Vader Shin Guards

This week I was able to accomplish a lot. School is wrapping up and next week is finals, so this coming week might be slow as far as getting other things done. Today I am going to wrap up my ten page report for final turn in, and I already worked on my new night stand (more on that later).

This week I had to cut off a lock that made sure no one stole my trailer hitch off my truck because it rusted and the key would no loner fit. I used a cut off tool and it only took about 20 min. Now I will use a simple pin system and just hope no one steals my hitch. I also started work on my end table, and a fence I need to build around my trash cans so I will stop receiving angry letters from the HOA every winter. The rest of the year they are hidden by the bushes, when the leaves fall I get angry letters. So I will build a fence and see if I can get an angry letter for that. You would think they were helping pay my mortgage.

I climbed all over my roof, there were some bee's poking around when I set up the Christmas lights, so I filled the nooks and crannies with caulk in case they were thinking about setting up a hive. If they did already I might need to call someone. I certainly am not climbing around the attic if it is full of bee's. BTW climbing on my roof is nuts, the second floor is STEEP, so steep that the builders installed safety attachments so you can hook your climbing gear onto something. Finally I spent some time shopping and I am almost done with my Christmas lists.

Anyway, on to interesting things. I finished my Vader shin guards. The straps that held them on were terrible. They were too short and the buckle would come off when you tried to put them on.

So I cut new straps and sewed them on permanently to the guards. I used a sewing machine, it isn't going to win any beauty contests. This is because the guard was in the way, so I could not maneuver it around like I wanted to. However, it isn't going to fall apart, it isn't going to let the buckle fall off, and it isn't going to be seen while wearing the costume.

You can see I added a folded piece at the end of the strap and sewed it to ensure buckle retention. You can also see that I forgot to dust the insides.The next Vader related  project will be the shoulder armor. One of the straps that holds that on is missing and I might need to make a new one.