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dragonspit

1St Organizer Type Project

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so I have only been messing with leather for a couple of months. I made one Tandy wallet, that turned out well enough that folks think I know what I'M doin (gotta get my camera working and share, I know). I have done some scrap tooling and a couple of straps for things, just to think through it.

Of all the things I could have done, I decided to do an organizer and challenge myself with a bunch of tooling, which is my main interest. But I like to have finished stuff so I thought this would do. I have seen so many cool journals and book covers here I thought I could get started at least. And its going reasonable but I have hit a stumbling block I dont understand and havent found the answer to yet here (but am sure I will).

I have some suede, that I am going to use for the inner liner. the organize is large enough for a normal 8 1/2 x 11 note pad one one side and some pockets on the other. The binder itself is a one-piece of leather simply folded over. so before I sew pockets and stuff on, I need to install or set up the liner. so here is the question.

1. Do you glue or adhere the liner down and stretch it out before sewing all the pieces parts on and sewing the liner to the cover?

2. If you dont have a spine cover, how do you hide or sew some of the smaller pieces parts so they dont come loose? For instance, I was thinking on the side that holds the note pad ( a 3 "tall piece of leather that goes from almost the middle of the binder to the outside edge where the liner would get sewn to the cover),. on the side that is near the fold, would you sew the pad holder only to the inner liner while its loose? it would seem getting that straight and have it line up while loose would be,,,,,difficult.

I have noted even as I ask the questions, I have seen that alot of this work, is whatever you make it. thousand ways to do any one thing. but this seems pretty general, but I cant seem to wrap my head around it.

I still have to dye and and burnish all edges, but Im about ready to put it together. Im also a little concerned I wont be able to finish the edges of the liner as nicely as I think I would like to.

anyway, any notes would be appreciated.

Bob

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so I have only been messing with leather for a couple of months. I made one Tandy wallet, that turned out well enough that folks think I know what I'M doin (gotta get my camera working and share, I know). I have done some scrap tooling and a couple of straps for things, just to think through it.

Of all the things I could have done, I decided to do an organizer and challenge myself with a bunch of tooling, which is my main interest. But I like to have finished stuff so I thought this would do. I have seen so many cool journals and book covers here I thought I could get started at least. And its going reasonable but I have hit a stumbling block I dont understand and havent found the answer to yet here (but am sure I will).

I have some suede, that I am going to use for the inner liner. the organize is large enough for a normal 8 1/2 x 11 note pad one one side and some pockets on the other. The binder itself is a one-piece of leather simply folded over. so before I sew pockets and stuff on, I need to install or set up the liner. so here is the question.

1. Do you glue or adhere the liner down and stretch it out before sewing all the pieces parts on and sewing the liner to the cover?

2. If you dont have a spine cover, how do you hide or sew some of the smaller pieces parts so they dont come loose? For instance, I was thinking on the side that holds the note pad ( a 3 "tall piece of leather that goes from almost the middle of the binder to the outside edge where the liner would get sewn to the cover),. on the side that is near the fold, would you sew the pad holder only to the inner liner while its loose? it would seem getting that straight and have it line up while loose would be,,,,,difficult.

I have noted even as I ask the questions, I have seen that alot of this work, is whatever you make it. thousand ways to do any one thing. but this seems pretty general, but I cant seem to wrap my head around it.

I still have to dye and and burnish all edges, but Im about ready to put it together. Im also a little concerned I wont be able to finish the edges of the liner as nicely as I think I would like to.

anyway, any notes would be appreciated.

Bob

#1 If you use suede for the liner it will not burnish with the veg tanned cover.

#2 This is a little vague to me but.... sew all the parts, pockets, etc. onto the liner before attaching to the cover. I don't like the "slot" for the pad holder. I think a corner pocket looks better and makes the piece easier to make.

You will need to apply the liner with contact cement beginning at the fold of the cover and work outward.

You selected suede which is hard to do with this plus you selected a rather difficult project for your first large project head_hurts_kr.gif

ferg

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#1 If you use suede for the liner it will not burnish with the veg tanned cover.

#2 This is a little vague to me but.... sew all the parts, pockets, etc. onto the liner before attaching to the cover. I don't like the "slot" for the pad holder. I think a corner pocket looks better and makes the piece easier to make.

You will need to apply the liner with contact cement beginning at the fold of the cover and work outward.

You selected suede which is hard to do with this plus you selected a rather difficult project for your first large project head_hurts_kr.gif

ferg

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

As far as a first project, yeah, I tend to do that to often. mostly I wanted to try a lot of tooling, and the cover has a bunch. I did it in different ways just to see how it went. on the left side I did do a pocket thing, on the right side for the pad holder its not a slot, its a band. But on the left side, I expected to sew the liner to the cover and the pocket, all at the same time. I dont know how I would attach the pocket to the liner, and then sew the liner to the cover when the bottom and left would already be all sewn up. guess I'm just not understanding.

what makes suede harder to use than,,,well what maybe should I have used?

Edited by dragonspit

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I'm not very versed in these but have tried a couple. For the pocket side, something that may work is to make a template of the cover, holes and everything and then use that to layout the shape, size and stitching holes on the inside layer. From there you can place your pockets and such on the inside layer, stitch them to it and then sew the whole shebang to the cover. This will allow for more changes/errors (and correcting them) when stitching the pockets on and also hide the pocket seams so they don't show on the front of your cover. If need be, cut the inside layer slightly larger to give yourself room to work and simply trim it once the whole thing is together.

