Hand-Stitched French Calf Holdall

[conceptdiba]

Hi folks. I figured I'd post this one up. It's black french calf with red french suede lining and Lampo zippers .Completely saddle-stitched by hand.

I'm fairly happy with it. In the future, I'm going to skive down the edges more. As is, the seams are too thick, which is causing the zippered area to 'bulge' upwards too much for my liking...

Feedback?

[veedub3]

I am loving it! Love the contrast of the red and black. Looks well made. Simply Beautiful.

[rosiart]

This is very nice. I think that some of the"bulging up" that you don't like will disappear when the bag is loaded with all the essentials of life :-)

[Les No6]

Hi nice work, for the seams use a hammer to knock them flat there are special hammers for this but you can use a cheap rubber mallet pull the seam flat the way you want it to lay and gently hammer along the seam, heavily skiving the leather would make it much weaker.

[conceptdiba]

Hi nice work, for the seams use a hammer to knock them flat there are special hammers for this but you can use a cheap rubber mallet pull the seam flat the way you want it to lay and gently hammer along the seam, heavily skiving the leather would make it much weaker.

Cheers, I'm going to have to try this. I did something similar with shoemaking; not sure why I didnt think to apply it here!

I agree on skiving. However, I made the mistake of running my veg-tan stiffeners all the way to the edge of the seam, rather than trimming them 1/4" shorter so they wouldn't be a part of the actual seam. In the future, I'll just skive the calf modestly and leave the stiffening layers out of the actual seam.

[Andrew Chee]

Nice work. That's a lot of stitches there. Did you bind the inside edges of the bag? Looks like you bound it with the red suede. How did you do the turned edges for the zipper? Did you just turn and glue the edges over and then sew to the zipper tape or did you sew right side to right side to the zipper tape and the turn? Man, I can't imagine doing all that work by hand. I hand sew a bag lie that once but didn't do a lining. It was still a button load of sewing.

Andrew

One other thing. The leather is really nice. Where did you get it? Is it a veg tan calf or a chrome tan calf?

Andrew

[conceptdiba]

Nice work. That's a lot of stitches there. Did you bind the inside edges of the bag? Looks like you bound it with the red suede. How did you do the turned edges for the zipper? Did you just turn and glue the edges over and then sew to the zipper tape or did you sew right side to right side to the zipper tape and the turn? Man, I can't imagine doing all that work by hand. I hand sew a bag lie that once but didn't do a lining. It was still a button load of sewing.

Andrew

One other thing. The leather is really nice. Where did you get it? Is it a veg tan calf or a chrome tan calf?

Andrew

Yes, I just did a binding, like this. The construction in that picture might seem a bit odd (it is). This kind of construction is very new to me, so I'm having to improvise along the way.

For the zipper, I use a skiving machine to thin down the edge of the calf (as the calf is fairly stiff too), and then glued and folded. Then, I apply glue to the top of the zipper tape, as well as to the underside of the turned/folded edge, and stick them together.

The lining was quite a pain. Normally one would just glue it to the underside of the zipper tape, and then stitch all three layers (the outer, the zipper tape, and the lining).

I wanted a folded edge on the lining too, so I glued and folded the lining just like the outer, used my pricking iron to make the holes, and then stitched the outer&zipper to the lining. It MIGHT be possible to glue all 3 layers together before using your pricking iron, but I find it very difficult to maintain a consistent edge allowance when going through so many layers. I'm stitching at 10 per inch and small variations in distance from the edge will really stand out.

I hope that all makes sense.

As for the leather, talk to a lady named Amelia Corey. amelia.corey@charter.net is her email. She is based in Connecticut and is a N.A tannery rep (not a wholesaler) for Tannerie D'Annonay in france . Very expensive, full hides only in black or brown (both in stock in the U.S and ready to ship) and it's almost $12/ft, so you're looking at a few hundred dollars per skin. She will send you samples. "Vocalou" is what I'm using. Very glossy finish chrometan french calf. This is the stuff Hermes uses (they recently bought this tannery out). You honesty probably wont find nicer french calf, I think.Tell her Andrew sent you "Rusticalf" is also very nice, it is THE softest calfskin you can buy. Phenomenal stuff!

hope that helps!

Edited May 3, 2013 by conceptdiba

[David8386]

Great work, love the detail in it. Thanks for posting it.

David

[Andrew Chee]

Very nice. I cannot imagine sewing a bag like that by hand. I didn't one by machine and that was tricky enough. But by hand... Wow

Andrew

[DoubleC]

simply beautiful work. Cheryl

[bissetdesign]

That is one beautifully made bag, very classy

[Rogueshadow]

Well done! Impressive construction.

[seanafk]

Well done! That leather looks really nice too and I like the color reveal on the inside.

