Handstitched

Had to tow the tractor near the workshop so I can start working on it. I got Mum to steer it ...that was pretty funny, she's never driven a tractor before, had to use bricks so she can get on....she's a bit short , took a pic of course. HS

Snap I just doodle on some scrap leather and go for what ever feels right , or I just make up my own unique pattern . That can take forever as I can be a bit indecisive...a bit like a 'crafters block' YT is also a handy tool . Whatever you do, we're sure it'll look pretty good. Will it be antique dye ? HS

I did manage to get it running...of sorts , after it went wrong just to see what, if anything has broken, but at this point, until I take it apart, its just a typical blown head gasket. I can't hear anything major broken. I've already made my 'shopping list' of parts I need . Theres a supplier of ag & tractor parts a few hours away. I'm going to replace a whole bunch of parts at the same time while I have in bits and while I have the chance. A full 'top end' rebuild almost. Thats awsome !!! I've been a ' Trekky' since I was a kid, ( baring my inner most here ) . Watched every episode of the OS after school ( ...that and Gilligans Island and I Dream Of Jeanie...lol ) I was mesmerised by all the flashing lights & buttons , and 'warp speed' and the ' transporter ' . I have every DVD of the OS + movies , TNG+ movies , & Voyager . Still watch them these days. In a month or so, it'll start to get hot down here, thats why I've been getting all my jobs done early....until ...?? I hope to get it fixed in a week or so .. thats the plan anyway and I'm sticking to it ...fingers crossed... take care HS

@chuck123wapati Hope your day went better than mine. Basically, the water pump on my ' Grey Fergie' packed up causing it to over heat and blow a head gasket, I thought it sounded a bit strange heading back to the house this afternoon. It showed all the typical symptoms of a blown head gasket . Water bubbling out the radiator like a volcano, rough idling etc. and the oil level increased. What a PITA ( pain in the ar*** ) Thankfully, these ' Grey Fergies' are easy to fix and parts are readily available . It'll be out of service for a few weeks thats all. HS

I'm curious how it got bent? HS

No idea where this should go, sorry chuck. . Well, what an interesting, albeit a bit amusing day. I'm going to be on reality TV.. fair dinkum ( true) ...in Germany... WTF ??? How do I explain this? At our regular market today , we ( stall holders) noticed a camera crew moving around, filming etc. We thought perhaps it was a pro mo vid for the market. Nup. They filmed the venue, a few stalls & their holders , including me, with two particular people in every shot. They both came to my stall spoke to me asked about my Cane toad and various leather goods, with crew following their every move. The boom mic operator could hardly fit his boom mic under our gazebos. An assistant and the boom operator later told me it was for the German version of, 'Farmer Wants A Wife' Not sure if you have it over there, but its here in Oz ( the Aussie version) . We were all a bit amused by it all. So, some of us ( and me) will be on national tv....in Germany. When ? Thanks Andy Warhol Those Canola crops I spoke about? the flowers are dissipating, fading , and the crops have started to smell like rotten cabbage, totally gross. The S & S Pork was so damn good btw It was sweet, but not sickly sweet...just nice and the Pork was juicy & tender. I cut the rinds off and cooked them up in the oven, so we had cracking as well. HS

That reminds me of my Mum. She once worked for a dept. chain selling household appliances, furniture etc. in the early days. One of the ' perks' she got was some beer steins with glass bottoms*. They're in a cupboard....somewhere *the glass bottoms were for conscription purposes in the Navy or Army apparently ? . The drinker would see a coin at the bottom of the stein, sense that it was for conscription ....and avoid the drink, and avoid conscription ?? HS

G'Day, The stuff you read in magazines in hospital waiting rooms*. I already knew about these' Multi Level Marketing/ pyramid selling/ schemes/scams years ago , but never knew too much detail, and the coercive , persuasive and incentivised tactics used to suck people in. The story in the magazine, was about a woman that had cancer, lost her regular job, wanted to make an small income , and generally just wanted to buy some cosmetics to give herself a bit of a morale 'boost' after having cancer . Long story short, She went to her 'friend' for some recommendations , only to unwittingly get sucked into signing up for one of these MLM schemes to sell cosmetics . Some friend . What was at first a good idea, soon turned out to be a nightmare. She worked her butt off to work her way up the 'ladder'' and got nowhere, losing money, not making money. It became less and less about the products, and more about non stop chain recruitment , meetings, seminars etc. with a strong "sell sell sell" mentality . It soon started to become clear to her that the only people that made any money are the ones right at the very top ..... I could go on. But needless to say she left Even doing that had risks. She used a pseudonym in the report for fear of reprisals. Many moons ago, in another life when I was in the fibreglass pool industry, my boss asked me if I wanted to earn a few extra bucks, ' of course', I said, who doesn't ? so he introduced me to a bloke at his house. A nice firm friendly welcoming hand shake . He then got me to watch a vid with people with fancy cars, mansions, fancy boats, people living the high life etc. Already, alarm bells started going off in my head !!!! He tried to sign me up to a pyramid scheme selling household cleaning & laundry products etc. I'm thinking, If this sh*t was any good, why is he driving a crappy old Toyota at 8.30pm at night?? I politely declined. His hand shake was then loose.......... and not so friendly. My boss later aplogised for putting me in a awkward position, and told me that his ' friend' worked up to 96 hrs a week !!!! and made very little money and hardly saw his family. I love my gut instincts HS * I normally only do the word puzzles or read the comics, I got one of the word puzzles finished tho

The binding may also have been done on a rotating head machine to accommodate holes for roll bars and other shapes, quite an impressive piece of kit. Some are like a programmable machine head in the middle of a huge table. These ute/ pick up covers are no doubt made in large numbers, so I guess its prudent to have the type of machines to fill the demand. HS

