Drawstring pouch problems

[Prusty]

Been trying to make these little drawstring pouches with 3mm bases for fun, and also as practice for different types of stitching and burnishing. Base is 3.5mm veg tan, the upper section is suede, and its been stitched with 4/18 somac linen thread.

Some of my stitching on the bottom is a bit off, though I think that was getting the angle of the awl wrong. Most annoying things right now are the butted seam and the burnishing. I just can't seem to get the stitching to look nice and tidy, it just looks a bit messy. And I'm having trouble getting the edges burnished, they come out really smooth but feel kind of bumpy, like its not flat even though its been cut straight and true. Any advice?

 

[Mattsbagger]

If your stitching it pulled to tight you can feel it on the edge.

[Chief Filipino]

The bumpiness is probably from the stitching like Mattsbagger suggested. I just finished up a wallet and the edge was bumpy because my stitches were close to the edge. Have you tried sanding the edges? Have you thought of skiving down the butting edges and make them overlapping edges instead? 

[rodneywt1180b]

I know nothing about leather, I'm here to learn how to do things like that butt stitch, but it looks like the bumps line up with your stitches. 

I think only someone looking for the issue will find it.

It's a nice looking bag.  If I get to where I can do work like that I'll be happy.

Rodney

[Prusty]

I should've clarified, the bumpiness I mean is before stitching, after stitching the top part I can't burnish it because of the suede in the way, so I burnish it first. So the process is:
-cut
-sand edges
-bevel
-burnish(first pass on armitage leather burnisher, then canvas)
And before stitching, the burnished edge doesn't feel entirely right, like it's almost collapsed or something in a couple of places. The bottom edge gets burnished again after stitching to get rid of some of the stitching bumps.
 

On 5 May 2017 at 5:34 AM, Chief Filipino said:

The bumpiness is probably from the stitching like Mattsbagger suggested. I just finished up a wallet and the edge was bumpy because my stitches were close to the edge. Have you tried sanding the edges? Have you thought of skiving down the butting edges and make them overlapping edges instead? 

I thought about skiving and overlapping the edges, but I'm trying to keep this simple with as few steps as possible. Maybe I'll just have to live with the look of it, until it drives me crazy and I go with overlapped edges!
 

[Chief Filipino]

5 hours ago, Prusty said:

I should've clarified, the bumpiness I mean is before stitching, after stitching the top part I can't burnish it because of the suede in the way, so I burnish it first. So the process is:
-cut
-sand edges
-bevel
-burnish(first pass on armitage leather burnisher, then canvas)
And before stitching, the burnished edge doesn't feel entirely right, like it's almost collapsed or something in a couple of places. The bottom edge gets burnished again after stitching to get rid of some of the stitching bumps.
 

I thought about skiving and overlapping the edges, but I'm trying to keep this simple with as few steps as possible. Maybe I'll just have to live with the look of it, until it drives me crazy and I go with overlapped edges!
 

It doesn't look bad at all! I think that you're just being an artist and too hard on yourself. If you are going for simple/quick then you definitely need to just let it go. To the average person who is looking for something neat/unique but doesn't want to pay custom prices this could be a great compromise. It's handmade but not custom. I like it

[RockyAussie]

It looks very good to me and I'd be proud if I made it. I have often made the mistake of making stuff too perfect and found that people assume some automated machinery involvement and therefore cheaper. Be careful. 

[Chief Filipino]

Whenever I find myself getting twisted up about one particular part of a project I am always reminded of the Navajo legend of Wandering Girl and Spider woman. It's an excellent story. Here's the gist of it: 

When the Fourth World is created, the girl who will be Weaving Woman misses the lessons in leading a balanced life the rest of the People receive. Spider Woman later teaches her how to weave, and warns her not to spend too much time at it. But she becomes obsessed with weaving a beautiful blanket-and her spirit gets trapped in it. Spider Woman herself has to pull a strand of wool loose to free her. To this day, Navajo weavers leave a ""spirit pathway"" in their blankets, ""so the spirit of the weaver will not be imprisoned by its beauty."" 

[fredk]

A. the pouch looks absolutely fine; you're being too overly self critical

B. Ta for that story Chief; what interesting things we can learn on this site

Edited May 12, 2017 by fredk

[SunLynx]

On ‎2017‎-‎05‎-‎11 at 6:21 PM, Chief Filipino said:

Whenever I find myself getting twisted up about one particular part of a project I am always reminded of the Navajo legend of Wandering Girl and Spider woman. It's an excellent story. Here's the gist of it: 

When the Fourth World is created, the girl who will be Weaving Woman misses the lessons in leading a balanced life the rest of the People receive. Spider Woman later teaches her how to weave, and warns her not to spend too much time at it. But she becomes obsessed with weaving a beautiful blanket-and her spirit gets trapped in it. Spider Woman herself has to pull a strand of wool loose to free her. To this day, Navajo weavers leave a ""spirit pathway"" in their blankets, ""so the spirit of the weaver will not be imprisoned by its beauty."" 

 When my grandmother was teaching me to quilt, and before she found her faith again, she taught me a similar story with Christian symbolism:  That when making a quilt, no matter how nice the quilt otherwise is, a "Devil's Eye" must be included, which is an intentional mistake to ward away the attention of the devil.

How fascinating that two faiths, unrelated to each other in any way, would find a need to anchor themselves to the imperfect with an explanation against harm.