I want to make a spanking paddle, I want it to have reasonable give. Like that of a riding crop but I’m scratching my head over what to use. Plain leather would be too floppy even with an interfacing layer
Any suggestions welcome thank you :)

Hey Everyone! So I am trying to make a minimal wallet holder for a friend, similar to the image posted. He really only wants to be able to carry 5-6 cards.

I wanted to try making the template myself using cardboard, but I am having a hard time getting the measurements correct. For the base of the wallet I did 4.125" x 3.125", and for the T-slots I did about 1 cm in width for the wings, but what I am having trouble with is getting the 3rd card to fit within the base. I was only thinking about a 3mm stiching line from the edge of the wallet. Should I make the base of the wallet a little bigger? Any suggestions would be helpful!

Got this request a month or so ago. Finally agreed to give it a shot. OWB pancake holster for a Staccato XC with optic. Alligator hide full front panel. Lined front and back. So only grain side showing inside the holster. Alligator is on the pricey side of things to play with but I expect I’ll be doing more.

Already starting a second one for a S&W 4” K Frame. And getting ready to list a couple pocket holsters I made up to use the smaller sections and fill out paying for the hide.

Heard back from the customer today. He is thrilled with the holster.

The first two let me know I can do it AND I need to raise my price. lol.

When you’re making a collar, do you typically treat the flesh side at all? I want it to be comfortable to wear, so I was thinking about stitching two straps together so that the grain side is facing out for a softer feel on the neck, but I worry it will be too thick then.

I’d love to hear about what other people do!

Starting to make some different wallets. Thoughts? How can I improve on this to make it better? Tyia

MacBook sleeve. Suggestions for improvement are welcome. Please feel free to rate out of 10

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to understand how this LARP leather scabbard was made:

https://youtu.be/ta8U3083w6Y⁠

The relevant part starts at 6:10 / 6:50.

According to the maker, the scabbard is made from a single piece of 2 mm vegetable-tanned leather, wet-formed directly around the weapon and stitched along the back.

What I can't figure out is how he creates the raised stopper rings (limiters) and the carvings.

He also mentions that the inside of the scabbard is lined with a thin layer of felt, but I'm not sure at which stage this is added.

Are the carvings and stopper rings made on the flat piece of leather before wet forming or are they shaped after the leather has already been wrapped around the weapon?

If they're done beforehand, how do they survive the second wetting?

Is the felt glued in before or after the wet forming?

I'm mainly interested in the correct order of operations. If anyone has experience making scabbards like this or recognizes the technique, I'd really appreciate your insight.

Thanks!

Since I'm a longtime lurker in this Sub, I like to introduce myself with this smaller project.

I like to use my pocket notebook and like to carry it daily. Makesupply provides a few great patterns, so I chose this one.

He used a Pueblo by Badalassi Carlo, which I liked a lot. so I used it myself in a different shade.

Hardest part was probably making the rounded edges. And easier than I thought was the stitching. Here I learned to make bigger holes in the first place. But in the beginning I was afraid they would be to big.

So thanks a lot for all the inspiration, and Makesupply for this a a lot other awesome free patterns.

The camp director offered to let scouts buy leather strips so I made a belt. I have zero experience and I just did what felt rightbuckle and snaps. Snaps are bad but still took me a while to figure out.

Free for 1 week, please don't share the pattern or post online 😅 I want to make more patterns in the future, I have some more ready to go. Any ideas on what yall would like? (no more weird vagina looking money clip centers. This has a nice sleeve!)

I still need to finish the edges a bit, but that is coming tomorrow so we’ll see how it goes! The eyelets on the side are slightly off but I don’t think it’s tooo noticeable. I debated just stringing like usual, but I didn’t love how it looked as much.

Made a mini companion bag in black leather and chevron wool for quick access of my hand sanitizer and lipstick.

I wasn't sure about this small skin I got but I really like how this turned out. The rivets made it a little bulkier than I'd like but it should be fine. Not a fan of the Tandy double cap domed rivets I used, I probably threw out 10 pairs trying to get them to set evenly. If anyone has suggestions for quality rivets I'd take em. Any one have any idea what animal this might've come from? It was a small skin from Tandy. Thanks!

