Assorted projects

[Todd Bradshaw]

A batch of assorted sporrans. The two large hunting sporrans on the ends are actually handbags. I found that if I also build some for my wife a bit larger and with purse straps she lets me keep buying expensive hunks of leather.



I had the tan hunting sporran and the dark one, but then bought that nice wide belt from Centaur and decided I needed another to match it better (multiple diluted layers of dye until I got pretty close). They're about 2/3 hand-sewn using my sailmaking needles and palm, especially in the cantle area where I'm sewing through about seven layers of leather. Most is tooling leather, with some softer grain leather on the back outside layer and goatskin for the sidewalls. The fur sporran is styled similarly to one I saw on the web and liked. The fur is wild boar from a hide I bought on eBay. I found a YouTube video on molding leather and built a wooden mold for shaping the molded ones. They're sewn with a big Consew industrial machine that I own and all the sewing is done in about 30 seconds (though you had better aim carefully).

Another one at the bottom using the same acorn-shaped plan, but without fur. The tartan is one I designed and had woven at Dalgliesh. I still have a big hunk of boar fur left.....may have to make myself some jammies.



I'm a pretty good concept man and pattern developer, but the real tailor in the family is my wife. She made this skirt and sash from our tartan for the Milwaukee Highland Games a couple weeks ago.



If it's more technical than one of my hats, I usually get kicked off of the sewing machine, but I do an OK bonnet. This one is Cheviot tweed to match my jacket. I actually have two, one left-leaner and one right-leaner. I need a good generic cap badge though. Maybe one of the X-Marks badges.

[MacGumerait]

Todd , wow !!!

Very impressive . I like all the sporrans . Very much like your taste with the hunting sporrans , plain day sporrans and the fur sporran . Well done indeed .

Your wife appears to be very talented as well with the skirt and sash . Also , nice bonnet .

However , I can't help myself from going back to your sporran pic and staring and smiling !

Cheers , Mike

[Kiltedjohn]

What a wonderfully talented couple. Very fine work indeed!

[Todd Bradshaw]

Hi Mike, Glad you like them. They've kind of been my therapy this year. I had open heart surgery a couple days before Christmas where they chopped out about four inches of my upper aorta to repair a big aneurism by sticking in a piece of Dacron tubing and a cow valve. Now I tell folks that I'm part natural, part beef and part synthetic - kind of like a cheap hot dog. As a result, I haven't been able to crawl around on the floor making boat sails, and if I'm not working on some project I go stir-crazy. Sporrans can be made sitting in a chair like a normal human being and gave me a good creative outlet. Plus unlike sails, I only do them for myself and for fun, so I can afford to be inefficient and not worry about it.

The forum has been a great source of ideas, both in terms of things that I hadn't thought of, and reassurance that some of those things weren't such crazy ideas after all.

[Bluescelt]

Nice work Todd!

[Lady Grey]

Sensational work

[Dughlas mor]

Wow indeed. All the sporrans look great. The wet formed ones are very interesting, I can`t recall having seen that done with a sporran before. Beautiful work, all around.

[Mike S]

Great work Todd. You must be a brother from another mother.

[Todd Bradshaw]

A few more odds and ends. My dad gave me a nice London Fog linen sport coat a few years ago that wasn't getting much use, and when I saw the conversions that were being done by forum members it seemed like it would be great for a lightweight summer jacket. Plus, it had patch pockets, which are really easy to move. Good linen is really crisp fabric and it made for a really clean looking simple jacket.

Assorted flashes below that, because they're quick and easy to make. Left to right, Strathisla, Cheviot lovat blue tweed, three from our new tartan and one we wove on an inkle loom to sort of simulate the old garter ties.



I'm about 6' 4" tall and have trouble finding clothes that fit, so we make some of them. This is a Cheviot tweed waistcoat, sewn by my lovely wife to a pattern I designed. The back is black satin. That's my new kilt in our tartan under it, that Barb T. (the Princess of Pleating) made for me.



A couple more waistcoats made from Harris Tweed remnants. These have tweed backs for winter warmth. We used to get lots of great tweed pieces off of eBay cheap. I have a long coat my wife made me about eight years ago from a ten yard chunk of coat-weight Harris Tweed that we got for $35. I had to buy her a new sewing machine to handle it, but it was worth it. There don't seem to be very many true tweed bargains on eBay these days.



Do we really need all this stuff? Absolutely not - but designing and making it is good entertainment and a good creative challenge. Plus, we get what we want and save a ton of money in the process.

[Lady Grey]

Wow just wow! You look terrific!