Written exclusively for Confessions of a Jackaholic.  Please do not copy and paste else where.

Been working to hack out a pattern for the baldric frog. I do not know the specs, but going by the belt strap of the baldric being 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 inches wide, I've tried it out on a one inch grid.  The red outline is roughly the finished frog size. If you draw that off on paper then fold the paper back where the fold on the frog is and mark out from there what the back side is.  This should give you a starting point to trial and error it out on your own hip till you find it looks 'right'......paper towels are cheap, make plenty good use of 'em!! --not just to get

the frog right but also the measure of the belt straps so the baldric custom fits you.

Before we ever saw the back of one of Jack's baldrics, everyone assumed that the edging was French Binding.  After seeing pictures of the back of the baldric, I do not believe it is French binding after all. 

This is sewn on French binding.  Looks the same front and back.

This is the front and back of the baldric.  The front looks like French binding, but when you turn it over, it obviously isn't and it does not appear to be sewn either.

How, then, is the "binding" done/constructed.  I can only guess. 

This is how I think the baldric was done, that the embossed goods are in

sort of a little tray and it's all glued together.....maybe sewn then glued?? 

I don't know.................................................white line here representing

the embossed goods and the red the leather backing and edge covering.

I don't know what this type of edging would be called. The only other

thing that I know is similar is what's known in quilting as a self binding,

where the back of a quilt is made larger than the front and the backing

is folded over to the front to cover the raw edges of the quilt.

I have no way to know for sure, but I'd say all layers are fairly thin stuffs. With the backing doubled and brought over the edge, you have 5 layers right there on the edge and 3 layers the rest of the way, so I can't see that any of it would be very thick.

I don't know squat about leather and oz and thickness and what kinds are called what. I'm looking at this through seamstress eyes.......just pick up the edge of whatever shirt you're wearing and make 5 layers of it to see how even something as thin as a t-shirt 5 layers is pretty thick......

I'm not sure how the bitter end would be done.  Guessing, I'd say wet it then clip and fold, clip and fold till it rounded the corner. 

Again, just speculating on the how.....I'd say that the backing is cut 2X the width of the belt plus 4X the with of the edging. Then it is folded 'wrong sides' the suede side together into the center and glued, then flipped over with the 'seam' side down and the embossed material is laid center of it and the edges of the back brought over and glued down. There may or may not be something like cording in the edges, it does looked a little "rolled" in the pictures. Embossed stuff may or may not be glued to the backing. Would have to do some experiments to see how much stiffness all this gluing would add......many experiments needed on the whole thing actually......

OR it could have been done the embossed stuff laid in the center of the right side of the unfolded backing, the backing brought over the edge of the embossed stuff and sewed down on the inside then folded back over and the brought to the center in the back......that would explain having that seam there down the center back. Because one would think that logically from a sewing point of view that the center back seam could have been put on the inside under the embossed stuff....

I'm not saying I'm dead on right and there is no other way in heaven this baldric was constructed......I'm just saying what *I* see......

After doing some research, I found these pictures of some belt binding samples on a costuming site on the Internet, so maybe Jack's baldric is some "standard" method we've just not found out about yet....

Other things I noticed while researching this, is that I don't think those conchos are on Chicago screws like everyone is using. Looks like regular old rivets to me.

Also think the spacing is wider and deeper between the straps that hold the scabbard than is being replicated.   

I'm speculating that the vinyl embossed pattern is the same size as the embossed pattern on the leather used for Jack's baldic in DMC and AWE. And so trying to get a more finessed pattern for construction, I traced the outline of the frog on vinyl going by how the embossed pattern presents on the frog of the baldric Cristian posted pics of from costume at the Prop Store in London.

Still need to find the run of the folded pieces.  I outlined the frog on the real vinyl with the tiny graphic tape left over from my compass project!  Waste not, Want not as per the old saying!  It looks to be a good size in 'reality land'--comparable in size to the leather.

On the shape laid out on the vinyl, the top part of the frog would be going toward the right, but it's not really visible in the ref pictures I am using and because of the mirror image wouldn't be useful if it were. Well, it would be useful in sizing the construciton pattern, but it would have to be mapped then mirrored then placed.....the mirror image thing can really start messing with your head!  So, anyway, the top part of the frog, I extrapolated from that first rough draft on the grid.

.I'm thinking it's a little skinny, but the red outline does not include the edging so adding that may make it look a lot different. And it did come out smaller than that first rough drft.  Need more time and experimenting to tell.....

Not many clear screen shots of the baldric where you can see the embossed pattern, but several of the belt bitter end and they do not all have the same embossed pattern. The reason I ran the outline of the frog on the embossed pattern was to get a construction pattern for the frog.  don't think you have to lay out the frog or the belts to match the embossing on Jacks--not entirely possible anyway since the vinyl is mirror image.  I don't think you have to lay out the frog or the belts to match the embossing on Jacks--not entirely possible anyway since the vinyl is mirror image.

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