How I Started Making Harnesses

I’ve often been asked “How did you start?”

“Where did you learn to do that?”

“Where did you get your materials”

I’ve decided to explain it all in one place.

But I’m going to tell you where i started first, not where i am.. yet.

I was first introduced to the world of harnesses by my friend Dan McLaughlin

(@dannyboysparkles on insta). He’s always been fashion forward, constantly designing

his next look. He’s always worn harnesses in most of his looks, and had made a few himself.

One day I told him he should start a business making and selling them. He didn’t have

the online knowledge that I did, and I didn’t have the fashion sense he did. So it was

kind of the perfect match

Before I took any major leaps (which I often do) I did a little testing.

I needed to see if I could even make a harness, so I dived in head first and gathered my

supplies.

Things I bought for my very first harness; (list then describe each including pictures)

1) Leather Strips

2) Rivets

3) Roller Pin Buckles

4) Metal O-Rings

Where I Bought My first Materials

Leather

I purchased about 70 inches of gray leather distressed leather from the etsy shop DMLeatherStudio.

This was my first leather experience so i had no idea how much to buy or what i was even doing.

Rivets

Etsy really is THE go to place for everything, because (you guessed it) that’s where i also got my rivets.

RecnepsDesign shop is great and we still use them now, they have various sized rivets that come in diffferent color and quantities. Highly recommend.

Roller Pin Buckles

I am not proud of my first roller pin buckle purchase. Not only were they hideous, they were also incredibly expensive. If you don’t know where to look for them, you can get seriously robbed when it comes to roller pin buckles.

I had purchased double pin, and they’re not what i use now, i was just ignorant hen purchasing them at first. Don’t get me wrong, they work just fine. I’m just personally a fan of the double pin.

Metal O-Rings

You also have to be careful with these guys, if you look in the wrong place you’ll be overcharged in no time

For my first harness i just bought rings at Home Depot. They sell them in packs of 2 in varying sizes in the same isle they sell chain.

I 100% guessed on which size to buy and it hasn’t changed since :)

Mistakes I Made Making My First Harness

1) Tools; notice those were missing from the list? Yeah.

Did i have the proper tools laying around my house? Yes actually, but all of them are from probably around 1963 and caked in rust.

So, to punch my holes i used none other than a lightly used (not) screw driver that i ever so gently and lovely stabbed into my $42 worth of leather.

I was also unaware that rivets needed to be set, you cannot just simply snap them together and hope for the best . Nor can you squish them together with a pair of pliers.

2) $42 worth of leather is not, in fact, enough. (As you can based on the photo of this post.)

3) Roller pin buckles are more confusing than they seem

The Final Product

Ew

Just... ew.

Why did we think this was the best thing in the world?

Why did we look at this and say “LETS START A BUSINESS!”

I have no idea. But I’m glad we did because we’ve come so far from this.

Let’s look at everything wrong with the cover photo of this post.

- The straps under his arms are just terrible (again, not enough leather)

- Shoulder straps are far too short (I’m pretty sure I didn’t measure him at all before making it)

- The buckles... oh the buckles. That is not the way those pins should be set.

It’s just bad, so very bad.

But we loved it, and it inspired us.

Our Next Steps

We did some research.

No one starts a business wanting to be like every other company out there. So we found new materials that were fun and not common in the harness world. (This harness world anyways, i can’t speak for actual pups)

Him and I have always been a crafting duo, so perfecting our skill wasn’t the most difficult task.

I built our etsy and main website. Made some new designs. Made Dan pose for some pictures and, boom Double D Harnesses was born (get it.. because my names Dimarnae... and his is Daniel... D&D... ha).

Anyways, thank you for taking the time to learn a bit more about the journey. I hope you learned some things along the way.

Stay tuned for some more info about us, let me know what you’re curious about and what you want me to write about.

You can do so by using our contact page or messaging me directly on instagram.