New Gas Mask: First Steps

All of my commmissions are complete, so I have time to make something new. While at my local army surplus store I found this new German-made gas mask, and thought it would make a good pattern for a leather steampunk version.

The eyepieces, intake and exhaust vents will all be fabricated from scratch to fit the openings in the leather.


After thinking about where to put the seams I covered half the mask in the curiously named masking tape. Then I marked the lines with a red felt marker.



This mask will be mostly riveted together (something new for me), and I've marked every half inch on the seam lines with a black marker to indicate where each rivet will go. Using an X-acto™ blade I cut the tape off of the rubber mask and laid it down on a piece of heavy cardboard.

To check my pattern before going any further I've cut it out of card stock, and taped it together. The edges and rivet holes should all line up at this point, and I have a few corrections to make (marked in red). Next step will be to add a seam allowance.