My "pirate" outfit. The centerpiece for this costume is the black leather doublet, lined in crimson satin. It looks like nothing special from the front but on the back...

You see the white rose of the House of York (I was going through a big rebellious phase at the time of this costume... I wanted to kick butt!). This is what I call leather cutwork, which means I take two pieces of leather (in this case the back doublet piece in black and a piece of white "scrap" leather), plunk one down ontop of the other and stitch an outiline of a design with my sewing machine. Then I cut out specific pieces according to the pattern (a Tudor rose) to allow the white leather to show through. I've seen this done with cloth fabrics, but you always run the risk of having the edges fray too much. With leather, there's no need ot worry about fraying, so the possibilities are pretty much limitless.

Another, clearer veiew othe back.