This tutorial was something I started in my build thread, and I was asked to share it here in the general Soft Goods section
This tutorial is going to be specific to making leather spats....for those of you interested in strait up fabric (different technique), there is an excellent online tutorial here:
http://sidneyeileen.com/sewing-2/tuts-costume/costume-making/twolayer-gaiters/#.V9MDIE0rLnAI also apologize in advance for half of the pictures being sideways....I simply did not have the time or patience to correct almost 40 pictures in photobucket.
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We'll start off with a material/tool list.....
Required:
- Old leather coat (Goodwill is an excellent source for these, because you can get one between $5-7) make sure your leg fits thru the sleeves
- 2 zippers LONGER than the length of your spat (I prefer to use invisible because of the finishing step, however that is not required)
- 1" Elastic
- Thread (I recommend the "heavyweight" for working with the leather, regular if you are doing the liner as well)
- Needle
- sewing pins
- scissors
- plastic grocery bag
- sharpie
- duct-tape!
- paper
- seam ripper
Optional:
- Sewing machine (Makes this a much easier project, your fingers will thank you)
- 1yrd Duckcloth (for liner)
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PART 1
Making your Pattern
Starting off with your plastic bag, cut off the bottom of the bag, like so:
Go ahead and put on your mandopants, as well as your desired boot. slide the plastic bag over, and hook both handles around the heel, like a stirrup:
Wrap that sucker up with duct tape! Remember not to put it on too tight....otherwise your foot will fall off. Or your spat wont fit. Both are equally tragic. Also take the opportunity to draw on it with some sharpie to find out where you want the top and bottom edges of your spat to fall.
Cut it off up the back!
Fold it flat, so it is roughly symmetrical.....and chop off the little triangle that forms at the front of the foot (save it!), and cut it in half up the center front.
Lay each half of the pattern on your paper and trace around it (red lines). Take the 2nd half, and line it up with the outline of the first and trace (red lines). They won't line up perfectly......you are going to split the difference between the two outlines for your "master pattern" (black lines) Make sure you mark where you cut off the front! This is important for attaching that piece later.....
You can also go ahead and trace the little triangle (gusset) you cut out earlier
[imghttp://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b535/pheonix-023/Spat%20tutorial/0907161537_zpst1wvfojs.jpg[/img]http://Add 5/8" seam allowance, and cut out!
Ta-da! You now have your very own, custom fit pattern!
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Part 2
The Leather Outer Spat
Start off with your cheap old leather coat......rip out all of the lining! Tear it! Tear it all out! Mwhahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!
And take off the sleeves.
Fold down the seam allowance of the center front of your spats.....since the sleeve of the coat is already attached there, take advantage of it! Less work! Whoo-hoo! Now, with the height of this set of spats, I could take the triangle out of the sleeve, but this will not always be the case. Dont worry, you have the entire body of the coat as spare material for those little pieces.
Now....you will find that a lot of coats have rather interesting patterning on the sleeves. Don't panic! This is actually a good thing....use it as bonus design points on on your spats. For example, this one has some nice triangles that come down from the shoulders, so I lined up the point on the triangles with where the slit for the gusset is.....go ahead and seam rip the center front of the spat to where it is marked on your pattern.
Pin in the gusset, and stitch!
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PART 3
The Liner (Optional)
Now.....The liner is not actually required for the spats to work, however, I think that they improve the quality in several ways. First, since these spats are make out of jacket leather, they are going to be a good deal softer than regular boots, the lines will give the spats the extra rigidity they lack. Unless you want slouch boots....more power to ya! If you don't have the tools, time, or desire to make the liners, no biggie, just stitch your elastic to the bottoms of your spats, and skip to PART 4!
Remember that spat pattern you made? Grab your scissors, and trim off the seam allowance from the top and bottom of the pattern. Take your Gusset pattern, fold it in half, and tape that sucker back onto the main pattern piece (add a 5/8" seam allowance to the "fold" which is the center front)! Pin to your duckcloth and cut out 4 pieces.
Now cut off the other two seam allowances from your pattern, and cut out 4 more pieces of duckcloth! You should have 4 of the pieces on the right, and 4 of the pieces on the left.
You are going to center and stitch each of the smaller pieces to each of the larger ones around the edges of the small pieces (that sentence is just a mess) You should end up with two pieces that look like this, and 2 that are a mirror image:
Taking one of each piece, line them up large sides together, and sew the front seam. Fold over the seam allowance on the back sides and stitch each side SEPARATELY. It should look something like this when you are finished:
Sew your elastic strap onto the tabs on the bottom, and move on to part 4!
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PART 4
The Finishing!
Allright! The part you have all been waiting for!
Start off by pinning your leather outer to your duckcloth liner, wrong sides together. Fold the edges of the leather over the liner along the top and bottom of the spats, and stitch down. MAKE SURE YOU DON"T SEW DOWN THE BACK SEAM. It should look something like this:
Flip the spat inside out and trim off any excess leather. I would also take this opportunity to trim down the leather around the elastic, like so:
Pin your zippers down the back edges of your spats up-side-down (so it zips down to close, up to open) Line them up to the edges of the Fabric, not the edges of the leather. There should be about a 1/8" gap between the center of your zipper and the edge of the liner. I'm holding the leather back in the picture so you can see the spacing.
Sew the zippers on thru all layers, and trim down the edges of the leather to the "center line" of the zipper.
Trim off the zipper tail from the top of the boot, leaving about 1"
Cut out two pieces from your leftover leather shaped like this. they should be 3.5-4" long and about 1-1.5" wide
Fold in half an sew on over the end of the zipper. This serves 2 purposes.....1st, covers up the zipper remnant, 2nd, gives you a nice tab to grab and hold while you are zipping.
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Now, you can call it done at this point if you like, give yourself a pat on the back! For me personally, I like to hand-stitch the edge of the leather up against the invisible zipper, because it makes a neater seam.
Both of the spats featured below were made using this tutorial!
Thanks for taking the time to read this tutorial, I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful! If there is anything I need to clarify, please let me know in the comments below, and I will do my best to correct it.
