Shannan Costume – Pouch and Wineskin

I had sketched out a number of designs for a pouch, but Mrs. Elrod happened to find a neat looking pouch at a yard sale. While I didn’t see it as very functional for Shannan, we were beginning to run out of time to find a suitable alternative (and as it turns out the pouch was perfect to hold Mom’s business cards and Allon bookmarks at conventions).

We detached the colourful bits and baubles, save a couple light berry coloured ones that matched my belt and a neat hair tuft from the middle (part of a turkey beard perhaps?). The front side of the pouch had a long messenger-bag like strap with no real way to close the pouch except for a small velcro patch on the front pocket. Mrs. Elrod cut off the long strap and instead made two smaller straps in the back like loop holes so the pouch could then just slide straight on to the belt.

Mrs. Elrod suggested taking one of the light berry coloured beads, attaching it to the front, and wrapping a small leather strap around it to ‘close’ the pouch. The colour was fading off the bead, especially on one side so I grabbed a marker and went to town!

(I really look like I’ve got stained blueberry all over my fingers!)

The Final Pouch

The same process happened with the wineskin – found in a yard sale and then painted to match the rest of the costume. Sadly, the wineskin, while aged and distressed, was a modern plastic grey and red.

So out came the shoe polish!

The polish I ended up going with was an even older brand (as none of the ones above would give good enough coverage).

The leather part was fairly easy to buff to brown, but the plastic parts were a whole other story…I tried putting on a mask and painting the grey with mark like I did the beads on the pouch. But the plastic was slick and the marker ink wouldn’t stick worth anything.

I ran the marker dry trying to put coat after coat on but grey still shone through when it dried. Thankfully Mrs. Elrod came to my rescue with a brilliant idea. She took one one of the reject belts (for my main belt) and threaded it through like a strap. It ended up working great as it covered the grey as well as wrapping it around the red, blatantly plastic cap.

And the final pouch! (Not the best and will eventually be replaced with something more authentic looking. But it’s a start.)