Alamo

Howdy friends! So I just got a new order of Tiger Thread in today, and much to my disappointment, the color that I bought was not what I expected. Because of this, I'd like to sell it to someone who might actually get some good use out of it. It's a full 500m spool of Cream colored 1.0mm thick thread. If you happen to have a Maine Thread polythread color card, this thread color is right somewhere between Lark and Tan. I haven't used any of this spool, and it will come with its original packaging. Looking for $50 shipped to the USA, and $60 to anywhere else. Chase Quick Pay is preferred, but I also accept PayPal. Thanks for looking!

So I was finally able to get the bag finished, and by doing this prototype I learned a tremendous amount that will be very helpful for the next bags to come. Definitely not perfect, but I'm glad that I was able to get a functional bag to work out on my first try. Things that I learned from doing this: Add the bag stiffener last..hard to flip inside out and back with it in at the beginning. Don't go crazy when pulling the stitching. There are places that are wrinkling and puckering from me getting the stitching too tight. Give yourself a little allowance to account for minor errors. I came short when attaching the top section to the bottom, so I had to add material to compensate. Stitch the zipper onto the top portion before attaching the top and the bottom parts together. The bags that I will be making in the future will be fully lined on the inside and might have a slightly longer handle, but besides that, they will be dimensionally identical. Let me know what you guys think, and if you have any other suggestions for further improvement.

I case it very close to how I case for tooling. Enough to get the leather damp, and then wait for the surface to come back to almost the original color. Should still be a tiny bit moist on the surface. All that being said, I am also relatively new to leatherworking myself, so take everything I suggest with a grain of salt.

You mention that the dye is water based, so wouldn't you want to cut it with water? That could be your problem right there unless the manufacturer recommends using denatured alcohol..in which case I would say that it might just take some practice. Instead of oiling the leather before dying, I like to case it instead. then after the dye has set up, buffing it out usually helps get a more consistent color.

You have a very good point in that. I vaguely remember taking an ECON 101 class recently and had those charts with price and demand..something along the lines of cheap sells more but expensive has the potential to have higher profit margins while selling less. Will definitely think my pricing structure over again and rethink the way I want to price this sort of stuff. Thanks so much for the help! I know I'm not very active on here, but as soon as I get my tools back during Christmas break, hopefully I can start working n more projects

Well, as a college kid with financial support from my family, I don't need to support buying more and better leather AND pay bills and put food on the table. Also, this bag isn't very big, 18"x6"x6" so raw material costs is relatively low. With that being said, I am definitely not complaining about being able to sell something like this for more money! I just want to make sure that I'm not ripping people off with my pricing.

..if I made this bag out of Hermann Oak or Wicket & Craig, would you think that $300 would be a bad price? I was thinking of pricing this one at around $175, do you think that might be too low? Thanks for the compliments! I can't wait to get it done this break

Thanks! Looking forward to getting this done when I go back home for break, and I'll be sure to post the final product when I do finish it

I will have to agree with the quality of the leather; it's from Tandy, so it's about what I would expect from them. If I had the means, I would be buying sides of Hermann Oak or Horween, but as of right now, leather of that qua;ity in the quantity that I want is simply out of the equation I decided to keep the bag the natural leather color for two reasons: I wanted the leather to patina naturally, and I didn't want the bag to get streaky and nasty looking from me trying to dye it. I appreciate the comments. Admittedly, I was worried about the corners doing strange things as well, but I'm glad they came out alright

Some of the wrinkles are from having to flip the bag inside and out to stitch the welt, but you are correct that the leather isn't super high quality. Tandy was having a ridiculous sale and had a whole side of 3/4oz veg tanned for only $70 and I had to get it. As for the pre-punched holes, I do not have a leather sewing machine so I do not know of any other way to mark my stitches other than to pre-punch my holes Thanks for the kind words and compliments! Definitely excited to see this finished!! I appreciate the kind words, but there is so much that I want to do differently on the next bag I make. Thankfully this is just my first try and will be mine, so I can get away with not having everything exactly how I like it. I actually didn't plan this project as much as I should. I have a bag that I like to use, and wanted to make one out of leather. I just copied the dimensions onto leather and started putting stuff together. Just be sure to measure twice and cut once and you'll find that it really isn't all that difficult, just tedious. It helps to keep the number of separate pieces to a minimum to help with simplicity and minimize the number of seams needed. Thanks again for your comments, and I'm sure that you can do something like this no problem with just a little bit of time and a lot of patience

..but I didn't have enough time to finish this project before Thanksgiving break was over and I had to go back to school. This is the first project that I've attempted that is bigger and more complicated than a belt or some sort of small pocket item like cellphone slips and key fobs, and so far, I think it's turning out pretty good. Made a few mistakes here and there, but it's a prototype and the final revision will be a gift for a friend of mine (who I owe a decent amount of money in college terms). I'll be able to finish this during the Christmas break no problem, but I was quite upset that I had to leave this at home only half finished. Let me know what y'all think, and if there is anything that is obviously wrong or could become problematic or have suggestions for the next bag, please let me know!

Right on man!

Fire is a secret technique I use to forge my leather.. In all honestly, I was looking for someplace to put it for a picture, and the fireplace just struck me as an interesting location!

So right before I left for college, a friend of mine asked if I could cover a seat for him, and without knowing any better, I said yes! He gave me the seat pan already formed and covered with foam, and also provided the leather that he wanted me to use to cover it. I believe it was chrome or alum tanned stuff. I used a double loop lace pattern on the edge, and I think for a first try it came out decently well. Nothing fancy, but I'd love to hear from you guys and get suggestions for a potential future seat!

Thanks guys! I love rocking the belt whenever I go out, when people notice it they always ask about it

Made this belt to wear with my boots and I think it came out looking pretty good Also made my first wallet. Definitely needs some improvement, but for a first try I think it came out pretty good! Wallet album here http://imgur.com/a/PDVFg Gunbelt album here http://imgur.com/a/dCzW2 Let me know what you guys think!

Thanks! I definitely think it was worth it for the end result

Well, you can apparently buy a tool that punches all them holes, but as a relative newb (and a poor one at that) I used a mini punch set and used the smallest punch for the center hole and a scratch awl to make the two small dots..all individually. WOW it took a lot of time and patience!

Thanks! It's a gift to a friend of mine so I hope he likes it too

So I just got this one done last night, was pretty tedious having to punch all those holes individually..will also go back and even out the little holes so they aren't squished in. Let me know what you guys think!

Thanks guys!

Since coming home from college for the summer, I've been able to make a few things! Distressed Gunbelt natural color http://imgur.com/a/fDJ8M Distressed Gunbelt with highlight http://imgur.com/a/SFuNq#0 Tooled belt for grandpa's Father's Day gift http://imgur.com/a/sc88h Chalk bag for climbing http://imgur.com/a/k6C8r Got a few more things in the works for this summer. Some more belts for myself and for friends, a minimalist-ish wallet, suspenders, a chalk bag/shoe bag combo, and a set of boot bracelets with a cool perforation design on the front. Can't wait to get started, and let me know what you think!

I glue my double layer belts together before stitching them