Noob With Questions

[Gsislander]

Hello all

I'm new to leather working and to this site. So please forgive me if I am re-hashing old questions, or if I am in the wrong area.

I haven't started as of yet but would like to get some thoughts of those with experience.

What I want to do: Make small leather items for sale at local farmers markets, bike rallies, etc

Book marks

knife cases

lighter holders

wallets

key fobs

etc

What would you all suggest for me to get started? Tandy is about 1 1/2 hours away from me and I can get there easily enough once a month. I see that they have some kits available but don't know what to start with. I am on a VERY fixed income (disability) so cost is important.

Thanks in advance I'm sure I will have MANY other questions as time goes on.

[Luke Hatley]

Welcome to the L W ......this is what i did... I bought on each of the KITS THAT I WANTED TO MAKE.. I then made a pattern of them and kept the instructions for further use.

Now fast forward...Buy you some leather and cut the projects from your patterns.

and as you get more profecient you will be able to make your own.

the next time you are at the Tandy store, look at the books there will be items shown

that you might wish to make.

YOU MADE THAT SHOT POUCH YOU CAN MAKE A LOT OF ITEMS

Edited March 16, 2010 by Luke Hatley

[Gsislander]

Welcome to the L W ......this is what i did... I bought on each of the KITS THAT I WANTED TO MAKE.. I then made a pattern of them and kept the instructions for further use.

Now fast forward...Buy you some leather and cut the projects from your patterns.

and as you get more profecient you will be able to make your own.

the next time you are at the Tandy store, look at the books there will be items shown

that you might wish to make.

YOU MADE THAT SHOT POUCH YOU CAN MAKE A LOT OF ITEMS

Thats a great idea I hadn't thought of that! Thanks!!

[TimDreamer]

LukeHatley said:

this is what i did... I bought on each of the KITS THAT I WANTED TO MAKE.. I then made a pattern of them and kept the instructions for further use.

Fantastic idea, Luke! I don't know why I didn't think of doing that. I am one bubble shy of obvious, duh!!

Also, Tandy has some free patterns on their site. You might check to see if any one of those would suit your uses. I know that they have a few flask patterns and one for a coin purse.

For a bookmark, any piece of leather that's cut to 1 1/2 to 2 wide X 5 or 6 long would work. Your imagination is your limit on the different patterns you could stamp on that. Punch a hole in one end of the leather, loop some lace through and you could either braid it or tie some beads on the end and viola! (Actually, you don't have to add the lace but it would make a plain bookmark stand out.) At any rate, you could mark up the bookmarks with lace and beads for more. Another idea for a different bookmark would be to put a concho with a chicago screw on it. Just make sure that the concho is small enough or cut your bookmark larger to accomodate it.

One other thing, check with your local Tandy store, they usually offer free lessons to learn how to work with leather.

Edited March 17, 2010 by TimDreamer