A Great Leatherworking Aid (At Least I Think So)

[Shenster]

Absolute Underlayment System is a tough, durable foam sheet, almost 1/8" thick that is used for laying out underneath new flooring. I found that it is perfect for making patterns to test designs before hitting the leather.

Attached is a foam pattern I made for a cell phone case. I designed the pattern on a CAD program, but there were a couple of aspects of the case that needed to be measured off of a real world mock up. You can see the sides of the foam pouch are sewn. You could also stick small nails through matching holes to align everything and then glue the sides together, or even just tape them.

Also attached are the cell phone case and an ammo pouch that I made. The ammo pouch holds one box - 50 rounds - of .38 special cartridges. I used Velcro on both for closures, hence the sewing on the faces of the flaps. I had made a mistake dying the cell phone case. I wrapped a bit of tee shirt around a sponge I had used in dying some leather black. I applied tan dye to the tee shirt and when I applied it to the leather it came out a lot darker than I expected. When I realized what I had done, I had a serious oh, s**t! moment. But after the dye had dried and I applied a finish, I saw that my mistake had resulted in a really nifty effect.

[Jaymack]

good idea!

[Northmount]

Great idea. You can also use a stapler for seams on your mockup. Even use them on leather for keeping things lined up as long as the staple holes will be hidden.

Tom