Shenster

By all means, amh, share the never ending awl with the good people of Osborne - for royalties. just kidding. The great thing about the never ending awl is that, after having spent so much time trying to make the thread on your spool last, being frugal with it, you can now use thread with free abandon! It's like, "Oh. I think this particular sewing will use about two feet. Well, I'll just go ahead and use four feet so that I'll have plenty of left over thread with which to tie a square knot." BWAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Thanks, Grey..... A lucky accident. It definitely has a bit more pazzaz than if it had been just solid tan. I'm thinking now that mixing dyes in this manner could produce some results that have character, like maybe tan on maroon.

When I made this cell phone case for myself, I had intended to dye it tan. I spaced out and inadvertently wrapped a piece of tee shirt around a sponge I had previously used to dye something else black. When I applied the tan die to the tee shirt and started spreading the dye around, I had a serious, Oh S&!t! moment when I realized what I had done. But, I finished up the case anyway, and when it was done, I decided that I actually like the effect my mistake had caused. I used Velcro for the closure, hence the sewing on the front of the flap.

For anyone who might use an awl for their leatherwork, and who is sick to death of the little spool continuously running out of thread and having to be replaced, here's a way to make a never-ending awl: Drill a hole through the top and bottom of the awl handle, run the thread off of a spool through the holes, wrap it around the awl spool two or three times, and then on through the needle.

I like the fourth one on the right, up from the bottom.

Tell me about it! I used to use an awl extensively, and one day after installing about the 10th spool, I had a sudden forehead slapping moment.

Thank you, Tramp. A tough crowd? Well, as long as you and Tankers likes it, I'm happy. Will my son like it? That is the question.

Beautiful!!

Thank you, Tankerman........ Glad you like my cell phone case. It's not really earth-shattering, but there's not a lot you can do to make a functional cell phone case with a mega wow factor. Some fancy tooling and staining would have been nice, but then, my son would never wear it. Black is the only color he'll be seen with. Yeah, the flooring underlayment is great for testing patterns. It is 1/8" thick, tough, durable, doesn't stretch, and is inexpensive. With it, you can make mistakes to your heart's content. For the holes on the sides of the pouch, there was no need to go through the effort of sewing them together. I just ran nails through the holes, aligning the two flaps of the sides and gluing them together. And then some tape just to make sure it all held together whilst I fiddled with it. I used DraftSight to draw up my pattern. That program is a miracle! It is almost identical to AutoCAD and it's a FREE download! It is very user friendly and easy to learn. I like your stuff, too, Tankies. As I commented on your post, it's nice to see someone coming up with their own tooling designs.

It's cool that you are coming up with your own designs.

I made this cell phone case for my son. I began by making a model of his ipad, laminating sheets of poster board together for the depth, and cutting it to size. I designed the pattern on a CAD program and made a test case out of a sheet of flooring underlayment, which is perfect for making mock-ups. To align the Velcro, I ran nails through every other hole in the leather and through the holes punched in the Velcro to align the holes and then glued the Velcro to the leather before sewing. I used heavyweight polypropolene webbing for the belt loop, as leather will wear, whereas webbing is indestructible. Because you can't punch holes in webbing, as the cut edges of the holes would fray, I sewed the webbing to the leather with an awl, going through the holes I had punched in the leather, and on through the webbing. Speaking of awls, here's how you can make a never-ending awl: Drill a hole straight through the bottom and top of the wooden handle, run the thread off of a spool through the holes, wrap it around the small spool on the awl two or three times, and then on through the needle.

Absolute Underlayment System is a tough, durable foam sheet, almost 1/8" thick that is used for laying out underneath new flooring. I found that it is perfect for making patterns to test designs before hitting the leather. Attached is a foam pattern I made for a cell phone case. I designed the pattern on a CAD program, but there were a couple of aspects of the case that needed to be measured off of a real world mock up. You can see the sides of the foam pouch are sewn. You could also stick small nails through matching holes to align everything and then glue the sides together, or even just tape them. Also attached are the cell phone case and an ammo pouch that I made. The ammo pouch holds one box - 50 rounds - of .38 special cartridges. I used Velcro on both for closures, hence the sewing on the faces of the flaps. I had made a mistake dying the cell phone case. I wrapped a bit of tee shirt around a sponge I had used in dying some leather black. I applied tan dye to the tee shirt and when I applied it to the leather it came out a lot darker than I expected. When I realized what I had done, I had a serious oh, s**t! moment. But after the dye had dried and I applied a finish, I saw that my mistake had resulted in a really nifty effect.

ok. I see, ambassador. I found the attach files button down at the bottom. Thanks.

I click on the image Icon, enter the url in the dialog box, but when I click on ok, everything just freezes.

Ohhhh! Fifty bucks ain't bad! I guess just the word "arbor" made me envision the three-digit bracket. But, yeah, that arbor would be a very reasonable investment. Thanks!