Toe Guards - simple

So I'm a new derby girl, right, on a totally newly formed team, the Sitka Sound Slayers. The first day of practice, I showed up in my new gear, really not knowing anything about anything. My gear was a Christmas gift, saving me from my tendency towards over-analysis and under-decision-making. But that meant I knew even less about what I was wearing-- unable to participate in the gear chit chat going on, unable to answer what kind of skates I had on (Riedell Darts), if they were leather or PVC (PVC), or did I have hard or soft wheels (hard, 92a). I also noticed that almost everyone else had a strip of leather over their skate toes, and I did not.

When I got home, I hopped onto ye olde internets and did a little research. I discovered that one wrecks one's skate toes when one falls, hence the need for reinforcement. I discovered I could buy toe guards for a mere $8 (plus shipping, 'cuz, y'know, I live on an island in Alaska), or there were much fancier toe guards for $20-30 that looked like they might not slip to the side like the strips. I looked at both of them and thought, "I can make those!" I found a hand drawn pattern on the Internet, cut it out in paper, and found it wanting. And so here I am. I planned to just make the fitted toe cap style, but the fact is, we were starting to fall in practice, my toes were getting scuffed, and I needed to protect them now! February was a bit of a tough month, so I didn't have time to engineer the capped toe protectors I wanted. Strips it was!




So for my debut post, I present to you, DIY strip toe guards, complete with a pattern. Pretty basic if you're used to DIYing it, but it'll be nice to not have to reinvent the pattern.

DIY Roller Skate Toe Guards

Materials/Tools:
About 8x6" square of durable no-fray material. Leather is probably best, we'll see how vinyl holds up.
Sharp scissors
X-Acto knife
Cutting mat or scrap corrugated cardboard
Pencil
Leather/fabric hole punch (optional)

 Instructions:
1. Print pattern. Adjust print size as necessary so that the box is exactly 1" square.
2. Cut outline of pattern. Fold in half lengthwise to cut out toe stop hole.
3. Trace outline onto leather.  Trace toe stop hole onto pattern.
4. Using sharp scissors, cut out toe stop.
5. Using knife (and a cutting mat or piece of scrap cardboard), cut out toe hole. Alternately, you can just cut along the + and poke the toe stop through that.
6. If desired, trim length of toe cover to one or two holes.
7a. For a generic fit, mark lace hole positions by poking a pencil through the small circles and mark the leather. Punch holes using leather punch (2nd to largest size on mine), or stick your X-Acto blade in and spin it to make a hole.
7b. For a custom fit, install toe cover on the toe stop on skate. The nut and washer go against the skate; the toe guard goes between the stop and the nut. Mark hole positions slightly lower (closer to toe) than lace holes and about 1/2" in. Cut holes as in 7a.
8. Install toe guards using your preferred lacing technique! Be sure to install it very tightly, lacing through guard holes that are lower than the eyelets your lace is going through to pull it tight. Vinyl especially will stretch, but so will lighter weight leather.

You can see the prototypes installed on my skates above. The 3-hole one is not stretched very much; I expect it to slip next time we practice. The 2-hole one is trimmed, and stretched tightly over the skate toe. I used the custom fit method for both, but used that placement to place the holes on the pattern. I used sparkle vinyl left from the skate bag I made (upcoming post!), and once I am happy with the prototypes I'll make some out of leather. I'm curious to see how long the vinyl lasts, and if it marks up the gym floor.

Up Next: Sparkle Vinyl Skate Bag (and why that was the worst material I could have chosen)

Skate Toe Covers/Caps - Pattern & Tutorial

I already posted about how to make the simple, strap-style toe guards. Those are great, and easy to make even if you're not super crafty. However, once you use them for a while you notice that they tend to slip to the side, and/or protect only the front of your skate boot. When I upgraded my boots from Riedell Darts to 495s (and got the right size- which matters a lot), I realized I wanted full toe cap coverage to protect my investment.

Other people have posted about making toe guards, but I didn't find any really good patterns. I started looking at my teammates' toe covers, and ended up just wrapping paper around my skate and adjusting it until it seemed right. And now I've turned it into a pattern to share.