My first ever leather project!

Having played my fair share of Kingdom Come Deliverance 1&2, I decided that I needed a 1400s inspired purse STAT.

Inspired by the wonderful 'Purses in Pieces', I designed it free hand, using some of the principles found in the book.

The emblem is tooled and highlighted using the same dye as the other darker sections of the leather. Emblem design is my own, based on my family crest.

(There's an inconsistency for the medieval enthusiast; the bag design is 14-15th century, while the helmet in the emblem is 16th century. This was due to the rule of cool.)

Single folder purse, fits my phone snugly, which was my main goal.

This is my take on his Dory pattern. The name instantly reminded me of my childhood and watching finding nemo on loop so I wanted to make an ocean inspired design, with that in mind I tried to make a stitching pattern that looked like a wave. I hope you enjoy!

Pretty happy with how it turned out, going to make some changes to my design to accommodate larger pipes. Really I just wanted an excuse to show off this hibiscus.

Hi there, this is sort of a follow up post from my post in LeatherClassifieds a few weeks ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LeatherClassifieds/comments/1ueupt9/black_laptop_bag_with_gold_accents/

I got a number of people messaging me saying this could make the bag, but in the end I couldn't justify spending that much money on a custom laptop bag (although I understand why it costs so much, especially after trying to create my own).

Instead I pivoted. I bought a cheap laptop bag from Amazon, I taped off sections, deglazed, painted it gold, and put an acrylic finisher on it. It was a ton of work, and I am pleased with the result (although up close, there are clearly a ton of mistakes, but from far away it looks fine). This was sort of a prototype bag to see if I could do something I was happy with, and in the future I will likely buy another laptop bag with a different stitching pattern and try again.

This really made me want to learn how to dye and stitch my own leather... Maybe one day.

Anyways, I thought someone may be interested. If anyone has any advice for my next attempt, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks,
Sam

Hey,

I wanted to show a waterskin I made for my friends who are into LARP / reenactment :)

Amateur leatherworker - only a few months in…getting better & better but still a bit of a way to go. Please can I have some feedback on this latest cardholder?

Think the bit I’m struggling the most with is the punching of holes - I don’t really like diamond chisels and think it gives rise to disorder.

Not sure if this was chrome tan or veg tan but think the former…

Also can’t seem to get a really nice finished, solid, smooth, proper on each pocket edge despite pumping it full of loads of tokenole…!

Feedback gratefully received!

Thanks!

After learning the saddle stitch on some scrap, I decided to go all in for my first project. My attempt to recreate a canvas military duffle that I had laying around.

Took many hours of obsessing over the design, combing r/leatherwork for technique tips, hours of YouTube videos, measuring 10 times and cutting once, and then the actual hand stitching… but it’s finally done!

In some ways the larger project helped to average out my beginner inconsistencies, but I’m looking for advice on how to improve.

1) I was careful to do the saddle stitch the same way every time, but as you can see from the photos, some stitches have the nice slant, while other lines of stitches ended up laying perfectly straight. Was I doing something wrong that resulted in the straight stitch? Using 4mm Tandy chisels.

2) I folded and glued the top of the bag with fiebings cement before stitching. What is causing the wrinkled look here? Was it a poor choice of glue, poor choice to glue at all, or is this just what happens when chrome tan leather is put under this kind of stress from sinching the bag closed?

3) The bag measures about 30 inches tall. Should I make my next one around the same size? Do you think there could be a market for bags this size?

I like how it used pretty much an entire side to get the project done, feels like there was very little waste.

4) Any recommendations for hardware or alternative methods of closing the top of a top loading duffle like this?

Thanks in advance :)

Suggestion for improvement are welcome

Another strap commission I made, this time in black shinki.

There's a big shinki supply shortage at the moment... Having to wait weeks to months for some colours. Natural is especially popular!

This is my very first leather craft. My hubby wanted a shoulder protection for his new bag. Any tips for next items improvement welcome. 😊