Clever but easy

[AndrewWR]

This is based on the Twist pencil case by Japanese company Foca. It's an entirely flat, single piece of leather that nevertheless forms a solid enclosed space. the leather this one is made of is 2.8mm thick (from a split butt) and lined with pig skin but you could go a little thicker and stamp or carve it to your heart's content.

Opened, it tends to stay curled and acts as a pen tray on whatever coffee shop table I'm hot-desking at. Closed, it has such a tactile form that people don't want to put it down.

The two versions of the template are for small and large cases.

Small (pictured) is 210mm x 120mm & uses a 12" YKK bag zipper (or equivalent). The stitches are 4mm pitch and 4mm from the edge.

Large is 280mm x 160mm and uses & uses a 16" zipper.

 

It's a simple thing to make and gets a great reaction from people.

[battlemunky]

Super clever. I may try it and then comment on how easy it is ;-) Clean work too.

[JDenson]

This is really neat.  Thanks for sharing.

[Grumpymann]

Is it just me or is the pattern a bit... confusing?

[leathersmyth]

i think, if you remove all the circles in your head you will see that the outline left is the leather. The zipper will start and finish where the little clear circles are sitting.

If that helps make a clearer veiw for you. The circles are there to get the placement of corners and zipper placement...... 

[AndrewWR]

OK. To avoid further confusion...

The grey area is the template.

The rest is just the construction lines for the shape.

I left them in for the benefit of anyone who wanted to scale up the template beyond home printer size.

If anyone's still confused, I'll write step by step instructions.

 

 

[mickthedig]

Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to making one

 

[thefanninator]

Very cool. Thanks!

[Sofaspud]

That's very cool. I may have to make some of these for my grandkids.

[Bob Blea]

That is very elegant!  I'm going to try making one too.  Thanks for posting!

[ChicagoScreech]

Very cool! 

One question, how do you go about sewing zipper in to a curve?  Ive been looking for a video or something for awhile and no luck. 

[AndrewWR]

18 hours ago, ChicagoScreech said:

Very cool! 

One question, how do you go about sewing zipper in to a curve?  Ive been looking for a video or something for awhile and no luck. 

It's easier than you think. When the zipper is closed, its pretty much at right angles to the curve and zippers flex like that quite naturally.

(N.B. This was the first zipper I ever sewed and I made it up as I went along but it worked fine. There may be a 'proper' way, or a 'better' way but this is 'my' way.)

 

My approach to it was:

1) Cut out the leather using my template

2) Apply contact adhesive to the back of the leather, leaving a half inch, adhesive-free border all around the edge.

3) Press the leather onto some pig skin (or lining of your choice), stick a heavy book on it and leave glue to dry.

4) Cut around the leather to trim the lining.

5) Any edge treatment.

6) Score a line around the edge of the leather 4mm in from finished edge.

7) Punch stitching holes right through leather and lining with a 4mm punch.

8) Fit the fabric tail of the fully opened zipper between the leather and the lining so that the metal crimp where the two sides of the zipper meet is centered in one of the 10mm circles on the template.

9) Start saddle stitching from the hole nearest the middle of that tight curve. A few stitches will get you level with that metal crimp.

10) Use spare needles to pin the zipper in place a few holes ahead of where you're stitching. I lined up my zipper and pinned it 3 holes ahead of the last stitch, did two more stitches then check the alignment and re-pinned 3 holes ahead, and so on...

11) Be careful not to pucker the zipper fabric between stitches. Puckering behind the stitches, between the leather and the lining, is fine and won't show.

12) Make sure there is enough clearance between the zipper teeth and the leather, for the zipper pull to move without scraping your finished edge. I aimed to get my Zipper to be 10mm wide when closed: The same as the diameter of those little circles.

13) When you've finished sewing one side, start from the same stitching hole and sew the other side.

14) Finish your stitching as normal but be careful not to hammer your zipper and damage it.

[9tpi]

love it

 

[CraftyNick]

Somehow I am very intrigued by this nifty idea.  Thanks for sharing the patterns.  I might have to try that.

 

[venator]

I just made one of these, it's awesome.  Really quite simple, though I didn't bother to line it and I machine stitched it (which needs improvement but the second one would rock I'm sure).  Great idea!  Thank you so much for sharing!

[AndrewWR]

On ‎26‎/‎03‎/‎2017 at 9:49 PM, venator said:

I just made one of these, it's awesome.  Really quite simple, though I didn't bother to line it and I machine stitched it (which needs improvement but the second one would rock I'm sure).  Great idea!  Thank you so much for sharing!

I said it was easy.

Thanks for proving me right, V.

Machine stitching probably speeds the manufacture up enough to make them worthwhile offering commercially. Anyone who makes college bags (satchels, briefcases, book bags, etc.) could offer a matching pencil case as an optional extra. From the reactions mine get (& V can probably confirm this) it's an instant hit with anyone who handles it. The shape makes people want to fidget with it.

Andrew WR

[venator]

On 4/1/2017 at 1:50 PM, AndrewWR said:

I said it was easy.

Thanks for proving me right, V.

Machine stitching probably speeds the manufacture up enough to make them worthwhile offering commercially. Anyone who makes college bags (satchels, briefcases, book bags, etc.) could offer a matching pencil case as an optional extra. From the reactions mine get (& V can probably confirm this) it's an instant hit with anyone who handles it. The shape makes people want to fidget with it.

Andrew WR

People love this thing, I have to admit when I made it i spent half an hour just playing with it.

[YinTx]

My take on your pattern.

Clever, but I will say not easy.  This thing was a bugger for me to try to keep things lined up nicely.  Might turn out to be the only one I make.

YinTx

 

[AndrewWR]

On ‎30‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 1:21 AM, YinTx said:

My take on your pattern.

That's a lovely combo.

I haven't tried any contrast stitching yet because I'm so new to leatherwork (2 bags and 2 pencil cases is it so far) and my stitching is not (IMHO) consistent enough for contrast. I'll get there one day.

"Easy" is a subjective term. it's a single piece of flat leather (2 pieces if we count the lining), a zipper and one line of edge stitching so not exactly complex. I will concede that positioning a zipper on a curve is fiddly, but patience and pins worked for me.

 

[battlemunky]

Finally got around to making one of these suckers! It was the first zipper I've ever sewn in. It was pretty easy once I got past "leather lock" and got too it. Hand sewing the zipper in blind on the zipper side was a bit of a pain but my stitching didn't turn out too bad because of it. I may make another one and line it and make it a little longer, this one I kinda threw together since it was a first time build. I'll glue the next one also.

[alpha2]

"leather lock"...Ha! Now I know what the name of my affliction is!!! Nice to see you blew past it. Nice case.

Jeff

[battlemunky]

Thanks. I hate leather lock.

[bamboor]

Great idea. Thank you.

[ScoobyNewbie]

Thanks for the pattern! My kids love it! I’ll be busy this weekend. 

[AndrewWR]

I just remembered posting the pattern for this case. It's gratifying that a few of you guys liked it enough to try it. I've been using mine for over two years now and it's wearing very well. It still gets me into conversations in coffee shops whenever I leave it on the table.