Latest stuff

[MonicaJacobson]

I haven't been on here much lately, because I've been occupied with buying a Singer 111w153 and refurbishing it. Okay, let's be real... I obtained the Singer because Ole South found it for me and made sure it was running, and then I watched my extremely helpful husband get it fixed up. I'm about to start ruining some leather and canvas with it as soon as I finish my current project.

Most lately, I finished this camera harness, edge creased with my makeshift on-the-cheap creaser.* Horween Derby on the exterior, and croc-print from SLC on the inside, all hand-stitched. Chicago screws and most of the other hardware from BuckleGuy. Nautical clips from ebay. 

 

Before that, I finished up a black backpack made from Horween chromexcel horse hide. Practicing my minimalism, since I'm really bad at that.

 

Before that, I made a small duffle protoype - the principle reason why I decided to get a machine. I want to make some of these, but they take so long to hand-stitch, and stitching the canvas by hand is harder than stitching leather. This one is marred principally by the zippers, which hardly work at all. :-P

Also, an apron, pattern courtesy of Ole South again. 

 

*Maybe not the best solution for everyone, since it required threading the tips, but here are the links, for anyone who is interested:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brass-Soldering-Iron-Tip-Edge-Marking-Creaser-tip-Leather-Edge-Decorate-DIY-Tool-/181724887923?var=&hash=item2a4fa5bb73:m:mrlRVXFxAGDiX0as75-SLPA
And here's the handle:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005WAXLPY?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

 

Criticism welcome, of course. 
 

Edited April 9, 2016 by MonicaJacobson

[Roq]

24 minutes ago, MonicaJacobson said:

Criticism welcome, of course. 

When are you going to start making usable items instead of show pieces?

[MonicaJacobson]

Thanks, but you should see my wallets.  Also, the new stuff I'm going to make with a sewing machine will be utilitarian, at best. 

[Northmount]

Are the zippers just difficult to pull, or something else.  If you rub some beeswax on the zipper, it will help make it much easier to pull the slider back and forth.

As usual, very nice work.

Tom

 

[bob21804]

Beautiful stuff as always, Monica. And again, inspires me to keep trying to improve.

[MonicaJacobson]

Thanks, Tom and Bob. Tom, these zippers are weird - if they're used as the top of a gusset-less pouch with the tape below the level of the zipper they work just fine. Otherwise, they just don't work. I'll experiment with waxing them, thanks for the tip. 

[dfrensdorff]

Beautiful work!  Nice photography as well...

[billybopp]

As always, Monica ... Wow!   Really nice!!

 

Bill

[MY63]

Your work is excellent as always I really like the camera harness and the duffle prototype. I am making a prototype with a zip so I share your pain

 

[Thor]

Very nice as usual Monica

[rosiart]

Very nice.  I particularly like the duffel. About the zippers in the duffel, is it possible that one side gets a little off from the other? I have had that issue with a couple of metal zippers if they are in the middle  of the piece rather than on edges, making them almost impossible to get up and down easily. When I checked, it was like they had shifted one half / one tooth and that made them stiff to use. I think there is more play with the metal teeth on the zipper tape. So for the ones I did, I think I had more of an issue getting perfect alignment with an interior insertion. That may not apply in your case at all,  but I just mention it as a possibility.

[kiwican]

Super impressive as always

[thekid77]

On 4/9/2016 at 9:02 AM, MonicaJacobson said:

I haven't been on here much lately, because I've been occupied with buying a Singer 111w153 and refurbishing it. Okay, let's be real... I obtained the Singer because Ole South found it for me and made sure it was running, and then I watched my extremely helpful husband get it fixed up. I'm about to start ruining some leather and canvas with it as soon as I finish my current project.

Most lately, I finished this camera harness, edge creased with my makeshift on-the-cheap creaser.* Horween Derby on the exterior, and croc-print from SLC on the inside, all hand-stitched. Chicago screws and most of the other hardware from BuckleGuy. Nautical clips from ebay. 

 

Before that, I finished up a black backpack made from Horween chromexcel horse hide. Practicing my minimalism, since I'm really bad at that.

 

Before that, I made a small duffle protoype - the principle reason why I decided to get a machine. I want to make some of these, but they take so long to hand-stitch, and stitching the canvas by hand is harder than stitching leather. This one is marred principally by the zippers, which hardly work at all. :-P

Also, an apron, pattern courtesy of Ole South again. 

 

*Maybe not the best solution for everyone, since it required threading the tips, but here are the links, for anyone who is interested:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brass-Soldering-Iron-Tip-Edge-Marking-Creaser-tip-Leather-Edge-Decorate-DIY-Tool-/181724887923?var=&hash=item2a4fa5bb73:m:mrlRVXFxAGDiX0as75-SLPA
And here's the handle:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005WAXLPY?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

 

Criticism welcome, of course. 
 

Beautiful work Monica!! A few questions if I may...

-How many stitches per inch?

-Are you using a stitching chisel/iron? If so, which one?

-How wide are the straps on the camera strap?

 

Thank you and keep up the good work!

[olenawills]

I love your apron! Every detail is beautiful.

