Riem

Welcome to leatherworker.net - it's a great community, especially for people seeking to improve their skills. Looks like you are off to a good start with those projects! Not sure which of those is your "project zero" - the first one you started working on - but I can see a progression among the different items. Best advice often repeated here is to make a batch - like, say, ten - of one item, and on each successive item, focus on improving at least one thing. That way you can track your journey and your progress. Happy leathercrafting!

Looks very good! One question though: those little straps underneath the armpit cut out - won't thosebbuckles be problematic and scratch the wearer when it is in use?

Now that's what I call pain... And painful too! Commiserations, YinTx! Recovery usually entails making another, and not getting the shakes as you tackle that stitch line... ;-)

And the bit of the calligraphy I could see there is exquisite! Very well preserved. What a treasure.

Great looking tote, that! And kids just say the darnest things, and it must be because you've given her a choice of an even nicer one! ;-)

Pity I'm not close by - you'd have a sale, done!

Really great work - love the tooling AND the colour contrast between the outer leather and the inner. And... It's going to be a cradle for a blade? Which blade? :-) :-) :-)

Hi Pete, I definitely wanted to have a look at the jig, but it seems like the file you uploaded somehow got detached or did not upload right. Would you mind reposting it for us, please?

Received with thanks and admiration for the practical and elegant design.

Just beautiful! I like it plenty... I have to do a similar one in the near future for a family member, so would you mind sharing the dimensions of your bag, please?

Beautiful, clean lines - I like it.

Really impressive work! That certainly sets a very high bar... I'm drooling!

Made a 'lil brother pancake sheath for the red Swiss army knife I usually have in my pocket. 'Lil brother to the larger sheath I posted about in August, so I'm showing them together. The new sheath is a bit of a chance I'm taking on a 1 - 1.2 mm vegtan kip leather I purchased recently. Not sure if it will be durable enough for longer term carry. Stitched up with a red 0.5mm TSA (three strand acrylic) Chinese "upholstery" thread. Feedback welcome. Front view: Back view:

Someone gave that little croc a mighty hard kick... Hahaha - love it! Leather worker who made that must have chuckled for weeks...

Hahaha, noticed that after I've submitted, and thought, "let it be, bovines are really vegan so it should not matter". Should have been *vegtan*, but the good old spellchucker - eish, spellchecker - checked - or is that "chucked"? - it to vegan... :-) Thank you and @kiwican for the kind comments about the edges.

One day when I grow up and I can only find the entrance to that rabbit hole, I'll attempt something like this! Great work!

@toxoOne... hot... dragon, that! Especially if it were to have that wispy smoke per suggestion by toxo. My vote would be for a nice clock face.

It depends entirely on the type and style handbag you would like to make... I'd wager to say that with a little bit of creativity one can make a handbag from just about any type of leather, but the approach to its construction will be very different between the various leathers that are available. In my opinion, it is far more of an intersect between skills level of the leather worker, type / style of the desired bag, available machinery (or not) and yes, quality of raw materials, than it being a matter of leather choice only.

Wow @toxo, that pincushion looks so cool! Industrial? It doesn't look like that, not to me, not at all. I like it - will most likely make one for myself... And for my happily married wife, who looked over my shoulder as I opened this post, and was "favourably impressed" to the point of asking when hers will be ready. Maybe I'll even add the missed stitch, in honour of the fine example! :-) @67flh, apologies for hijacking your thread! To mitigate that, all I can add is that the learning curve to become proficient in stitching might seem steep, but if you heed the excellent advice given here already you'll be close to mastering the skill set needed to produce a consistent and eye pleasing stitch line. I hand sew everything I make, since I'm a hobbyist and don't want to scale up to a machine. For me, the investment will be too big, and I might end up havingto start a business, which I don't want to do at this point...

Another Bible cover delivered recently as a repeat order from a client who purchased a similar cover for a different Bible some months ago. Actually, the Bible was first restored by an experienced book binder friend ofmine, who replaced the soft cover seen to the left in the picture below, before I started work on the leather cover. Leather is a factory dyed (painted?) "Italian shoe upper leather" according to the seller, and measures 1.5mm thick. Edge done with a locally available water based "belt edge" paint and finished with beeswax and a good rub with a piece of denim. Tooling done on a separate piece of 1.2mm vegtan, using only a beveler and modelling tool, i.e. no swivel knife used. Tooling lines traced with a black felt tipped pen before a mid-brown dye was applied by hand with a scrap of shearling. All stitching by hand (as with all my projects), in this case using a Chinese acrylic three strand "upholstery thread" in mid-brown to match the dye on the tooling piece. Feedback welcome.

Recently completed and delivered this sleeve for a new "miniature" laptop. Leather used: a very supple, almost stretchy vegan bovine leather, 1.2mm. I could have used edge paint, but decided to do a roll over using a chrome tan upholstery leather. Sleeve is lined with a soft nylon to help protect against scratches and to provide a bit of shock protection. Apologies for the poor quality photos - took them with a cell phone and had to resize. FRONT VIEW: BACK VIEW:

Ooooh, love that wooden needle keep, Nick!

Welcome to the forum. Would love to see some of your work including the sculptures and some of the sheaths you've made.

Welcome to the forum - nice stuff you have there! Do you use a double stitch line on all your sheaths and axe covers? Looks very good!

Apologies friends - I missed a couple of the later comments and feedback. @Vikefan thanks for the compliments. Really appreciate it! @Goblin210 Thanks for the comment! I didn't use punches at all, only an overstitch wheel and a diamond awl. It is meant to be worn on a 38 mm wide belt. @toxo Thank you very much! @chrisash Thanks for the tip - will do so if I make another of these. Not sure if the wife will consent, but hey, live and learn! :-)