Sunday, November 14, 2010

Helavyö

The most problematic part of the folk costume is the belt, called "helavyö." It consists of a leather belt adorned with metal pieces. I've got a choker I can use for Brother Dreary's belt, but the belt for the Baha Cat needed to be made from scratch.

The dangling metal pieces in the belt are not actually hearts, but more like leaves, but as I only had a heart shaped hole puncher, this belt was going to have heart shaped pieces. The metal sheet in the picture is relief foil (meant for making embossed pictures).


Next, I glued pieces of metal wire to the back of the hearts. The square parts are made of two layers of cardboard glued together. It would have been much too difficult to actually make tiny buckles, so I decided to simplify things quite a bit.


Then I painted the squares. Gold color on the edges and the belt color in the middle.


I made holes in the bottom edge of the squares and attached the hearts using the metal wires. I thought of gluing also the other end of the wire in place, but decided not to. I will do that, if the pieces start getting caught in the fabric or yarn of the doll's clothes.


Finally, I glued the squares to a strip of red leather and made a buckle using the same foil I used for the hearts. The buckle is much simpler than what is used in real belts, but the mechanism should be correct.



Related earlier posts:
Brother Dreary project
Socks and the beginning of the vest
Parts of the vest
Baha Cat's vest and stuff for Brother Dreary
Sewing the large vest
Hat for the Baha Cat
Shoes for the Baha Cat's costume