It’s not the Boots, it’s the Booty

Working the ren faire is still so much fun!  Everyday I can’t believe I’m there achieving my high school fantasy of selling hats at KRF.  The first time I went to the faire was with my first real boyfriend.  He bought me a rose and a pewter heart necklace and I was completely enamored with the place.  Though that love didn’t last very long, my love of renaissance festivals has only increased.  Every fall I would beg my parents to take me to the faire until I could finally drive myself.  Then I would drag my siblings and friends along with me, wearing various outfits that I concocted from Mom’s leftover material stash.  One day I tried on a fabulous muffin cap made by one of the artisans at the faire and I was in love all over again, this time with hats.

Fast forward a few years to college.  In school I took a couple of costume theater courses, and loved every minute of them.  I had to petition the college of engineering to count them as electives since I don’t think an engineer had ever taken a costume class before.  I only intended to take the prerequisite costume construction course so I could take the millinery course they offered the next semester. Disappointingly, the millinery course ended up conflicting with one of my major courses, so ironically that was the only costume class I didn’t get to take.  And boy have I used so much that I learned in the other courses.  Eventually I started drafting hat patterns for my costumes, friends’ costumes and eventually my annual medieval party.

Thanks for taking that stroll down memory lane with me.  Today I have a very quick and very limited use blog post.  Have you ever had boots that won’t stay up?  Probably not!  But maybe your pirate or cavalier friends have?  I purchased a pair of not-inexpensive cavalier boots for Will a few years back and the damn things slouch.  In the picture they didn’t slouch, so when I made his pants I sized them to come just below the knee, safely below where the boots would reach.  Well those slouchy beasts end up exposing his whole calf after an hour of standing.  How ignoble!  Well we solved the problem!  Boot straps!  No I’m not talking about the things that hold your pants down or the things used to power on your motherboard.  These things hold your boots UP.  Observe:

Before:

Before boot straps.

After:

One boot strap on, one off.  That tie on the ground is what we were previous using as a boot strap.

DIY Boot Straps to Unslouchify your Boots

Materials

• 4 feet of 1″ woven cotton braid
• 4 D Rings (1″ wide)
• thread

1. Cut your braid into two 24″ sections
2. Finish the ends of the braid to prevent fraying by straight stitching near the ends of the braid.
   

   Stitch ends to prevent fraying

3. Take two D-rings and thread one end of the braid through both of them.  Stitch as close to the rings as you can get with the presser foot.
   

   Attach d-rings

To use the straps

1. Unfold flap of boot.  Insert braid around leg inserting one end through both d-rings
   

   Unfold boot flap and wrap strap around leg.

2. Put end of braid over the first d-ring and into the second d-ring.  Pull until snug.
   

   Put end of strap over one d ring and under the second d-ring.

3. Tuck end of braid in.
   

   Tuck strap in.