[MonicaJacobson]

On 4/9/2016 at 2:56 PM, dfrensdorff said:

Beautiful work!  Nice photography as well...

Thanks! My husband used to do professional photography, so I get to use all his equipment. It makes a huge difference. 

On 4/9/2016 at 4:23 PM, billybopp said:

As always, Monica ... Wow!   Really nice!!

 

Bill

Thanks, Bill! 

On 4/10/2016 at 3:29 AM, MY63 said:

Your work is excellent as always I really like the camera harness and the duffle prototype. I am making a prototype with a zip so I share your pain

 

Thanks, MY - yeah, zippers are a pain. 

On 4/10/2016 at 4:17 AM, Thor said:

Very nice as usual Monica

Thanks, Thor!

22 hours ago, rosiart said:

Very nice.  I particularly like the duffel. About the zippers in the duffel, is it possible that one side gets a little off from the other? I have had that issue with a couple of metal zippers if they are in the middle  of the piece rather than on edges, making them almost impossible to get up and down easily. When I checked, it was like they had shifted one half / one tooth and that made them stiff to use. I think there is more play with the metal teeth on the zipper tape. So for the ones I did, I think I had more of an issue getting perfect alignment with an interior insertion. That may not apply in your case at all,  but I just mention it as a possibility.

Rosiart, interesting, I'll look closer and see if that's the problem. When the zipper faces up, like in the picture below, these zippers work fine. 

18 hours ago, kiwican said:

Super impressive as always

Thanks, Kiwi!

5 hours ago, thekid77 said:

Beautiful work Monica!! A few questions if I may...

-How many stitches per inch?

-Are you using a stitching chisel/iron? If so, which one?

-How wide are the straps on the camera strap?

 

Thank you and keep up the good work!

No problem - everything is stitched at 6spi with my trusty Tandy pro-line lacing chisels. Some day I'll upgrade them, but meanwhile, they work fine. The camera straps are 2" wide. It's based on the Money Maker design by Hold Fast, but I figure mine is about as different from theirs as theirs is from the readily available Op/Tech webbing camera harness. Only, not quite so hipster.

1 hour ago, olenawills said:

I love your apron! Every detail is beautiful.

Thank you! I still remember your red padded purse with awe. 

[Bigfoote]

Really nice stuff, your stitching is fantastic. I'm still learning, but you say you are using pro-line lacing chisels? I'm doing mine with an awl and they look pretty good, but not nearly as good as yours. Could you be more specific on the size of lacing chisel you are using? Thanks, Garry.

[MonicaJacobson]

13 hours ago, Bigfoote said:

Really nice stuff, your stitching is fantastic. I'm still learning, but you say you are using pro-line lacing chisels? I'm doing mine with an awl and they look pretty good, but not nearly as good as yours. Could you be more specific on the size of lacing chisel you are using? Thanks, Garry.

Thanks! 

Aah, awls vs. pricking irons/chisels is a controversial subject. You are actually learning via the most classic method -- training yourself to make each stitch perfectly aligned with the awl. I've read that some people use the stitch-length roller tool to help them, but you still have to practice getting your stitch holes all at the same angle. If I were someone with more precision or perfectionism I might have made myself practice the hours and hours it would take on scrap work to get my awl work perfect, but I'm too impatient, I want to actually make something. And if I want to make stuff, I have to sell stuff so I can buy more leather. And you can't sell stuff if your stitch line looks messy. Thus, the chisels/irons/whatever. They take the guess-work out of it. 

Some people use the chisels all the way through, some people just mark and use the awl to pierce all the way through. That is often how it works out, anyway, since the leather is often too thick.
The other part is the muscle memory that helps you make each stitch exactly the same. I was still messing up 1 stitch in 50 until I watched Ian Atkinson's stitching video about eight months ago (I had only watched Nigel Armitage's video). Somehow, that really solidified it for me, and I haven't had hardly any consistency problems since. 

The 6spi lacing prong I am using right now is 3/32, and I will say it has worked well and faithfully for a long time. But that doesn't mean I don't intend to replace it with something nicer when I get the chance.

[Wild Bill46]

As always , Very nice work from the Jacobson factory !   Wild Bill46

[Reegesc]

Late to the party... Searching for a duffle bag pattern and saw this.  Wow Monica.  Just gorgeous.  Tell me, how can I do work like that?  And don't give me all that  practice and practice stuff. I've already tried that.  Just tell me where to sell my soul and I'm in.

[Kulafarmer]

Wouldnt be  possible to see a shot of the fromt of the camera harness with a camera on it would it?

beautiful work by the way!

[MonicaJacobson]

Clyde, thanks! LOL, you're way too nice. I'm working on machine sewing right now and I've reached an extravagant amount of terrible, so there's that. 

@Kulafarmer, thank you, it's really just the classic camera harness repeated over and over again Op/tech has a version, black rapid has a version, holdfast started making the first leather ones. There are lots of examples of their straps with cameras attached. I also made this one for one camera:

It works the same way, though I forgot and didn't take a picture of it with the d-ring connector. 

[9tpi]

Monica,

 

Love the harness. Stitching looks fantastic. The Nautical clips are super cool too.