I'm not sure this pattern will fit universally, so I would recommend sewing up a sample in scrap material and trying it on for size, then adjusting as necessary, before cutting into your good material. The first pair I made I just used some scraps of sparkle vinyl. I used those for a few months and they held up remarkably well, skating on a very smooth inside surface. I ended up tearing a small hole in one when I fell skating on pavement, so I decided to make some out of leather.

I looked at my local thrift store for a coat or a purse to repurpose, but I didn't have much luck, so then I looked online to buy a piece of leather (I live on an island in Alaska, remember?). Most leather supply companies seemed to sell whole or half hides (which are huge) or small scraps. But then I found Brettunsvillage.com, where I was able to get a remnant! It cost $30, they shipped it USPS flat rate for free, and although I don't remember exactly how big it is (12 sq feet?) I think I could make 15 pairs of toe guards out of it or more. Not bad for the cost of just one pair, huh? Figuring out what thickness to buy was tricky, and I also don't remember what I got, although I think it was around 3 oz and I know it was "regular" temper. It's pretty perfect, possibly slightly too thick. So here we go!


Toe Cover Pattern & Photo Tutorial

Skills Needed: Basic sewing

Time Required: About half an hour

Tools: Sturdy sewing machine (mine is vintage- you might be able to do it by hand, but I'm not sure I'd bother), office scissors (optional), sharp scissors, marking tool such as chalk/pencil/white crayon/white colored pencil/white soap sliver, leather sewing machine needles, X-Acto knife, leather punch (optional), printer, ruler, crescent wrench to install

Materials: About 1 sq ft leather, thread, contact cement (optional)

Note: It helps to read the instructions through before beginning.

1. Print the pattern below, being sure to scale it at 100%. Check to make sure the square is exactly one inch.

2. Cut out the pattern on the lines using your office scissors. Never cut paper with your sharp/fabric scissors!

3. Place your pattern on your leather as close to an edge as possible, leaving room for another piece, and trace it using the marking tool of your choice. Poke through the lace holes and mark those, and also mark the large circle or + (more on this later). Repeat for the second cover.

4. Cut out the pieces on the tracing line. You could do this with your sharp scissors or your knife.

5. Punch the lace holes with your leather punch, or poke through them with your knife tip and twist the knife to make the hole large enough for your lace. 

6. For the toe stop hole, you can either use your knife to cut the + sign (this is what I do) or you can cut the circle. If you like your stops really close to your boot, I recommend cutting out the circle, because sometimes the extra material makes it hard to screw them down all the way. Err on the side of small here. You can always make it bigger, but if you make it too big, it will wiggle.

7. Brush a 1/8"-ish wide swath of contact cement on the right side side of one edge of one of the pieces. Allow to dry, then carefully match up the top & bottom sections of the edge, sticking them together. Alternately, follow the instructions on your contact cement, or skip this entirely (sometimes it can gum up your sewing machine, so if this happens, just skip it).

 

8. Using a long straight stitch and a leather needle, sew 1/8" from the edge, being sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of the seam. Note: In the photos I'm sewing 1/4" from the edge. You really want 1/8".

9. Repeat with the other side and the other piece. 

10. Turn inside out and pull on the seams to make sure they are strong. Ta-da! 

Seriously, it just took me less than half an hour to put these together, and that was while taking pictures, too!

To install, unlace your skates and remove the toe stops. Take the washer and nut off the toe stop, put the screw through the big hole or + in your cover, and replace the nut and washer. Reinstall your toe stop, being sure to use a real wrench to tighten the nut down really well, because it's a total pain to tighten the nuts after the cover is fully installed. Remember the order is always boot, washer, nut, cover, stop. Lace through the holes however it makes the most sense for your lacing style- I went across from underneath in the first boot holes, out through the cover's first holes, crossed and back down through the cover's top holes, down into the boot's second set of holes, and then laced as usual. I also skip a hole in a spot that rubs, if you're wondering why it looks weird.

If you want to get really fancy, you could paint or applique designs on the top before sewing them together, or you could add grommets or eyelets to the lace holes, although I don't think that's really necessary.

Quickie- Sparkle Vinyl Skate Bag

A while back in my "Simple Toe Guards" post, I ended with a teaser about my skate bag... and then never posted about it. A commenter kindly asked, so here's a quickie for you...

I was looking for a skate bag on eBay right when I started derby, because the two tote bags I was using were a little unwieldy for the 1/4 mile walk to practice. I saw this amazing bag, a Schwinn Stingray messenger bag, that looked perfect. Even better, it had a cool "S" on it, which is my first initial, the initial of my first blush derby name (Sarah Shreddington), and the initial for my team, the Sitka Sound Slayers. And best of all, it was red sparkle vinyl. Unfortunately, that one went for more money than I was willing to pay, but I still had red sparkle vinyl on my mind. So, I decided to sew one up for myself.

I'm not sure how I decided to make the Amy Butler Weekender Bag. I think I saw someone else's red sparkle vinyl version of it. There are pattern reviews all over the Internet about this bag, and the overall sentiment is that it's a total pain in the neck, but also worth it. I'm a pretty competent seamstress, so I decided to go for it. And it was a total pain in the neck. I had to make some modifications to compensate for the thickness of the vinyl (fewer layers of interfacing), I used premade piping, and I lengthened the straps to ensure I could carry it over my shoulder. I broke a zillion needles, heavy duty and leather varieties. I sewed much of it with heavy duty thread, which was a mistake because my machine hated it. One of the strap attachments came off right away as a result. It worked much better when I switched to regular thread. I used a sturdy cotton twill for the lining, but somehow despite following all instructions the lining was too big for the bag. I need to remove it and fix it, but I just haven't gotten around to it. I did add some interior pockets to the lining, which is good for tools/mouthguard but bad for catching skate wheels. You can see a little in the picture below how the poorly attached/too big lining is pulling on the top of the bag.

 If I were to make it again, I'd use regular thread, be more careful in making sure the lining fit before I stitched it in, and do that part more carefully. I'd also sew the straps up and down in the strap topstitching instead of just having the horizontal attachment points, which just don't seem like they will last all that long. I intended to make the false bottom and add metal feet, but never got around to it.

I had saved my eBay search for the Schwinn stingray messenger bag, and shortly after I finished making my bag, another Schwinn bag came up for auction. I used Gixen to snipe bid on it (the only way I have ever succeeded in getting anything on eBay, by the way) and got it- for close to half what the first one went for! So now I have TWO red sparkle vinyl skate bags! I used the Schwinn bag for a while but switched back to the Weekender despite the lining issues. The Schwinn bag holds everything, including my helmet, so that's cool, but the messenger bag style hurts my back to carry it for any length of time. My Weekender bag holds my skates and pads and little things, and then I clip my helmet to the straps. For a while I put everything but my skates in the bag and used a skate leash, but it was awkward to walk with the skates on the leash.

I've been using it for about 6 months now, and it's working really well and holding up great, even with the one failed strap attachment. Unfortunately, since I made the bag our team voted on orange and blue for our colors! I love the colors- orange for the sunset since we're the westernmost town in Southeast Alaska, and slate blue for the water and the constant rainy sky. I liked red and black for the Tlingit connection, but it's true that they are a little overdone in derby. The good news though, is that I think the Schwinn bag comes in orange... so I have another eBay search saved!

Oh yeah- I almost forgot to tell you that vinyl is the worst possible material I could have selected for a skate bag, because it doesn't breathe. Right after I finished it, we had a skate clinic and the woman leading it talked about how people's bearings sometimes rust just from being left in a bag with sweaty gear (and I'm guessing that's not in a rainforest or even necessarily a vinyl bag). So I am diligent about removing my gear from the bag and letting it sir dry after every practice. It keeps the stink down, too.

So there's my quick post. I have a couple more not quite ready to go... full toe covers and lift & separate shorts from scratch. So if you want to hear about those, shoot me a comment and maybe I'll get off my duff and do them.

Also, do you think I should have stuck with Sarah Shreddington? (my given name is Sarah)