Leather Gentleman's Kit
Hi!
This summer I decided to make a leather shoulder bag, but I was too quick with my decisions and bought lots of leather that is too thick for making a bag. Now I have one square meter of spare leather. Fortunately I found use for it, and made a belt and a wallet (and a lighter case from different leather).
Tools and Materials:
- Hole puncher,
- Hammer,
- Scissors,
- Paper knife,
- Needle and thread,
- Duct tape,
- Leather.
The Lighter Case
- First I cut out a piece of soft leather to appropriate size and cut out a little curve on the top of the piece.
- Then I punched holes in the sides of the piece and started sewing it together.
- Instead of burnishing the edges, I melted wax onto the edges and heated them. The edges became dark and round.
- I also burned an ancient Latvian symbol into the leather.
The Belt
- First I cut out a straight leather piece of desired length and width and made one of the end spear shaped and rounded the other end.
- Then I burnished the edges, using a burnishing tool that I made.
- After that I cut out holes for the rivets and the buckle and put them in and clamped together.
- Then I took a small piece of leather and made a small leather ring, which I put on the belt right next to the buckle.
- I cut out another hole and put in the final rivet and clamped it together.
- Then I marked the spots for holes, and cut them out and put in hole rivets and again clamped them.
The Wallet
- I started with making templates, and cutting them out of leather.
- It's really hard to explain how I connected the pieces but I tried using the pictures, so check them out.
- In the end I burned Latvian symbols on the wallet.
Finish
If you have any spare leather at home, I advise you to make something useful out of it. If you don't, no worries, the belt cost me about 7$, the wallet about 10$ and the lighter case no more than 1$, so it's a simple project with minimal costs.
Although certain special tools are needed, it's easy enough to make them on your own, no need to buy them for a single project :)
Good luck, and have fun!
You can check out my Etsy shop here.