Solo Fine Threading IV

[Willis Efram]

19 Fall 524

After Willis recent work making smaller items like leather cords and taking a short break the young leather worker was back at his craft. On this day he moved from making those simpler items to a larger but still simple one he had been considering before. Namely, a cloak. While he had hopes of combining this with things he had already made and working up from there at the end of the day he would need to try new things eventually.

Going through his own things Willis pulled out an item he owned which would serve as a template of sorts, a simple cloak he had brought along with him to Syka. However each cloak was unique in some ways due to the ingredients or patterns used, and so the Akontak knew he could not simply copy this one as it was. Considering clothing in his head Willis thought of various types he could make. With some cloth and fur he could make a fur lined cloak for colder areas... Not much use in Syka, he knew... He could make a thinner more breathable cloak which would not work well deeper in the jungle but would serve as basic coverage in the town proper... Or he could make a thicker leather cloak that would help cover the wearers neck and other places that was easily exposed and which would work deeper in the wilds.

Thinking on these options a thinner variety for use in the settlement was probably more feasible with his current skills and equipment. Likewise with a cloak being more draped over things than say a pair of boots that needed to be formed a mold or bust to work off of would not really be needed, he believed.

Looking over the one he had Willis began his simple design, considering the various parts of a cloak. The most obvious part was the hood, a draping part that went over the head and covered the scalp and ears... From their the cloak widened as it moved downward, coming down over the shoulders and wide. On the outside it was wide, but as it dropped below the neck it opened up, splitting to make two sides of the cloak on the front but combining across the back... The front opening was closed by a tie or band that kept the cloak from fluttering completely open or falling off, and kept it more or less atop the wearer. After that the cloak fell down on either side, finally ended about boot level but away from drooping on the ground itself.

Considering all of these parts Willis looked at the cloak as a whole, and considered what materials he would need to make a similar copy. With the current leather pelts he had to use he would likely need to sow several together, though with how it was made Willis thought it would likely be best to try to make each distinct pelt its own section of the cloak. With this in mind Willis sorted through his materials, trying to decide on what would work best together, and what when meshed together would appear more or less as a fully formed cloak.

WC: 531

[Willis Efram]

Going through the many pelts and larger pieces of stretched and prepared leather he had for working, Willis finally settled on a few pieces that seemed like they would go well together. While not exactly uniform it was as close as he could get on such short notice and without finding a single larger pelt to make it all out of.

With this in mind Willis began by mapping out and marking out with chalk roughly where he planned to cut the pieces to combine them. As he had learned on earlier work it was best to overestimate initially and make the piece a bit too big rather than too small so it could be trimmed down later. After all trimming a bit more was much easier to do than adding back material, and while more wasteful if things went right at his current ability level he did not trust that things would go so right as he planned and hoped for. Still he did his best to prepare his workspace and materials and projections before doing anything or cutting the first bit of leather.

Grabbing up a large piece Willis eyed it, believing it would serve as a suitable back and side of the cloak.... It was not quite enough for the hood though,and so he planned to add a seam and another piece at around shoulder level before making that piece into the upper portion and hood.

Sizing up the pieces around it he did not think the back piece would make it far enough, and so he would need another two pieces, one for either side of the bottom back piece to serve as either side of the chest opening spot.

Nodding along Willis began to lay the leather pieces over each other one by one, roughly mapping things out, letting the leather overlap and getting a good feel for where each piece would reach and where each cut or seam would need to go. And with that roughly done Willis began chalking and marking on each piece, subtly shifting and moving the pieces to get the line on each piece so he knew roughly where to cut. Of course he planned to cut wide of each mark on the side of the marking which would be too much material to avoid making the piece too small.

Going through each in turn Willis felt he had things roughly mapped out. The shoulders and hood, marked around the shoulder area... With the wider middle and back piece coming down off of that... Marking out the seam at the top and bottom, one where it would connect at the shoulders and another where it would end and connect to the bottom pieces. Perhaps, here Willis matched and checked a few times, a bit below the hips...

Finally he mapped out the last two pieces, which would come down to cover the sides of the legs and the back but would be open at the front... With all of that down Willis let out a sigh, rechecking his work several more times before beginning to actually cut anything for now.

WC: 521

[Willis Efram]

With a basic design mapped out Willis was finally ready to begin a critical step, cutting. So far he had not cut so much as a single inch of the material, just marked it over and planned, but he knew once he made a cut he would be committed. At worst the materials would be scrap, possibly usable in breaking it down into smaller things. At best, he might manage to make a half decent usable cloak that would sell for a bit and perhaps be useful as some covering in the outer bits of the jungle but certainly not in the deeper parts.

But still, Willis saw it as a stepping stone in his work to learn to do more and better things. And so with that in mind he made his first cut sitting at the table in his room where he so often worked on the less messy parts of his work.

Checking over his assembled pieces Willis picked a piece, the top piece that would be formed into the hood and shoulders, and began to cut a bit beyond the line he had marked on its bottom. Slowly he moved the material into position, sliding the blade along the thinner leather material and scoring it slightly. He repeated this over again, moving the material a bit and resetting before cutting again. He repeated this action several times, slowly tracing along the line he had drawn and marking the cut across the material. Once he had traced this line and had a good starting point he began over again, starting back at his first cut and tracing the cut over again. He kept this for another pass over the leather, and by the third run across it finally cut through and had a decently smooth cut separating the material into the bigger piece he had planned to use and the smaller leftover piece.

Planning to circle back to trim the material down once he had the other main parts cut Willis moved this piece aside and began on the middle back piece. Similar to the other piece he repeated the process, working on increasing his smoothness in cutting so as to leave a clean surface and not a rough or jagged lip at the edge. As with before Willis began by scoring a layer where he wanted to cut, before expanding on that cut and deepening it until he cut through. Likely, the Akontak believed, he could have cut through more quickly. However at the moment he was afraid using that much force would result in a more shaky and jagged cut. Perhaps he could do such things more quickly and smoothly he thought to himself, thinking on future days when he would be able to whip up a similar cloak in a few chimes and with minimal planning. Once the top cut of the middle piece was done he began the rough cut along the bottom of that piece, it being the middle piece after all it needed a cut on both ends.

Once those main pieces were done Willis moved on to the two mirrored bottom pieces, slowly seeing the pieces he cut out roughly take the shape he was working to achieve.

WC: 538

[Willis Efram]

Having for the moment finished the main part of his cutting, Willis settled down to check his work and do some trimming. Where before he was more hacking through the leather to take off large chunks, now he was more finely cutting the leather with various blades in his kit for such purpose.

This also meant his work had slowed down. The process Willis took here was simple. First he would match up the pieces, checking how they connected and overlapped. Then he would begin to trim down the excess in preparation for sowing the seems together. This however would only be done once he had things as perfect as possible and with things trimmed to just the right fit.

The Akontak also hoped that this experience would help him get a better idea of fit, such as how large of a garment would work for how large of a person and how large of a pattern would be needed for each size. Once he had things down better he could custom make a item, but for now general sizes were much easier and feasible for his skill.

With that Willis got to work, trimming the excess bit where the hood and upper section of leather met the middle section. Slowly he moved things about, cut a bit, matched them up again to make sure he had not done anything too short, compared the other side, and then trimmed there. This process was repeated over and over in different parts, as Willis slowly trimmed and cut away at the outer layer of leather until he had more or less cut that part to size. With that done he would then move on to the next part, and the next, and so on.

The hood piece was a bit tricky, as it had a curve to it when worn being the hood, but would laid out flat it was differently shaped. This was addressed by draping the pieces over himself at certain points, figuring something that would roughly fit him at his current height would be roughly appropriate for most people. Worst come to worst he could trim things down later if needed for a smaller person, but for now he believed the general size he was making was fine.

From the hood section Willis moved on to the middle part of the back, seeing where it met the hood and on the other end connected to the two twinned bottom sections. This part, Willis was coming to find, was a but trickier seeing as he had multiple parts coming into contact with each other. Still Willis was diligent, and so he slowly trimmed and cut while focusing on the fit and matching of the surfaces. Once the meeting of the hood section and middle back section was done he worked on the meeting of the middle back section and the two bottom most sections. These he trimmed bit by bit as well, until all looked to be about as close as he would be able to fit things.

With that done Willis moved to take a short break before moving into the final part of assembling the work, actually sowing all of the leather together. Of course after that he would need to weather proof it all, but before that he needed to prepare the pieces to be put together.

WC: 560

[Willis Efram]

Looking over the materials at hand, Willis pieces together the large chunks of cut out leather he had prepared. While not perfect, when placed together properly they more or less formed a cohesive cloak. Still this was only while it sat there untouched, to work while in motion he knew he would need to actually properly connect them all.

Looking over the material and going through his tools Willis took out a small tool that sort of looked like a borer or poker... Basically it punched holes in leather. While he could perhaps force the needle through while sowing and binding the pieces it would be easier to prepare the holes in advance.

It also would have been better if he had been able to use one larger piece of leather so as to avoid having to connect the pieces, but for such a piece that was not totally required. Not, at least he reasoned, if it was mainly going to be used inside of the settlement or its peripheries.

As he prepared to work Willis thought over how he could improve on his work for the next time. Reinforced rings or holes where the thread went through? A way to keep the threading on the inside of the piece so as to avoid the threading being caught or cut? Or perhaps even a covering layer of leather to go over the stiching to protect it sort of like something he had tried on a bag he had made? All of this ideas ran through his mind as he began to space out the pieces and work on where he needed to punch the holes. As with before he did this by marking each point with his chalk, leaving a small X along the piece where each of the holes would go.

He did this for all of the sections that would become the seams of the piece, marking them out one by one and slowly moving along... The hood and upper piece on the bottom of its side, the top and bottom of the middle piece, and the tops of each of the bottom twinned pieces.

Once this was all fully marked out Willis began actually punching the holes in the leather, trying to get as close to the marked spot as he could and being careful to not hit the table but only the scrap would he had. It was a simple enough motion, he found, sort of like inserting a blade into a beasts gut over and over... He would grab the tool, position it, and then thrust it into the layer of leather to pierce through it. It being relatively thin leather this was not so hard, but Willis felt practicing his technique like this on thinner material would help when he had to work with thicker material.

Once each of the spots he had marked had been poked through Willis prepared for the final assembly step, sewing. With a sigh he stretched, before taking out a needle and some thread for use in binding leather to prepare for this part of the work. By now he felt nearly done, and would be glad to see the final product once he finished it.

WC: 537