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thanks for the helps folks. All useful info. so I finished it and it turned out, better than I would think in some spots, rough as I thought in others. all to be expected under the learning curve. my pc is down so I dont have an easy way to show. however, i do have one of those new smart phones, with internet and all that. I will try to get some pictures up off the phone and see how it goes. I will post my thoughts on my pros and cons when I post the picture. probably do that in show off thread seeing, I havent shown anything yet. then again, I have only done a tandy wallet, a failure at a sheath for my round knife which I plan to replace, and this. so all in all, I am happy with how its going.

all that being said, one person I know saw my folder and loved it so much wanted to me to make one for her. I told her just to cover the the material, which I will buy just a little extra of, and I told her about what it would be and she said if it was anything as nice she feels she would want to pay a little extra. so now I have another question, maybe a new thread?

If I lay a piece of leather out x" long X x" high, and I want to match the liner, should the liner be longer for the fold? actually, I plan on doing a spine cover for this one. the trouble I see is: if you make the line the same lenth, will it be to short when you fold it over? if you make slightly longer, wont the middle part bulge out when you close it? well, who would see that, its closed. anyway, just thinking through it. yeah, and we wont be doing a suede liner for this, although another thread on here did give me some insight about maybe making everything a little bigger, making my thread groove further away from the edge and then trimming it all.

thanks for any insight, and I will work on getting a picture up with this new fangled phone. lots of things to learn to get it to work.

Bob

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thanks for the helps folks. All useful info. so I finished it and it turned out, better than I would think in some spots, rough as I thought in others. all to be expected under the learning curve. my pc is down so I dont have an easy way to show. however, i do have one of those new smart phones, with internet and all that. I will try to get some pictures up off the phone and see how it goes. I will post my thoughts on my pros and cons when I post the picture. probably do that in show off thread seeing, I havent shown anything yet. then again, I have only done a tandy wallet, a failure at a sheath for my round knife which I plan to replace, and this. so all in all, I am happy with how its going.

all that being said, one person I know saw my folder and loved it so much wanted to me to make one for her. I told her just to cover the the material, which I will buy just a little extra of, and I told her about what it would be and she said if it was anything as nice she feels she would want to pay a little extra. so now I have another question, maybe a new thread?

If I lay a piece of leather out x" long X x" high, and I want to match the liner, should the liner be longer for the fold? actually, I plan on doing a spine cover for this one. the trouble I see is: if you make the line the same lenth, will it be to short when you fold it over? if you make slightly longer, wont the middle part bulge out when you close it? well, who would see that, its closed. anyway, just thinking through it. yeah, and we wont be doing a suede liner for this, although another thread on here did give me some insight about maybe making everything a little bigger, making my thread groove further away from the edge and then trimming it all.

thanks for any insight, and I will work on getting a picture up with this new fangled phone. lots of things to learn to get it to work.

Bob

Bob,

This is a little tricky. Where the spine folds, two places, you need to gouge a groove about halfway through your cover leather then skive the side of that groove to a 45 degree angle, as close as you can. That allows the cover and back to fold more square and the cover doesn' t have the tendency to stay open. The liner needs to be cut oversize. When you apply place the liner on the front side up to the groove, lift the front about halfway and apply liner to the spine, then to the back cover. You need to lay out your liner so cutting off extra material won't have any bad effects. You only sew the parts of the liner together that are not going to be stitched when you go around the perimeter of the cover.

Practice placing liner without glue before you attempt it with the contact cement as it will stick so you cannot move it.

Suede has a soft fuzzy interior. Normal cowhide/calfskin has not been "roughed up" so the edge appears more solid.

BTW: Do not use latex contact cement.

ferg

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[Thaquote name=50 years leather' timestamp='1296490073' post='184415]

Bob,

This is a little tricky. Where the spine folds, two places, you need to gouge a groove about halfway through your cover leather then skive the side of that groove to a 45 degree angle, as close as you can. That allows the cover and back to fold more square and the cover doesn' t have the tendency to stay open. The liner needs to be cut oversize. When you apply place the liner on the front side up to the groove, lift the front about halfway and apply liner to the spine, then to the back cover. You need to lay out your liner so cutting off extra material won't have any bad effects. You only sew the parts of the liner together that are not going to be stitched when you go around the perimeter of the cover.

Practice placing liner without glue before you attempt it with the contact cement as it will stick so you cannot move it.

Suede has a soft fuzzy interior. Normal cowhide/calfskin has not been "roughed up" so the edge appears more solid.

BTW: Do not use latex contact cement.

rg

Thanks ferg, I think I read that on here n will attempt it. Still trying to work out the details with my new smart phone. It's smarter than. Me so it's a slow go. Oh, thanks also, why not latex cement. Just curious.

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Ok I'm going to try and upload one of my pics to see if ican

A. Little large n fuzzy. Its a start.

post-16197-089113500 1296841758_thumb.jp

Edited by dragonspit

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Ok I'm going to try and upload one of my pics to see if ican

A. Little large n fuzzy. Its a start.

add inside pocket picture, a little better. well I dont understand that. I altered the pic, and in the preview it was a reasonable size, but after I replied, the image was huge again.

post-16197-051520800 1296853642_thumb.jp

Edited by dragonspit

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