Flynn Rider - Handmade Leather Doublet - FINISHED PICS

[Nibenon]

So, back in 2015, I was in college, and I figured for the local Renn Fair that I'd make myself a Flynn Rider costume. Not just any Flynn Rider costume, mind you, but one made from genuine leather.

I'd never sewn leather before, much less quilted it. I had almost no pattern-drafting skills. The hooks were painted aluminum. I marked my lines with orange sharpie, cleaned them off later with acetone, and wondered why the colors were just smudging together. For the time, though, I was proud, and it was a hit. This was the result.

Remember, this is the OLD VERSION, the proof I needed a NEW, better one.

Now, the leather was a VIOLENTLY cartoon sky-blue, as you can see. I've seen some quality Flynn Riders online, especially from the RPF itself, and they always seemed to gravitate towards similar shades. This year I decided to go a different direction.

I've already sung the praises of Tandy's Waterstain dyes in my Jack Sparrow baldric thread, but the short story is that they're mixable, look natural (even with bright colors), and (best of all) they don't need a seal or finish. A few years ago, Tandy had a limited line of naked finish (i.e. open to water, dirt, oil, and yes, dye) leathers that were dubbed "biosilks." They've long since sold out.

During my post-college forays into leatherwork, I found a single turquoise biosilk hide. A 50-50 mix of Turquoise and Blue Waterstains produced a richer color than my baby-blue hide. It looks too dark at first, but just wait.

 

[Nibenon]

After the past few years of real tailoring and leatherworking, drafting a better pattern wasn't hard. It also helped that I was losing the last vestiges of childhood lankiness, and filled out a bit.

As for quilting, I had a real heavy-duty machine, leather sewing needles, and a teflon presser foot. Since naked-finish leather sometimes retains marks from pens marked "temporary" and "safe for leather," I just used chalk.

I stopped the stitches on the yoke just before they hit the border stitch, then used a hand needle to pull them through the nearest hole and tie them off. That's a trick I learned from jet upholsterers; keeps it looking even cleaner than doubling back.

Add some of the first French binding (thank you, Jack Sparrow baldrics) and it's starting to look like a garment.

More to come. Cheers!

 

[justanuthercap]

Really like the work you are doing here, and this color looks so much more "real world". Great job.

 

[Nibenon]

Drafting the collar was a bit tricky, but with enough making tape and paper I made a pretty clean transition off of the main body:

I didn't photograph this part, but before I sewed the 2 pieces together, I quilted the collar, too. Wherever possible on high-detail builds, you want to 100% finish a piece before attaching it to a larger, clumsier thing.

I also glued a piping strip between the collar and body before hand-sewing all 3 together:

This is another lesson I learned from jet upholstery: GLUE AND CONTACT CEMENT IS YOUR FRIEND. Take your time to line everything up, and then KEEP everything lined up before you sew permanent holes through your leather.

I should mention here that the leather for all the piping and french edging is soft, chrome-free white pigskin. I used the maple color, dyed dark brown, for my Jack Sparrow baldrics, and the white hides take bright Waterstain colors beautifully, if in a slightly different shade than the base biosilk doublet. Two coats turquoise, two coats blue.

I know, I sound like one giant Tandy spokesperson, but often beginners need to see and feel tangible products to learn, and having actual places to go, instead of through the internet, brought me a trove of knowledge. Now that I know what to look for, I've branched out, but Tandy was a good first taste.

Anyway, here's all the French edging done:

As shown, that one area was horrible to sew, near to a quarter-inch thick, but we pushed through eventually, lastly folding over/gluing all the edging, instead of topstitching (wasn't about to sew through THAT area again)

Next up: hardware and final touch-ups!

 

[CapKirk34]

This is looking pretty wicked. Great work!

 

[justanuthercap]

Love the collar. Do you use a dedicated leather sewing machine or just a heavy duty regular machine? Just curious.

 

[Nibenon]

Love the collar. Do you use a dedicated leather sewing machine or just a heavy duty regular machine? Just curious.

Just a HD Singer. At my job I use table-mounted Janomes, which kind of spoil it when I go home to my smaller, far less powerful machines.

 

[Nibenon]

So, the hooks and loops. I didn't want to cast 'em, or paint 'em, just find something more... real, I suppose. No risk of cracking, flaking, or anything besides historical aging next to the leather.

Tandy Solid Brass Sandal Buckle:

Chiseled out the center bar, and cleaned up the nubs with a dremel:

A similarly caveman solution for the hooks, solid brass links from Ace, given a half-twist with a pair of wrenches and cut to size with the dremel.

