one I've found has done this with actual step-by-step photos and even though illustrations are helpful, I've always found it more comforting undertaking something new to see it laid out in actual pictures. Keep in mind that I'm a trained illustrator when you read that. So here we go...

One
If you're using a light fabric such as the linen I used on this doublet or even a light woolen, cut the fabric into squares approximately one inch wide. The Tudor Tailor advises using the bottom of a thread spool as a guide, but considering that there no longer seems to be a standard size for this, I came up with the dimension of one inch as making a finished size and firmness that I'm happy with.

NOTE: when using a heavier fabric, such as canvas or even a wool flannel for this, you might want to nip off the edges and make a circle as shown below or it'll be too bulky later when the time comes to stuff it.

Two
Using a piece of thread roughly a foot long (you want a little extra) run a circle of stitches around the center of the square as shown above. Keep the stitches as even as possible and keep in mind that you're going to be using these to gather the fabric into a ball, so don't make them too tight or they'll do you little good when the time comes.



ThreeDraw up the gathering stitches until the square looks like a little bag. Don't pull it tight, though until you...

Four
...stuff the corners and edges inside. Then draw it as tight as you can without tearing or distorting the fabric. (I imagine great care would be needed if working with silk) Take the remaining tail of thread and sew some stay stitches into the resulting ball to keep it in a ball shape.

Five
Working from the bottom (the wrinkly bit) sew back and forth across the axis of the ball three times, leaving the stitches loose, forming a loop which will be used to secure the button to your garment. Gather the three into a single strand and go over them using a button hole stitch as shown below.

Six
Repeat as often as necessary and sew them on...

Shoe Redux Too

That first pair was mainly an experiment to see if I could do it (create a plausible faire shoe for under ten bucks). Now that I know it's possible, I've taken a bit more time, spent an extra dollar (This pair was $3.99!) and made a pair of shoes more appropriate for my current noble efforts... so to speak.


I'll publish a more in-depth how-to when they're finished over on the same site where I put the last one. For now, I'll note the following differences between this pair and the last...

• I began with a pair of men's dress shoes already blessed with a buckle latchet and began cutting away from there.
• Utilizing what I learned on the first pair, I made smaller cut-outs
• I'm still considering whether or not to do pinks or 'cuttes' across the toe-box. I'll probably do some small cuttes, but from past experience that makes for an odd, boxy fit for any shoe you do it to, so I plan to keep them small and to a minimum.
• I had to replace the buckle because the old one was emblazoned with the shoemaker's logo and because it was mounted on an elastic band (yick).
• Rather than tacking down the seams I had to cut, on this pair I'm re-sewing the seams I pulled out because I want them to last and because I'm a masochist.
• In response to Abigail's question about the last pair, this pair has finished edges which I will go back over with leather dye as soon as I find a good match. In this case, by "finished" I mean edged (with a leather edger) and burnished.

Overall I'm quite pleased.

The soles are leather this time... or rather a leather midsole welted to uppers with a rubber lug sole attached-- and re-soleworthy I might add-- with a nice low heel and visible topstitching. Also the color has a definite reddish hue that goes well with the fabrics I'm working with.

Scottie Needs a New Pair of Shoes!

I've been remiss in blogging, but not in working on my garb!


Yesterday, I "made" a pair of latchet shoes! Okay, well I actually modified an existing pair of modern shoes into period approximates, but it amounts to the same thing... a new pair of ren shoes for $2.99!!!


I posted a complete "How I Did It" on my guild's website at Pennywise Peasant Projects if you're curious, with links to the people who inspired the project.

Cheers!
Scott