Punished Snake Style Leather Eyepatch

Hello guys!

I am rather new into leatherwork and i don't have big quantities of veg tanned leather for now, so im focusing on small projects to improve.

While restoring a knife the other day i got a small metal spark on my eye (protective googles were too low on my nose lol)

Thankfully it wasn't serious and i removed it quickly with a bit of special eyedrop stuffy stuff.

It got me thinking about eyepatches tho, especially from punished Snake, the main caracter from Metal gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

Honestly the most trouble i have when making costumes for myself is usually when making patterns...

I simply drew a triangular shape roughly the size of the eyepatch into cardboard, cut it and placed it around my eye.

This one is fairly easy for once, you just trim until you're satisfied with how it sits on your cheek or eyebrow or eye depending on how you wear it.

Now for the ressources!

I used two different pieces of scrap veg leather. one pre dyed and the other one was to get a grib on how dyes work.

I used elastic bands to make the whole support, and waxed white thread to link everything.

First of all, you have to cut your leather. If you have trouble cutting round shapes, just do little straight cuts and smooth the edges with a dremel :P

After that, you have to bevel the edges using either an edge beveler, or your dremel again.

Now you can dye your leather if you haven't done it yet (this order is better for burnishing)

To get the elastic strips to lengh, just try to make it hold using your actual cardboard pattern. Don't forget that it is elastic, so dont be scared.

Now you will put contact glue on both our "ugly" leather sides, and on the tips of the elastics.

Put the elastic bits a bit more inset so it wont budge if you're rough with it. Now after that sandwitch everything with the second bit of leather.

We're now going to be sewing! But first, let's make the holes using an awl or some small fork punches.

Some holes may go through the elastics but that's ok.

Now instead of sewing it traditionnally like all leather projects, i wanted to have the white strings going in and out for the same effect so i did a more rudimentary stitching.

The most problematic part was the linking of the two elastics in the back , contact glue was kinda too weak so i stiched a big mess to hold it in place.

Now this is nearly done! you only need to burnish the edges.

I know that you're supposed to use xantah gum or whatever it's spelled like, but i didn't have any so i decided to experiment on a weird comment i once saw: Saliva.

So yeah if you're going to do the same, please don't swallow any toxic chemicals, spit in a jar first and don't go licking your leather.

Anyways the results were kind of encouraging, but since it wasn't really necessary to get a perfect finish, i gave up really fast.

After making it, i feel like i've learned alot and i also accidentally made my project 50% cooler.

I had made it for my left eye wich is where i had the spark go in, but upon flipping it i realised that i could wear it on both eyes without problems!

Now for the bad things:

Elastics were a pain in the arse throughout the whole project. Glue wouldn't stick, the sizes would be wrong etc.

In the end the second elastic is still linked a bit too close to my ear so it's not a perfect replica either...

But yeah elastics SUX!

It looks cool but unless your eye is really incapacited (?) you are going to have a headache really fast wearing it.

Also i advice not loosing an eye just to wear an eyepatch.