From there, I glued 2 pieces of blue leather together, rough-to-rough, and cut it into long, 5/8" strips. If I hadn't doubled it up, those strips might have been the weak area in an otherwise durable closure.

Cut a 5/8" slot in the doublet AND in another single layer of leather, and passed the doubled strip through:

Riveted both sides down, glued the single leather strip on top to hide them, and trimmed it to size. Lastly, I punched 2 small brass spots (you guessed it, Tandy) on the corners to mimic an actual attachment point.

Repeat 4 more times.

 

[Nibenon]

The hooks were more of a headache to try to engineer, but ended up being less work than the loops. Punched round holes in the doublet, pushed the hooks outward, and sandwiched the back between the doublet and a single layer of leather, riveting the 2 pieces together for good measure:

If it's not obvious, the rivet is within the ring of the link, so the hook can't just slip off.

Less classy than the loop side,

Notice, I left the tabs longer on this side than the edge. The intent was to bridge the gap when the doublet's closed, a la references like this:

The final additions and the finished doublet next (!)

 

[accidentalrebel]

This is looking really rad. The colors look great too. You could wear this on a regular day!

Does this have padding on the inside for comfort?

 

[Nibenon]

It's padded insofar as it's quilted with cotton batting and a layer of blue broadcloth. It's quite comfortable, but even if it's thinner than my original doublet, it gets hot after a while. Flynn Rider's definitely one of those go-to costumes for comfort, speed to take on and off, and duration to wear.

The last details I needed to add was riveting a belt loop made from a doubled-up strip of blue leather on the left side, slicing the collar off a light linen shirt (it seemed more medieval than cotton or poly), and adding the double-belt combo, which I can showcase in a bit, as there was a trick to have functional belts that were still screen-accurate.

SO, here's the finished doublet.

It's a little battered in places, and the dye is mottled here and there, but it looks lived in. I think I'll let sunlight age it naturally for now.

As I said, I'll showcase the belts and waist pouch next, but I've still got to remake the boots, and probably throw the satchel in for good measure. Cheers!

 

[justanuthercap]

Really knocked it out of the park! I think with the aging and distressing it will like you pulled it right through the screen. Looking forward to the belt showcase and hoping you show the boot work as well.

 

[Psicorp7]

VERY nice work! Well done!

 

[Cieszlak]

Wow! Amazing work.

 

[Cieszlak]

I can't wait to see more.

 

[Nibenon]

After a long break, here's the idea behind a screen-accurate belt.

Seeing as it's animated and doesn't need to open, Flynn's first belt is simply a seamless leather band around his waist:

My solution was to hide the closure behind the only point along the belt where it's obscured: the loop of the second belt.

First, to make the second belt: a 1.75" curved strip of veg-tan leather. This is important; if it's not curved, it won't hug your body. I wanted it to look handmade, so I cut all the diamonds with a swivel knife and used a groover along the edge.

The pouch is just a hasty veg-tan project, not much better than a placeholder. The buckle is solid brass. Disney animators appear to have committed the same mistake that Assassin's Creed animators have: buckle tongues that face the wrong way. I'm not sure if any of them have seen a real belt before.

Anyway, here's the trick. Simple loop and snaps on the first belt, like so:

First snap the belt into place (taking care to also slide it through the blue loop on the doublet), then buckle the curved belt over it. Viola, a truce between accuracy and reality.

That's all for now. Happy Easter!

 

[Dr Jones Sr]

Wow I admire your skill with leather-work and sewing!

You bring up an interesting point about the real versus animated world.

I work at Disneyland (Anaheim) and I see characters every day. (Well I did, until the Park closed down!)

I think it's something that the people who design and make the costumes struggle with, because it's a difficult conceptual decision: how real-world should things look? The animators are, it feels to many, drawing real-world people and objects in a stylized shorthand way.

But when Entertainment creates the look of an in-Park character, should they replicate the way something is drawn, or go past the drawing to the imagined/supposed reality that would lay behind the drawing? I think you're doing the right thing by making everything look like real-life functional clothing.

Your leather doublet is gorgeous. I do have one observation: from the closeup screen grab you posted, the leather tabs that have the hooks appear to be slightly tapered, and also I think I see a suggestion of fine stitching around the edges. You've examined the movie, you would know. All I know is that one screen grab.

BTW in the full-length image of the character you posted his trousers look like heavy Melton wool. I don't know if they look like that in the actual film.