The Inventor's Leather Apron

Blaze's steampunk character has always been described as a young airship pirate who likes explosives, modifying weapons, inventing new weapons, and playing with fire. His newest costume is for those times when he is working on his new creations.

The leather apron was purchased online for $15 a year ago.



It took me quite awhile to even start modifying it in any way and I only finished with it last week.

I wanted the apron to look like it had been used and abused by a person experimenting with some pretty dangerous things, so I tried lots of different things to give it a distressed look. I tried finding black greasy filth from our car's engine, but the car engine was remarkably clean. I tried burning the leather with the  brûlée torch, but the leather is very flame retardant. I, also, sanded small areas with an electric sander. I even let a toddler beat on it with a hammer.



What worked the best, though, was following the directions in this video, faking the dirt and wear by using fabric paint. I used a slightly lighter hand with the paint and even sanded over some of the spots where I thought the paint had gone on too dark, but the basic idea is the same.



The completed apron:




The finished outfit: