Wonder Woman Tiara

How does Wonder Woman keep her tiara on in battle?  Most of the replicas on the internet seem to be rigid half crowns or fabric designs.  An Amazon warrior princess needs some flexibility, so my design incorporates a combination of leather and elastic.

  

I used the same two types of leather for this project as I did for the armband.  The black leather shown below is a thick and very smooth piece, good for maintaining its shape, while the tan leather in the second photo is thinner and more flexible.  An integral part of this project is an elastic headband, which is pictured below in a package of two.  This type of headband is thin, soft, stretchy, and has a sticky "grip" side so it doesn't slip in your hair.  (Thanks for the suggestion, bbqueensarah.)

 

 Additional materials used include: acrylic paint (thalo gold and black to match the armband and bracelets), scissors, pencil, pen, permanent marker, and two paintbrushes (fine tip for details and medium tip for wider areas.)  Not pictured: paper

  

 

Leatherworking tools include: Awl, thread, sew on Velcro, Ecoweld (leather cement), needles, and ruler.

 

I also used Leather Sheen (acrylic clear coat), a large flat brush for applying it, and an art knife.

I sketched out my design in the actual size I wanted on graph paper and traced over it in pen once I was satisfied with the shape.  I made a quick photocopy on my printer so I could cut the pieces out without destroying my original (optional.)  As I traced the pattern, I added about an extra inch of length to each end of the tiara.  [The image below shows both the armband design and tiara design together.]

Next, I cut out the leather pieces using my pattern.  The base piece of the tiara and the star were done with the thinner leather and all the other pieces were done with the thicker leather.  I used the knife to help cut the delicate star pieces.

In addition, I cut out two small leather rectangles which will be sewn at the ends of the piece.  They will wrap around the headband to help secure it to the tiara.

The headbands I purchased at the store were too wide to fit behind the tiara, so I cut one in half lengthwise.   Next, I sewed a piece of the coarser Velcro to the non-sticky side of the headband.   I stood in front of the mirror and put on the headband, grip side touching my hair and skin, and positioned it comfortably so so the Velcro piece was centered.  Then I placed the unfinished tiara over top, centering it as well, and marked the back of the leather where the it overlapped with the Velcro.  I used the awl to punch holes in the leather and then used the needle and thread to sew a piece of the soft Velcro to the back of the tiara. 

Next, I glued the bottom stripe to the front of the base using Ecoweld.  Once dry, I punched two small holes in the black leather on each side where the top stripe would overlap (so the stitching will not be visible in the final piece.)  I used a needle and thread to secure the pieces together in the areas shown by the red Xs.

Afterward, I glued the top stripe and middle section.  Once dry, I used the awl to punch six more holes, shown by the green Xs below.  I kept the holes as small, neat, and symmetrical as possible to minimize their appearance on the final piece.  Again, I used needle and thread to stitch the leather 

 together.  I also sewed the ends of the top and bottom stripes to the ends of the tiara.

I then glued the small leather rectangles to the ends of the tiara, as shown below.  After the Ecoweld dried, I punched holes and also sewed the rectangles to the ends of the tiara.  On the back of the rectangles, I sewed a thin strip of soft Velcro at the top and a thin strip of the rough Velcro to the bottom (see second photo down.)  As shown below on the right hand side of the tiara, the rectangle folds up in the back and fastens.  I also glued the star to the front of the tiara (not pictured.)

I tried on the headband and tiara and made tiny marks where the tiara and headband overlapped.  I glued six very small pieces of the rough Velcro to the back of the tiara, three on each side.  These six pieces are not meant to actually fasten to another piece of Velcro.  They come into contact with the soft headband and keep it aligned with the tiara.  The pieces need to be very small so the rough material doesn't touch your skin.

Next, I painted the tiara using different shades of black and gold.  I used thicker coats of paint over the three small stitches to help disguise them, as well as a sharp contrast in tones at the bottom V.  I did not make any effort to hide the stitching at the ends of the tiara, as those will be hidden under my hair.  Once the paint was dry, I finished with an acrylic clear coat.

The final design is meant to attach in two pieces.  First, put on the headband, as shown below, with the "sticky" side down and the Velcro piece in the middle of your forehead.

Next, fix the tiara over top.  The piece of Velcro on the middle of the tiara should align with the Velcro strip on the headband.  The ends of the tiara fold up in the back to attach to the headband.   

Finally, the tiny strips of Velcro on the back of the tiara should align gently with the headband to help keep it from slipping.

The final result is flexible and comfortable.

  

Edit/Update (06/01/17):

I have gone back and applied additional surface protection to the tiara.  The Leather Sheen I used initially made an immediate difference on protecting the paint, but when designing the boots I realized footwear would need more protection.  I e-mailed customer service as the Angelus company and they recommended the two products below- one is a finisher specifically to protect the paint (applies with a brush) and the other is a repellent that causes water to slide right off the leather (spray application.)  I decided to go back and apply them to the rest of my costume as well, including the tiara.  Although I chose matte finish, the products did add a slight amount of shine to the leather.  I still intend to entirely avoid getting the costume wet.

Wonder Woman Armband

This Wonder Woman armband turned out to be such a fun piece that I actually want to wear it on a regular basis!

I used two types of leather- a heavier weight piece to help the armband retain its shape well and a thinner, more flexible piece to use as a base.  For the heavy weight material, you will need a piece long enough to wrap around your biceps (the piece I used is shown below in black.)  The more flexible piece (shown in tan) needs to be three to four inches longer than the heavy weight piece.  Both pieces will be painted so actual leather color does not matter.

Additional supplies I used include acrylic paint (I used the same thalo gold  and black that I used for the bracelets,) scissors, pen and pencil, permanent marker, and two paintbrushes (medium and fine tips.)  Not pictured: paper.

Sewing/leatherworking supplies included a ruler, awl, black thread, needles (I like to use crewel needles with leather even though I doubt that's their intended purpose,) sew on Velcro, and EcoWeld (rubber cement.)

A few additional items I ended up using along the way include a large flat brush, Exacto knife, and Leather Sheen (acrylic clear coat for leather.)

My first step was to sketch out the armband.  I used a ruler and graph paper to make the design as symmetrical as possible.  This is the template I created for the bracelet.  I made a quick photocopy of it on my printer (optional) so I could cut the different parts out to trace individually later without destroying my original copy.

First, I traced the whole armband shape onto the softer piece of leather.  I added a couple of extra inches to the length on each end of the armband before cutting it out.  The extra material will later be used for fastening the ends of the band together.  This will be the base piece. 

On the heavy weight piece of leather, I traced and cut out the top stripe and the bottom stripe of the armband.  Although the two stripes look similar, they do differ a bit in shape and angle.

Next, I assembled the three pieces together.  Note that the V with the curved edges goes on the top side of the armband.

Next, I trimmed the excess leather at the ends of the base piece as shown below- cutting the top and bottom where the black stripes end and leaving an inch to an inch and a half in the middle for attaching Velcro.  On one end of the armband, I cemented and sewed a strip of the coarser piece of Velcro to the front of the piece, as shown below.  I used the awl to help punch small holes for sewing.
 

On the opposite end of the armband, I sewed two strips of the soft Velcro to the inside of the armband.  This way, I can adjust the fit of the armband if my size changes and only the soft Velcro side would come into contact with my skin.  Note: I discovered that you should not use the leather cement (or use it very sparingly) with the soft piece of Velcro or it will bleed through and the Velcro will not stick.

After the Velcro was attached, I reassembled the stripes on the armband.  I removed the top stripe and marked the bottom stripe right where the pieces overlap (overlapping is illustrated with yellow Xs below.)  I used the awl to punch two small holes side by side in the bottom stripe of black leather.  I used the leather cement to adhere the bottom stripe to the base piece of leather and let it dry.  Then I stitched the two pieces together with needle and thread using the holes I'd created with the awl.

 

Next, I cemented the top stripe onto the base piece of leather.  After it dried, I used the awl, needle and thread to stitch the top stripe to the base.  I used as small stitches as possible and tried to keep the holes symmetrical and right underneath corners where I'd be painting in high contrast later to minimize their appearance.  Sections where I placed stitches in the top stripe of leather are marked with a red X below.

 I also stitched each end of both stripes to the base, as shown below. Here you can see the actual size of the stitches I used.

Below is the armband with all the stitching and cementing completed.

The most tedious step was the painting, which I did in multiple layers with gold and black paint.  Although the armband is already three dimensional, I used sharp contrasts in paint shades to make it appear even more so.  I also applied sharp contrasts directly over the stitched areas on the front of the armband (shown with red arrows below) and used a thicker coating of paint in these sections to conceal the stitching.

I was less concerned with the stitching on the ends, as those will be on the back side of the armband and will mostly be unseen.  As you can see below, the ends with Velcro strips align with the middle section of the armband so it can be tightened or loosened to improve fit and comfort.

The last step was to brush the painted surface with an acrylic clear coat to further protect the paint.  Here is a front view of the finished product.

Edit/Update (06/01/17):

I have gone back and applied additional surface protection to the armband.  The Leather Sheen I used initially made an immediate difference on protecting the paint, but when designing the boots I realized footwear would need more protection.  I e-mailed customer service as the Angelus company and they recommended the two products below- one is a finisher specifically to protect the paint (applies with a brush) and the other is a repellent that causes water to slide right off the leather (spray application.)  I decided to go back and apply them to the rest of my costume as well, including the armband.  Although I chose matte finish, the products did add a slight amount of shine to the leather.  I still intend to entirely avoid getting the costume wet.