A wallet for my Wife

[roadking07]

I finally finished - this one took a while. This is the first wallet I have made from scratch - all the stitching in red on the outside is handstitched - that along with the mexican basket weave is what took so long. My wife has got compliments almost everytime she takes it out of her purse to pay for something. I was inspired by Kevin King's "Los Cruces" wallet in terms of the design on the outside - I like to give props where props are due - Kevin makes some great stuff. Let me know what you think - as I am still new to leatherworking - this is my 3rd complete project, if there is anything that you think I can improve on please let me know. Thanks for looking.

[TomSwede]

Very cool wallet!!

The brown tone is rich and good looking and well done job with the stitching!

A roundbraid is allways appreciated by me.

Tom

[Dags3777]

Beautiful, first thing out of my wifes mouth! "I want one."

[JustWakinUp]

Very cool, the lacing definitely adds some character to the piece.

[DarkDreamsLeather]

Looks great, I love the red stitching!

[MADMAX22]

Very nice looking wallet.

The round braid is that the same as the mexican basketweave thats in the lacing/stitching books?

On the wallet lining how did you do it? Is there two layers with the front layer having slits in it. Im trying to do a wallet for myself and am tired of my halfA lining that I did on my last one and its really hard to find a tutorial or instruction to do some of these nice linings.

Thanks for any info and once agian top notch job.

[roadking07]

Very nice looking wallet.

The round braid is that the same as the mexican basketweave thats in the lacing/stitching books?

On the wallet lining how did you do it? Is there two layers with the front layer having slits in it. Im trying to do a wallet for myself and am tired of my halfA lining that I did on my last one and its really hard to find a tutorial or instruction to do some of these nice linings.

Thanks for any info and once agian top notch job.

Thank you everyone for the compliments -

Madmax - yes the mexican basket weave and the round braid is the same thing - this was my first time doing it and at first I thought I was way in over my head, but as I got going I developed a pattern and rhythm that worked for me - it still took a long time with the stitching on the outside and the lacing. I learned how to do it from the paperback lacing book from Tandy's - it was around 4 or 5 bucks. In terms of the wallet lining - my wife picked out the fabric at some fabric store and I cut it to fit the wallet just inside the lacing holes (I didn't want to have to make holes in the fabric for the lace to run through) and I attached to the flesh side of the outside piece of leather with a fabric glue that comes in a spray paint can. Underneath the pockets is a another layer of thin leather so that is the same dimensions as the outside of the wallet but has a rectangle cut out of the middle of it it so the fabric will show and it gives two slots under the pockets for bills or receipts. Each pocket has a total of 7 pieces of thin leather (actually it is from a piece of calf remnants from a bin at the local Tandy's) - one is a backing piece and is the length of all the pockets put together and then each pocket is layered on top of each other. I stitched the bottom of each pocket before putting the next pocket on top of each other. I start from the top then work my way to the bottom. Then when it is all together I put one more piece of leather underneath the backing piece so there are no visible stitching marks from stitching each pocket. Hopefully you understand what I am trying to say - it is kind of hard to explain without pictures. Then I laced the inside edge of each pocket with the 1/8" kangaroo lace. Then as I lace around the outside I combine the outside piece of leather with the thin piece with the rectangle cut out and the pockets on top of that. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[MADMAX22]

Thats great thanks. Understand perfectly

[Kevin King]

Looks good. Here's the original Dos Crusas (two crosses). I think you did a nice rendition.

KK

[JustWakinUp]

I knew I had seen that design before. Just couldn't place it, but now i know.

Looks good. Here's the original Dos Crusas (two crosses). I think you did a nice rendition.

KK