Picture Update, 9/6/08

Okay, yesterday was my QQ day. Today was a "okay, get back to work, you slacker" day.
So no QQ. Just pictures. Also, I need a new digital camera - I'd like a sort-of basic model, unless someone has something that takes Canon F lenses with or without an adapter under $500. Please send me recommendations! (All my friends with suggestions are pro or semi-pro, and I do not want an EOS 10D or whatever the $1500 body was.)


The #2 most expensive part of the costume; the gloves. Why #2? The boots came in at $$$$$, and did finally ship, it looks like. Was starting to get worried! Pictures next week, with luck. But the gloves? That's real suede and real Springbok there. Gloves just chew up usable fabric because of the complexity and shape of the cuts - I get two glove tops from half a Springbok. That puts the tops alone at $35 of material. Then, they chew up time and expensive thread. Dental floss, waxed thread, 12#, and they devour leather needles. I get a maximum of 4-5 feet of stitching out of one Schmetz 80/12 Leather needle at M1/2 on the 210. By comparison, I've gone through entire spools of thread on a single Universal or Stretch typically. The Evolve can't even touch this with the cutting blade down. The head is #4, as it uses scraps and remainders from the Springbok primarily. The slipcovers for the hooves are #3, as I get nearly to my knee from each Springbok, with a lot left over and almost zero waste.
In the meantime, take a look at some of the prototypes on my hands. They really feel quite nice, and they're amazingly functional - I'm typing in the all suede prototype #13, pictured after prototype #12 which was the final for pattern.