I bought a set of cheap Temu belt bag/belt/accessories for cosplay last year, with the intention of using them as patterns to make in Leather.
I finally got around to making the bag. It's a little larger than the original, which could only fit my phone. Pleased to report aftert testing this bad boy out at Winterfest all weekend, it's a significant improvement in carrying capacity (and Aethetics).
I made it in the same style as my lost Dice bag since I am remaking said dice bag and want to make it all a sort of matching set.
Process shots and explanations below the cut, but i am BEYOND pleased with how this came out.
I use 4 stamp tools to do my 'peacock' dragon scales, a large mulesfoot, a pointed sunburst, and a seeder for the main scales, and a smaller mulesfoot for the baby scales. There's also another sunburst style stamp Isneak in, and a small V shape tool i made myself many years ago in my Jewellery undergrad.
The scale pattern on the front was originally intended to all go one way facing downwards, but i messed up when i started and realised halfwaythrough, which is why i have more of a ridgeback pelt design instead. This ended up working out in an insane twist of luck to be exactly the line my latch catch needed to sit on, and in the end i like it better than what I had intended.
The other round parts emmulate the design i developed for the bottoms of my dice bags, tying them together and making for nice focal points.
Dying was the easy part, painting the gold is more time consuming since it requires diluting the paint and feeding it intot he grooves. I did add more of the mica powder that i used in the OG dice bag after sealing but it's mostly rubbed off, so i may need to mix some with sealer and paint it on again like I did when first experimenting with it.
Slight change to the back straps, the belt loops have snaps so I can swap them out of different clips or larger loops later if needed, the bottom bits also have snaps like the OG bag to attach a secondary holster for bottles (I never use it because it's not in keeping with my costumes, but it's a useful feature I wanted to keep for later plans).
Anyway, the OG bag is all just rivetted together, and i wanted to keep to that construction, which was moooostly fine, until it got to the last construction stage. Rivetting on a small mostly closed bag required a lot of fiddly arrangement of my tiny anvil and marble block. Those back bag wall rivets absolutely hot to get flat topped, I didn't have the tool to keep them domed,but I don't mind since they still look great and the rivets are secure.
Didn't line it because of time contraints and it doesn't need it to be functional, but I am sure i will enter this in Next Year's easter show and will make a liner insert for it before then.
All the pics taken with it on my pirate costume I forgot to close the dang thing, but my Whimsical Wolf outfit it looked mint
(Also don't think i showed off the holster i made for my war horn lol)
Next up, gotta replace the black plastic single ring belt from that set.
It’s a sleepy, snowy day. The weather forecast is calling for everyone to stay inside because of dangerous conditions, so she’s closed The Bear at least for the day. There’s nowhere to go, nothing to do. OR Syd and Carmy spend a day together during a blizzard. Written for "Winterfest 2026". a sequel to drowning in the sea of love
