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20:02 Yoshi 1 Comments

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Let's be honest, anything that involves bats is cool. Batman? Cool. Traditional vampire lore? Awesome. It's seriously no suprise I had to do something bat-related eventually.
I've been seeing this.. shoe...accessory (?) on the Internet for some time now, but for whatever reason, I never came around to making it. Only recently, when one of my friends tagged me under a picture of it, something clicked.
Do you ever get this feeling when you fall in love with a piece of clothing or an accessory and you just need it RIGHT NOW, like no matter what? The sky may crumble but you just NEED to have it on you? That's the exact moment when I know for sure the thing I'm going to make won't just lie around in my wardrobe.

The original idea(although you can never be sure about that) comes from Iron Fist clothing company and you can find the shoes here <---

As soon as I made sure I have everything I need in my workshop, I've put the project on the move.
I traced the shape of the wings in Photoshop. I measured the shoes I intend to wear them with: the distance between holes for shoelaces (vertically) and when the shoe is laced (horizontally). I printed it (couple of times until I got the size I was happy with) and glued to a cardboard so the template is stiffer, therefore easier to use and will last longer.


Me being me, after all that trouble I've realized I've done it wrong. I've traced the wings as they are, however my intention was different: I wanted it to have two pairs of holes so the whole construction doesn't tilt like on the picture. Luckily it was an easy fix, I just measured 4,5cm (~1.7") of cardboard and taped it to the pattern.



Above you have the pattern I made that you can use. However, like I said before (in case you're just skimming this post, you cheeky cheater) it's the design that you can see on the previous picture and it will tilt! Add few centimeters to make the wings more stable.



Print and glue both of them, even though they are identical. On the left you can see the reason why. To transfer the pattern onto the fake leather (which is tricky as it is), I highly recommend cutting some parts out, as shown on the picture. This way you can easily and precisely mark where the seam has to run.


As for what to mark with (soap will not work, obviously, and not all fake leathers have fabric-like back), I advice using a ball pen. It won't be very visible, but just enough to know where to sew. It's also very easy to wash off so you can draw on the right side of the fake leather.



I've used two types of material: a very thin, elastic fake leather (pic: on the top) and more firm artificial leather (pic on the bottom). I was very lucky I had both of these, as there turned out to be perfect for the task. The more elastic went on the front as it would very nicely hug the filling inside, the firmer one I've used on the back as it hold the shape and makes the whole wing stand out more.

If you can't find both, go for an elastic faux leather. You can stiffen it up with some cardboard, whereas the firm fake leather will just not work with the filling at all.




For the filling I've used a simple coat liner (not 100% sure that's what it's called), although a polyuretan foam would be better, it would stick out more. You want to cut it out in the general shape of your wing.

Now listen very carefully 'cause the next step determines how hard the sewing will be for you.



You need to glue it all together with the liner/foam in between faux leathers. It will be easier for you if you glue it to the firmer one first. When you're done, you want to squeeze the whole thing, placing it with the elastic fake leather to a flat surfice. Put something heavy on top of it and give couple of minutes for the glue to do it's thing. Worry not, the weight will not flatten what's inside! Both the liner and foam will spring right back where they were.

And now you just sew it all together!

Few tips for people who have not worked with leather before: 
- if you have such an opportiunity, use a sewing machine that is designed to sew leather. It will be much more heavy-duty (I always say it's like a tank. Watch out for your fingers!)
- use a plastic presser foot -  one of two main problems while working with leather (doesn't matter if it's a real one or fake) is that it get's stuck. Plastic presser foot will help the sewing machine move the leather and sew smoothly and so will...
-... oil. Doesn't matter what kind, you can use even the one you have in your kitchen. You want to put in on the top of the leather that's gonna be facing up while sewing. To make the whole proccess less messy, take some leftover material that you won't use, form it into a pouch (nothing too fancy, just pinch the edges together) and fill it with scrapes of materials. Now you can tap it into some oil and it will last for very long time. Using the pouch prevents you from using too much oil as well!


Congrats! You've sewed it all together!
Now all you have to do it put holes in it.


To do that you need a punch leather. On the picture you can see two of those; the more oldschool one is the second object from left, the more modern and popular in the third one from left. 
Let me tell you, oldschool rules. It's more effective most of the time, not to mention, it's SO much more satisfying to use
a hammer to do it. On the picture you can see just one, but obviously you can get them in all sizes and shapes.
Now you just mark your way on the wings where the holes will go and HULK SMASH! it.

On the very right you can see poppers - this is what you will put in the holes. You don't have to, obviously. I'm not your mother to tell you what to do, but it sure will help the wings visually. 
The poppers have these little teeth on the back that you have to push apart in order to place a popper properly in place. There is a special tool for that but I find smaller punch leathers as useful. After you put a popper through and make sure the leather is as close to the front as possible, you place a punch leather in the back of a popper and hammer it slightly. You might have to use a bigger puch leather afterwards, but ultimately the goal is to push the teeth apart evenly. Remember the very ends of the teeth must go into the leather so they don't hurt you or harm the shoe you're going to wear with the wing.




Here you can see three different methods of doing the wings.
My main technician (my dad with his ridiculously broad knowledge about leather crafts) has a soft spot for experiments so when I left him unattended for a few hours, he got bored and made two more pairs of these.

The top wing, the prototype, is made just with a liner and later on we added a copper wire inside (as shown on the illustration on the side).
The middle one is just elastic fake leather with cardboard inside.
The bottom one is also stiffened with cardboard, but has liner as well.

 

So... why the seams between poppers? One thing is that I felt it will look better this way, other, more technical, it helps the wing bend better around your ancle, much needed for the ones with cardboard inside.



End result:


Here you can see the prototype. I like it most as the wire provides this bat-like look, not everything is in one plane like in other wings we've made. I'm not going to lie to you, it makes lacing your shoes much longer and troublesome. Is it worth it? Yes. They are hella cute.

If you made it so far, congrats and THANK YOU, I hope you've enjoyed this more tutorial-y approach. :)

Cheers!
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