This should have been a snap to make but I ran into a few snags. Maybe by sharing them, others won’t make the same mistakes I did.
This is part of my series on the Steampunk outfits I am making for Halloween for my boyfriend and me.
The first thing I did was measure around Max’s wrist and then the widest part of his forearm a little below the elbow. I marked each spot on his arm with a Sharpie. He is such a trooper. He lets me do whatever and just rolls with it. I measured between those two marks to get the length.
I then drew it out on butcher paper with a ruler. I can’t remember the exact measurements but the top measurement was something like 11 1/2 inches and the wrist was 9ish inches. The length was something close to 12 origninally because I had added a point. Max has long arms, probably because he is 6’2″ tall.
The first problem I ran into was the leather piece I had was only 9 inches wide by 24 inches. I had to add sides to it. I added a quarter inch to each side for seam allowance.

See the points at the bottom sides, how thin they are? That did not not translate well with faux leather. It wanted to bend upwards. I tried top-stitching to make it lie down but it really didn’t work.

When I tried it on Max’s arm, the point was just too floppy so I solved it by chopping it off. First, I tried sewing another piece of faux leather underneath but my sewing maching complained loudly and it wanted to bunch up so I took the other piece off.

I really really really didn’t like the orangish tint to this faux leather and racked my brain to think of how I could darken it without making it dull or flakey. Max suggested shoe polish and handed me some that he had. I rubbed it in circles to make it look old. It was tacky at first but I let it sit awhile and the tackiness went away. Whew! I didn’t take pictures because I came down with something and felt like I rolled down a rocky hill and just forgot.
Next, I needed buckles. I had a belt that I was just going to cut into pieces and add buckles and holes. I still felt icky so I sent Max out to get buckles. He went to three different craft stores and a thrift store and found nothing. He returned with three belts that he said he found at Walmart on sale for $9 each. I could have bought a pair bracers on Amazon for $16. After hyperventilating over the cost, I calmed down and decided that I would just use the parts that I cut off of each belt on another future project which would be worth the cost.
I measured each belt and then cut them to size. Max put rivets in them to connect them to the bracer.


It was a booger but it turned out okay.