DIY Leather Armor

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Intro: DIY Leather Armor

This guide will show you how to build yourself a nice & sturdy leather armor for LARPs. You won't need any advanced leatherworking ability: if you know how to use a cutter and a hole punch, you know everything you need.

STEP 1: Square Them!

Cut the leather in square pieces (5cm side), and make holes in the four corners in each of them.

For my armor I've needed approximately 300 of them.

STEP 2: Dye the Pieces

Apply the leather dye to each of the square pieces.

During the process, use different dilutions of the dye, so that you'll end up with pieces with different coloration.

The mix them all up. This will give you a nice final effect, when you attach them to the suede.

STEP 3: Put the Pieces on Place

For each new row of square pieces, outline their position with chalk (leaving approx 0.5 cm between them).

Then select the next square to be attached (remember to choose one with different coloration from their neighbour), mark on the suede the position of the holes.

Make the hole with the punch tool, and then set the rivets.

Rinse and repeat!

STEP 4: Final Result

These are the final amor pieces you should obtain!

4 Comments

Nice concept, would be a bit nicer had u shown how you designed your tunic piece you riveted the plates to
Any way we could get some patterns for the under-garb ? Cutting up squares out of leather that I can do easy, making a long coat / gambeson fit for a human body ? That I'm not so confident about. xD