Hi, I’m new to this community and its sad that it appears to be a little quiet to say the least. Still, maybe if I post some stuff it might get some people interested again.
So I only very recently started leathercrafting. It has been a desire of mine for a little while but I really got the bug a couple of months ago and waited to go on a cheap course to see if I liked it before I started spending money on tools and supplies. And since I did it last Friday (7th of March) I’ve been having a lot of fun.
So here are the things I’ve made so far, I’m very much still learning and I know a lot of this is very rough still but I’m definitely improving already!
Card holder 1
Made in the workshop I did last Friday, I don’t mind how this came out, but my stitching is really rough (I didn’t really have a consistent method yet and kept putting the thread over or under in random orders.
Card holder 2
A few days after the workshop I used the tools and offcuts I bought at the workshop to make another of the same thing. I did forget to buy thread so used a strong upholstery thread I had lying around, which is why it looks very thin. Definitely did a better job cutting stuff out and lining it up this time.
A different type of card holder
This was a pattern I downloaded and printed onto paper. I really messed things up here, I wasn’t accurate in cutting it out, the leather was horrible to work with, I messed up gluing it and just generally a bit of a disaster all round. But I did learn a lot from my mistakes.
A passport holder/cover
This I kind of self drafted. Its rather similar to the card holder but the measurements were taken from my old passport holder and then drafted using LibreCAD, printed out and glued onto some card so it would be more accurate to mark. I really took a lot more time with this one and I’m genuinely really happy with the results. My thicker flat waxed thread arrived and I was much more cautious in cutting things out, lining things up and trimming neatly. It is a tad snug but it will stretch a little with time and I plan to actually use this.
What next?
Next step I want to get some hardware fastenings so I can start doing fasteners etc. but I’m having a lot of fun just making things. I do hope my family and friends like leather goods…
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I actually think you did a great job for a beginner. I also appreciate your writeup. Thank you for sharing. :)
Tips: The thickness and size of your finished piece will determine which pricking irons/chisels and thread size you should use. The thicker the leather and larger the work, the further spaced your holes and thicker the thread you’ll use. There are examples of different sizes online to make it easier for you. It is subjective but for the most part people tend to like the same sizes for certain things.
For something like a wallet I think .8mm thread and 4mm(aka 7 stitches per inch) chisels look really good. In the images you provided it looks like either your thread(not the green one, you were right that one is too thin) is too thick(1mm) or your spacing is too close(3mm). This makes the stitching look bunched up and more like a solid line than a stitch. It might possibly be that you did not pull the thread with enough force so it is not taut and therefore bumpy.
Your cuts look good and will also improve with more practice. It’s difficult to tell the thickness of the leather but if you look online there are guides to determine that as well.
You already mentioned that you will work on your stitching method and that will become so easy over time that you won’t even have to think about it. Another thing you may want to keep in mind, depending on the style of chisel you use there is a certain orientation and stitch method that will show the thread pattern that looks better on the exterior(show) side of your work. So you just have to decide which look you prefer showing. Here you show a straighter line and a line that is more slanted. One on the inside and one on the outside. Which you show is up to you.
It’s a little hard to tell, but are you using a divider to create a scribe for your stitches?
Don’t worry, this is all normal for beginners. :) Again, nice work. Keep it up!
PS. I’m just a hobbyist and there may be better opinions and knowledge available.
No divider just yet, buying tools bit by bit so that is all just measured by hand and ruler. These are all pieces for practice atm rather than intentionally making something nice. The leather thickness and thread width haven’t come into it just yet, I’ve literally just got a 2kg bag of leather offcuts so its the luck of the draw if something is thick or thin or in the right colour.
The first one is made with 0.8mm anebraid thread provided by the place I did the workshop at (and almost certainly not done with enough tension) and the second red thread is 1mm cheapo ebay waxed thread to tide me over.
Even the stitching chisels were just the 3.8mm ones that came in the little toolkit I got from the workshop (all of them are done with the same chisels). Essentially yeah, nothing is perfect yet but I don’t intend it to be, my main focus is on skills rather than finished items.
Thank you for the input though!