The Trinket Thing

What is The Trinket Thing? Well... if you squint your eyes, twist your mind and stretch your imagination, you, probably, will be able to recognize a keyholder in it. If keyholder is what you're urging to achieve, than ramain in this state fo for few more steps. For everyoune else I'll show how I made mine Trinket Thing, just in case you'll decide to make one, or maybe even few, for yourself.

So, everything started with my old shoes. They were a good leather shoes for a long time, and even after that they were quiet useful as working ones, which explains their current look.

The thing is that I've become somewhat attached to them after all those years of... walking generally. But at the point when you don't worry anymore about that little stone that fell into your shoe because right after that it fall off through the hole in the sole... At this point it's time to say goodbye.

But I decided to leave something as a reminder for myself of those nice shoes and those nice walks. Gladly, nomatter how shabby your footwear is, tongues are usually preserved better than the rest parts and present useful piece of material to tinker with.

By accurately undoing seams I'm releasing those tongues from the rest of the shoe. At first I wanted to make of them a bracelet of sort, but after bending and turning them in my hands for few minutes I decided to make a keyholder, and at this point this is still what I'm making, so I'm not touching other parts. Except for laces, I'm salvaging laces too.

I'm washing them all parts in warm water with a little bit of soap. Do not dry leather under the sun or with heating appliances. You can roll wet pieces into paper or a towel to absorb some excess moisture, and then finish drying at suitable place.

According to my idea I had to lace both tongues together to create sort of bell-shaped holster. But first I decided to decorate faces a bit to mask blemishes and deal with holes from old seams. In order to do so I'm implementing a simple design and accomplishing it with saddle stitch and thick thread.

On the photos you can see, how I'm making template from cardboard and transferring design onto pieces. Markings are made with special removable ink for leather which can be substituted with soft graphite pencil, for exsample. There's endless options on how to decorate the leather, so I'm not stopping on details here, and leaving it up to you.

I'm punching holes with an awl. I'm just eyeballing the spacing between stitches, but you can use something more sophisticated, like a special tool or a vase. On the secont thought, do not use a vase, nomatter how sophisticated it is. With premade holes sewing is easy and much more accurate.

And here's a couple of tips on marking lines: a finger tip and a pen tip. Use them sophisticatingly,

Here I'm marking holes along the edges that will be used for lacing pieces together. Make sure you got the same number of holes on corresponding sides.

Punch those holes. Notice the hole free area at the top, it's important.

For lacing we're going to use laces that were salvaged earlier.

Bring frayed tips into working condition if neaded by melting them and squeezing the ends. It can hurt.

How to do the type of lacing I'm using I'm showing on the photos. You can use one of many others, but I prefere this one because it results in not flattening the pieces at the edge... I mean the whole thing turns out more three-dimensional. The main goal is to lace sides of tongues together, the other is variable.

At this step two thing are happening:

First: you can stop squinting, twisting and stretching, because I have a picture for you to behold. It contains one last piece you have to make to finish the keyholder. This detail is a piece of leather strip or belt with a keyring attached to one end and a clasp to another. The ring end stays within the holster and holds keys while the other end is pulled through the opening in the top of the holster and serves for attaching the keyholder to random objects you can trust.

Second: I'm personaly realyzing that I don't need a keyholder inmy life and it is kind-of boring thing to make anyway.

So I keep detatching details from the shoes. At this point the concept of The Trinket Thing starts to crystallize in my mind.

I suspect that your shoes have their own unique and unrepeatable set of details, so at this point your improvisation and ingenuity are your best guide.

This is where I'm doing a lot of sewing. The photos are quiet explicit and I see no reason to narrate through the process. Basically I'm connecting pieces using holes from old seams and newely created ones where neaded. This detail will be used as a basis for attaching stuff within the holster.

At a local fleamarket I bought a handful of old things: some badges, buttons, medals and keychains. Some of them were cruedly but effectively repared. Even a wire puzzle has found it's place.

This is the most fun and creative part of the whole project. Get a bunch of trinkets and place them all over the place the way you like. And by "over the place" I mean the inner inlay part that was made in previous step.

When you're done with decorating, pull the "tail" of the inlay piece through the holster and finish it the way, you like. I added a ring with a clasp so that now I can attach the whole thing to the belt loop of my jeans and look normal...

So, what is The Trinket Thing? It's portable collection of curiosityes. Why do you need one? I have no Idea. I just love small trinkets and have weird ideas. But I love the current design, I love how the holster keeps some sort of a mystery and then reveals peculiar contents. Just looking through all those little things and fidgeting with them can get youi occupied for some time.

Although this not something you would wear casually one or a bunch of things like this can become a great addition for your cosplay.

And yes, you don't have to make it from old shoes.

So this is it for now. Thank you for your attention, and 50 ЛЕТ СОВЕТСКОМУ ИЗОБРЕТАТЕЛЬСТВУ!.

If you like what I'm doing and want to see more projects from me with with increasing qualitie, please considere to support me on Patreon

P.S.: BTW the wire puzzle works ok.