George

Hellcat: Where are you in Louisiana? I'm in New Orleans. The Hide and Leather House has fleur de lis snap caps on their Web site. Hide & Leather House. I have not ordered from them. Tim at Timco has a different fleur de lis snap cap. It's not pictured on his Web site, but I ordered some and it's a fleur de lis in a shield. Tim's a good guy and he will gladly send you a price list. In both cases these are just the snap cap. You will still need the other three pieces of the line 24 snap. Here's a notebook where I used the first fleur de list snap: Etsy Good Luck.

Adam: I've been able to salvage projects where my dye experiments did not work out as planned. Just last week I took a piece that had several layers of spirit dye and even Bee Natural finish - dipped the whole mess in my vinegar mixture for few seconds. Once it dried it was a beautiful black with no evidence of my former dye experiments. George

DavidD: This is how I thin Fiebings spirit dyes: Have on hand- -a small funnel -plastic soda straws -a resealable bottle (I use a glass Jones soda bottle with a screw cap, but see caution) -a gallon of denatured alcohol - I pick it up in the paint department of Home Depot or Lowe's I try to do this outside or in a stainless steel sink. No telling what the dye might do to a porcelain sink. Stick the funnel in the empty soda bottle. Open the dye and stick in the straw. Put your finger over the end of the straw to "draw" out a portion of the dye into the straw. Move the straw loaded with dye over the funnel in the soda bottle and take your finger off. I do this 3 to 6 times depending on how dark I want the diluted dye. Overall I don't think I have any more than 1/4 to 1/2 an ounce of dye in the soda bottle. I find the straw method not as messy and a little more accurate than trying to pour dye out of the Fiebings bottles. I then pour the alcohol from the can into the funnel. The alcohol rinses the extra dye out of the funnel and into the bottle. I add alcohol into the bottle until it is about 1/3 to 1/2 full. It's a 12 oz soda bottle so half full should be about 6 oz. After replacing the screw cap on the soda bottle I label it with a piece of blue masking tape and a Sharpie pen as to what the color is. I use the same method when I mix two or more dye colors to make a third. Like red + blue to make purple. When you use these diluted dyes on leather you have to add multiple applications to get the color you want. It's a little more time consuming, but it gives you better control. Now the caution about storing dye and denatured alcohol in containers that used to contain food products. Posion control centers caution against doing this. If you have kids at home it's not a good idea. After all you end up with a soda bottle (I do take the labels off) that contains some bright colored liquid that a small child might want to try drinking. It's just my wife and I at home other than a number of cats so we don't have to worry.

MADMAX22: I've been using DAP/Weldwood nonflamable contact cement that I buy by the quart at Home Depot. I think it works much better than the Tandy contact cement. Cleans up with soap and water too. Don't know about using it on fabric, so test it first. It has worked well on thin suedes and lining leather for me.

Great job on the collar leatheroo! Comet doesn't look real happy being a model - or is it the collar? Whenever I've ever tried a collar on my cats, they start flopping around like a fish in the bottom of a boat. Allways took the collars off before they did themselves any harm.

Ashley: Do those needles have the triangle leather point? Thanks.

Snap: What I'm finding out about industrial sewing machines is that most have a clutch motor. The motor runs all the time, so when you hit the pedal it takes off. I have seen speed reducers but they are costly. What I might try on mine is a smaller pulley on the motor. Going from a 3" to an 1-1/2" pulley should slow the speed down to about 1/3. Can't help you with the feet.

Thanks Snap. It's in the shop now for a check-up.

Paul: I saw Iona's books at a craft show. Here is a sample of their books. The construction looks pretty simple. http://www.eastaustinstudiotour.com/2007_E...na_Books_69.htm There is a link to their page underneath the picture, but I thought the binding showed up better in the picture than it did on their web page. Here are some more I found that have a similar construction. http://touchtheskybooks.com/ All the papers are hand made. Looks like just a few stiches on the spine to attach the pages. Good luck

I'm in New Orleans and just purchased my first alligator hide last week from AmTan in Georgia. According to their rep, all their hides still have the fish & wildlife tags on them so they could tell me exactly where in Louisiana the hide came from. I ordered a wild belly, grade I/II, and it ran around $11 per cm for a hide 27 cm wide. That comes out to around $300 before shipping. They do not have a minimum for orders. It should arrive in a couple of days and I'll let you know how it looks. Check them out at amtan.com. I like the idea of driving to Lafayette and being able to pick out hides by looks. Plus I could stop at Prejean's for some duck gumbo.

I just purchased a used Juki 1541. What will I need in the way of needles and thread to sew leather? I've seen Organ Brand 135x16 leather point needles at allbrands.com. Are they sufficient? Any recommended sources for thread? I'm planning on sewing mostly garment weight leather and single layers of veg tan up to 3-4 oz. Thanks

I have to agree with Tiffany - that bag is incredible.