All Saints Anina Belt Construction :: River Song Cosplay

When I decided to recreate River's look from 'The Day of The Moon', I spent a few hours researching the original pieces used during the show. Most of them were from a store in the UK called AllSaints and they were also all discontinued...yayyyyyy! (HASHTAG SARCASM) So I went to eBay to try and track them down, and only managed to find the All Saints Zeeda dress that Alex Kingston wore (and there was much squealing and rejoicing and happy tears when I finally won that dress auction!!)...but no dice on the boots (All Saints Criollo) and the belt, the All Saints Anina.

She also wore the Anina belt in 'The Pandorica Opens'

After a few months of fruitlessly stalking eBay, I figured it wouldn't be too hard to replicate, and I had always wanted to try my hand at leatherworking, so I jumped right in!

After some research, I found that the original belt is about 3 3/4 inches wide. I decided to round up to an even 4 inches and ordered a 4 inch Leather Belt Blank from an eBay seller named landco317. It came super fast and I would totally recommend him if you are looking to purchase leather for this project. It was $30 with free shipping and came super fast!

I also purchased a leather punch...

and proceeded to mark out the hole patterns on the belt blank. I marked the holes vertically in 3/4 inch intervals. I found this diagram (I don't remember where??) that is helpful for the more visual learners...

I then proceeded to punch LIKE 349527 HOLES IN THIS BELT UNTIL MY HAND WAS LITERALLY ABOUT TO DIE. LIT. ER. ALL. Y. ABOUT. TO. DIE. I wasn't able to punch the middle rows of holes with my punch so I drilled those with my dremel tool. If you have a drill press, this project will go 1000x better and more quickly!

note to self...buy a drill press...

ANYWAY. After the holes were all punched I ended up with thisssss...

I then went to Hobby Lobby and bought a bottle of Fiebings Leather Dye in 'Dark Brown', because it was the darker of the two colors they had in stock and I wasn't really sure what to expect. 

So I applied a few coats with a wool dauber...

...and was SO EXCITED ABOUT THE COLOR...

...UNTIL IT DRIED...

wat the poop.

So note to self...this stuff dries a lot lighter than expected...

MOVING ALONG

I consulted the swatch guide on Fiebing's website and ordered a bottle of dye in Chocolate and tried again. After one coat I had this...

and after four coats it was looking MUY BETTER (sorry for the potato quality on this picture..it was late, I was out of Dr Pepper, and hence too lazy to go get my camera)

After that had dried completely (this stuff dries SUPER FAST. It is AWESOME!) I applied a thin coat of resolene with a regular kitchen sponge (diluted 1:1 with water) and let that dry completely. It is NECESSARY to apply resolene or the dye will rub off on your clothes and skin...and ain't nobody want that.

The final touch was putting in the button studs used to fasten the belt. I bought these in 'bronze' and they worked perfectly.

After that I ended up with this!

And some action shots!

I got lots of compliments on it at MegaCon Tampa and was super pleased with how it turned out! Let me know if you try this for yourself, I'd love to see others!


Check out the other posts in my River Song Cosplay Series!

-River Song Wig Tutorial-
-All Saints Anina Belt Re-Creation (you're here!)-
-River's Gun Belt & Holster-
-Completed River Song Cosplay at MegaCon Tampa-