I wanted to make a valet tray, refine the details, and make it my own. I’ve seen others do them stitched together or use snaps so that they can lay flat. While I like the utility, I don’t see myself having stacks of trays that I want to store away when I’m not using them. […]
Not All Leathercraft Projects Are Flat
Not all leatherworking projects are flat. Most are not. I consider flat projects to be mats, journal covers, card cases, wallets, and belts. Yes, they have components requiring true three-dimensional consideration, but they are relatively simple or involve only one project detail. For example, how does the middle of a wallet fold so that you […]
Giving Space for Your Creativity
Giving yourself adequate time is important when exploring your leathercraft style and design. People regularly practice sketching and forming roughs in other arts like drawing and sculpting. In leatherworking, we often try to make a finished product without giving ourselves time to improve our craft and explore our style. As a busy person, I fight […]
How to Store Leather
A while back, I wrote about how setting up your workspace is important to improving your leatherworking projects. Setting up purposefully for your work, your mise en place, leads to faster, easier, and more accurate work. One subject I didn’t cover was how to store leather. As a leathercrafter, you might have accumulated a lot […]
How To Choose The Best Thread For Finer Leather Work
A while back, a Reddit user asked, “[what is the] best thread for finer work?” Many people wrote in to say that our linen thread was at the top of their list. Update: Since originally publishing this post, I’ve extensively written about sewing and thread. I recently updated this post to reflect those articles and […]
What Do The Different Sewing Thread Sizes Mean For Leatherworking?
There are many articles, YouTube videos, and blog posts about sewing leather, but there are a few about one subject many people find confusing: thread size. When originally writing the content for this topic, even I found it to be a bit difficult, so I thoroughly revised my first version and tried to simplify everything […]
How to Use a Glue Pot for Leatherworking
Today’s short post on using a glue pot will help you complete your leatherworking projects a little faster. This is the kind of tip you’d never hear if you are self-taught and work alone. Many leatherworkers are a hot mess when it comes to using glue, and one of my biggest pet peeves in our […]
How Many Stitches Per Inch for Leather
When I look at the guides for stitches per inch, there are several ‘rules of thumb’ out there, and upon further digging, it seems like most of them are made up or there are many exceptions to the rules (…psst, which means they aren’t really rules of thumb in the first place). Today, I want […]
Cutting a Leather Belt End by Hand
Sometimes, you need to cut a leather belt end or a strap end but don’t have an end punch. Or you might have a few end punches but none that will fit the strap width you need. Today’s leatherworking technique post is about how to cut the end of your strap by hand. This is […]
Leather Needle Sizes
Picking the right needle for hand-sewing leather can be the difference between a 30-minute job and an hour. If your sewing needles are ill-suited to your work, you will fight through every stitch on your project. If you pick the right combination of needle and thread, sewing can be the most relaxing part of your […]