Exactly, and a large work space ( I don't have that ) I don't like being defeated, but what Clint Eastwood once said, " a man's got to know his limitations " . HS

So did we, way back when I was a wee lad in the UK. It was called ' Bubble & Squeak ' . Left over mash and any left over vegies or meat ..what ever, mixed up made into a pattie and fried up in a pan. Damn, see what you two have done...made me hungry , and its not even lunch time HS

Thanks for that Every little bit helps . I'll be paying attention to the 'stretch' . If the arm rest was a separate bolt on piece, I would have had them all finished yonks ago. HS

Thanks for that . I'll also need a lot of space to move it around. Space is at a prime in my workshop atm. And certainly can't be done on a flat bed. Lesson learnt. Thanks HS

This is what I so love about Mother Nature. We're complete opposites . We're just starting to experience warmer days, in a lead up to our Summer where we fry our butts off , and you're soon to experience snow where you freeze your butts off, Ha !! . Just love the changing of the seasons. Rather be here than in the big cities any day I'm just trying to get all my annual property 'chores' done early before it gets too hot, hence getting the tractors going. S & S Grouse ? sounds tasty . A 'gamey' taste I'm guessing, but with a nice S & S sauce. HS

G'Day, I was offered to modify a ute*/pickup cover to accommodate roll bars on the back of the ute. The client gave me another of the same to use as a template. After measuring , marking everything out ready to start cutting, and before I started cutting the holes out, I had the sense to check if I can get this thing under the machine to do the binding, turn it in circles........NUP !!! Can't be done on my Seiko STW. My bad So, have a look at the pic and see what type of binding machine would have done circles?? Something quite large , industrial and automated on a grand scale I'm guessing ? The machine moves around the item, not the other way around? Take into consideration that these covers are approx. 2 metres + square and like a heavy PVC/canvas & velcro , and a bit stiff. I do horse rugs, with those I can fold, flex, scrunch up, manoeuvre the rug to get it under the foot, easy peasy...but this is no horse rug. Too bulky. ( *Ute, pronounced ' yoot' ) HS

Stubby holders here in Oz . @fredk That wellington was a pr*ck !! Stealing the sergeants drink....geeez !! HS

Hope all is well in your universe Its been a while since I've been on this thread. All of the Canola crops are well & truly in full bloom now. Just blinding yellow everywhere you look. Its a stock pic, but you get the idea. Got the 'Grey Fergie' fired up ...yey !! A new battery , fresh fuel, a little bit of ' Start Ya Bastard' ( ether) and away she went. Now to get the Big Boy (Fordson) started....still sitting idle . All the usual property maintenance chores to be done this time of year . Almost cleaned up a kangaroo on Saturday on the way to a market. A red one too , only a few years old, quite unusual for down here. We get 'Western Grey's' mostly. The fully grown red's can potentially kill you. Some are the Kangaroo equivalent of ' Arnold Schwarzenegger' , a condom full of walnuts . My next foodie adventure is 'sweet & sour pork belly strips ' , can't wait HS

@fredk How about making them big enough to hold a stubby (small bottle) of Guinness, for the grown ups of course Only mentioned that as I'm enjoying one as I type, damn good too So, would that be considered doing a ' shoey ' ?? HA !! HS

Its a case of " can you do the job ?......o'h yeah, no worries mate !!" Then its " O'h f**k , what have I agreed to ?? " after the client has left the premises All you want to do is throw it in the 'too hard basket' The financial incentives seem to take over (your head) or any logical thought . But, I will use it as an experience to learn from . The more I put it off, the more it hangs around my workshop....and the more I keep moving it around to make space for other jobs. Best to get it done @RockyAussie 'With out the leather get a large plastic garbage bag and put it over the whole door skin then with a vacuum cleaner suck out all the air you can looking to see if it is possible to get minimal creases.' Thats a good idea. If all else fails, might give that a try . Thanks HS

I spoke to the customer just yesterday , he's actually a friend of mine. He's in a similar position to me , got so much on atm he's not actively working on the vintage BMW anyway that these skins are for.* But your earlier suggestion of using sand bags is the way to go. I also wondered if I should moisten the flesh side , put the bags in place around the arm rest ( without adhesive for the time being) and hopefully the leather 'might' take the shape of the arm rest as it dries, or just go for it , apply adhesive and sand bag it and work my way out. If it was vinyl I was working with ( yuk spit spit !! ) I would of had these done months ago . *I have two tractors to work on and get going ... real soon , so much on atm , but no time. HS

That worked fine for me, downloaded it for myself , but try this instead: https://www.manualslib.com/products/Pfaff-545-3553106.html HS

Australia ?? Cane Toad skins make good stuff too .No shortage of skins, we only have about 1.3 billion + of the damn things. The texture of the snapper skin reminds me of them . HS

I'm still 'stuck' on these 'feckin' door skins . I need extra days in my week...say another 3 or 4? Either that or I'll have to clone myself !! ( Off topic: I'm the chief cook & bottle washer atm , looking after two elderly parents...and doing property maintenance ...AND trying to work in between...AND doing markets *sigh* ) HS

.... and this and that An inlaid wallet perhaps ? or maybe a mobile phone case with inlay? HS

x3 Yep, reuse recycle . Theres quite a few things that can be made with that piece. As for the holes, find a project that requires lacing, they can be covered with the lacing. Also a darker dye will hide any 'mistooks' . Trim the holes off for another project . Use your imagination . ' What do you call a piece of meat that you burnt on the BBQ? A' misteak ' Sorry, off topic....sort of. HS