Measuring And Cutting Even Rectangles..

[lightningad]

I have found that my cuts have improved by vast amounts now that i use a saddlers round knife. Its kept honed and kept razor sharp, which is essential to stop the blade dragging through the leather.

I also firmly believe that using the round knife to push cut rather than pull cut helps keep the cut accurate. Pull cuts seem to stretch the leather (but that could just be me!)

[Andrew Chee]

For long straight cuts you really can't beat a rolling craft knife. They're like a sharp pizza cutter. They don't pull the leather at all since they roll. As long as they're sharp, they'll cut pretty much anything.

Andrew

[fenester]

I'll second Andrew Chee's suggestion of the roller cutter. A friend makes quilts and she suggested one for cutting lining fabric. I tried it on some 3-4 oz. veg-tan on a whim and it went through it like nothing. It will also cut curved lines up to a point, but only fairly large radius ones. She recommended the pretty inexpensive Singer model over some of the more expensive ones, I got mine with two spare blades, for $11.

She also suggested quilter's squares (common brand is omni-grid). They are clear acrylic shapes with marked grid lines on them in various sizes of squares and rectangles. They make cutting those shapes super easy. (and are pretty cheap)

[matt128]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to the art of leather craft. I like the suggestion of a metal ruler clamped to the edge of the bench sort of like a jig. I have the same problem of lining my pieces up properly. I'm currently working on a case for my ipad. Also, I am having a problem properly sizing smaller pieces. The ipad cases we see at the store, I have cut two similar pieces. The first piece is at the top stitched on the sides, and open at the top to allow the ipad to be slid behind the leather. The bottom piece creates a pocket for the ipad to sit in with a cut-away for the home button. I measured like three time before I cut. I left 1/2" around to allow for stiching. Now when I lay the pieces over the ipad, they are too small. They fit over the ipad fine but for there is nowhere near enough room for stiching. What am I doing wrong? I have run into this problem on several other projects as well. Sorry for being long winded.

Thanks everyone for any help.

Matt

Edited April 30, 2013 by matt128

[Tree Reaper]

I would say you aren't allowing for the thickness of the ipad.

To save what you already cut you can add a filler along the inside edge the thickness of the ipad and it should be close.

Kevin.

[Northmount]

Adding to Kevin's comment, fit the added depth as a gusset. Length to go all around the case, width ... the thickness of the tablet plus seam allowance for both edges of the gusset.

Tom