My youngest brother-in-law got an electric guitar for his birthday. (It's an Epiphone Les Paul, if you're wondering--with sunburst red/orange paint.) Pretty awesome, I know. The Partner-in-Crime thought it would be cool to make a guitar strap for the kid: a hard core rock 'n' roll strap, but not too hard core or the mother would nix it.
We found some leather-looking vinyl at Hancock and some leather scraps at Michael's. The PIC modeled the strap after one of his own (we don't need no stinkin' patterns!--well, OK, sometimes we do, but in this case, we did not). The cross was a little tricky: the PIC freehanded a cross and it was a little wonky. So, he scoped out some pictures online and found one to use as a template. I think it turned out really well.
After getting the cross straightened out, he cut out the two long vinyl pieces to make the front part of the strap. Then he added the two white stripes and pinned them to keep them straight. Then he sewed the two pieces together (inside out, with right sides together,) flipped the whole thing inside out, edge stitched the whole thing, sealing up the end that was open for flipping, and then added a whole bunch of vertical stripes to make it sturdy and strap-like (rather than tube like,) and finally, he added the cross and crazy zig-zag stitched the whole front, stripes and cross and all to make it rock-and/or-roll.
After finishing the front piece, he made the back, adjustable part out of canvas (left over from the messenger bag that he made) and then attached some leather tabs to the end. (That little Huskystar could sew through steel if we wanted it to!) That should help keep it from falling off of the little brother's guitar and add strength to the overall strap design.
The results were way better than the PIC was expecting, and he has enough vinyl, leather, and canvas left over to make another one, if he wants to, so he should get on it! (He tested out the strap before giving it to the brother, as pictured.)
RAWK AND ROLL!
I'm out.
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