For the pillowing you can taper the width in more at the top to help get rid of that.

Also when you're gluing the inside and outside together, you can put glue down over more of the leather instead of just at the seams to make the top more rigid. Or you can also use a filler.

[edd]

You certainly put that leather to good use. Really nice work

[midwestislander]

beautiful work, beautiful material, amazing painstaking detail. Gives us all something to shoot for! Thanks for the lead on the french calf. It's difficult to find french tan like that.

[purplefox66]

I would love to know how you did the handels? was there some kind of filler or is it just folded and stiched? beautiful work.

Derrill

[conceptdiba]

Also when you're gluing the inside and outside together, you can put glue down over more of the leather instead of just at the seams to make the top more rigid. Or you can also use a filler.

Thanks! If I'm understanding you correctly, that is exactly what I'm doing on the next one. It'll just be 2oz veg-tan in between the calf and the suede lining, but I will have it be 1/4" smaller all around so no bulk is added to the seams.

I would love to know how you did the handels? was there some kind of filler or is it just folded and stiched? beautiful work.

Derrill

Here's more or less my way of doing these handles:

1) Cut out strap to desired length and width

2) On the flesh side, draw a line across the width of the strap, at a set distance from each end of the strap. These lines are where the 'strap' part ends and the 'handle' begins. (it's all one continuous piece of leather). Essentially this is where the edges of the strap will meet when folded over. Draw this line on the grain side too, as long as you're sure you'll be able to erase it later. If you can't erase, just make a small mark with a pencil or awl.

3) On the grain side, use your pricking iron and/or awl to make an inch or two of stitching holes from where the line is, towards the END of the strap (not towards the middle). You'll want to do this along BOTH edges of the strap, as well as on BOTH the left and right side, like so

4) Roughly measure a piece of rope, leather, or filler to be the length of the distance between the two lines. You need to make sure rope, if that's what you use, isn't too thick for the leather to wrap around it. You'll really have to fine-tune the width of the strap and/or rope to get it perfect.

5) Apply glue to the entire area in between the two lines, like this. Also apply glue to the rope or filler you're using.

6) When ready, stick the filler/rope right down the centre, and fold the edges together. It helps to keep one edge of the strap flat on the table, so the handle doesn't end up 'twisting'

7) Use your pricking iron, starting right on the line you've made in step 2, and mark/pierce them all the way to the line on the other end. Stitch these holes, and do your edge finishing.

You're essentially done the handle, but attaching it to the bag is kind of tricky so I'll continue here.

8) As you can see in the second picture in the my original post, the stitching doesn't just end when the strap starts tapering and becomes the handle. This is the tricky part. You need to make tapering marks/holes on the main panel like this and then stitch the strap to them. This is the reason you made the stitching holes in step #3. Then glue the rest of the strap in place and stitch it to the main panel. You can always just end the stitching when the strap starts to taper, like this, but it's kind of amateur.

I honestly don't know if it's possible to do this handle stitched down the way I've done with one continuous piece of leather unless it's by hand. Most luxury bags will use a D-Ring to separate the handle from the strap. It looks good, but I like doing certain things in a way that are unique to hand-made.

You can obviously modify what I wrote to suit the way you do things, but that covers my method which is exactly what I did to make this bag. If you're anything like me you'll have trouble deciphering written instructions, so let me know if you need clarification on anything!

hope that helps.

Edited May 10, 2013 by conceptdiba

[seanafk]

Thanks! If I'm understanding you correctly, that is exactly what I'm doing on the next one. It'll just be 2oz veg-tan in between the calf and the suede lining, but I will have it be 1/4" smaller all around so no bulk is added to the seams.

Yes and also in Al Stohlman's book on leather cases volume 2, page 90 there is a construction guide for two cases that have a wide flat center with a zipper. He does his with welts which I think also helps with the pillowing but you could also probably do them without and get the same result.

[purplefox66]

Your instructions are a big help. i almost answered my own question after i posted and thought about it. I am sort of new to leatherwork i did a little as a kid and tooled a couple wallets but never put one togather untill recently. Now i am making my first gun case and was wondering how to make the handles. Thanks for the tips.

Derrill

[bdunne]

Very nice!

[Char]

Gorgeous work! Very high-end look..

This is the sort of thing I dream of being able to make.. lol someday. I'm very jealous of your beautiful calf leather too.. just lovely.

I second that hammering the seams will help the zipper pieces bulge less.. I was very skeptical about the results of that before trying it.. I'm often using thickish leather, and have to hand-skive with some craftool cheapo thing, so I don't ever get great results.

With enough hammering, my seams haven't looked thick or bulgey, so I only do minimal skiving. The difference is amazing.