Exposed Flesh Side on Wallet Spine

[superpacker]

I'm making a bifold wallet out of dark brown buttero veg tan. The inside has a column of card slots on either side. My problem is the inside spine of the wallet - where about .5" - .75" the flesh side of the leather is exposed  right down the center. This is the flesh side of the outer panel of the wallet. And given the tight glossy hair side of this dark brown leather, this strip of exposed pale, matte, flesh just seems distracting, or amateurish. Is there anything that can be done to this area without making the wallet bulkier. I thought of dying this black to match the edges and give more contract to the brown. Any thoughts on this? Any other suggestions. 

[koreric75]

You could sew in a liner gap between the wallet pockets provided they are horizontal card holders, find a nice piece of lightweight liner then sew in when your closing your pocket sides or sewing to the liner.  to reduce bulk, skive the edges you are sewing to the pockets.  If it's only ~.5" i wouldn't glue it or anything, just let it flex when the wallet closes/opens.

[koreric75]

Here's an illustration of what i'm trying to say

billfold-pocket gap fill.pdf

[superpacker]

I was thinking of doing something like this. I have some really thin dark green english bridle that could be cool.

[superpacker]

Would using a permanent cement - like Barge - work for securing a center strip like this? If I stitch it in place, the stitching will show on the outside, and I think it will be in an odd location. I always prefer stitching to gluing, but this seems like a case where glue may be the way to go. My concern is that the glued area will be a long a fold, and that this will be subject to frequent warmth and heat (due to it being a wallet) - so will that cause the glue to separate down the road?

[Webicons]

I think a full liner piece would be the way to go.  This way the stitching is on the border rather than the middle of the piece. 

Many suppliers offers band splitting services that you can take advantage of or simply use pigskin or similar thin leather. You can also use a piece of fabric or canvas rather than leather. 

Maybe something like this split to 1mm, glued and then stitched up: https://districtleathersupply.com/collections/leather/products/conceria-walpier-buttero-burgundy-1

[superpacker]

So here's the funny part, that leather you linked to is the exact leather and color I'm using! And I got it from District. So that give you an exact idea as to the contrast for the exposed spine. As an aside, it's absolutely beautiful leather! First rate supplier! I ordered some dark green bridle from them and had it skived down to 3 oz, but it actually seems to measure slightly smaller, so I'd say that it is actually right at about 1mm. That's what I thought about using due to it's thinness and color pop. But I don't have a piece wide enough. The widest I could do is 4". Not to sound lazy, but I don't want to order a special piece of leather just for this item, at least this time. I think I can see that it's definitely good to keep some large and thin pieces on hand to do a full liner. But at present, my option is to use this green leather as a less than full liner OR I would be interested in using fabric. Are there any tricks to this? What type of fabrics work best so they won't fray over time? Doesn't the glue soak through? 

Edited March 14, 2018 by superpacker

[Webicons]

When using a fabric liner you need to finish the edges by either turning or painting.  Both are less than ideal especially if you’re using Buttero but would prevent the edges fraying.  

On close examination of some of my wife’s wallets, it looks like they are not fully glued on (only the edges).  The edges are turned on all of them. 

Have you tried to finish the flesh side with some wax or just burnish it with tokonole? It comes out better than raw and you may find it acceptable.  It will, however, start to wrinkle and fray over time.  

Still think the best way is to buy an 818 from District split to 1mm.  You can choose a neutral color so it can be used for other projects as well.  

You’re going to put in your precious time so might as well make the best product that you can.  Life’s just too short for half-hearted attempts.  Just sayin. 

[koreric75]

9 hours ago, superpacker said:

Would using a permanent cement - like Barge - work for securing a center strip like this? If I stitch it in place, the stitching will show on the outside, and I think it will be in an odd location. I always prefer stitching to gluing, but this seems like a case where glue may be the way to go. My concern is that the glued area will be a long a fold, and that this will be subject to frequent warmth and heat (due to it being a wallet) - so will that cause the glue to separate down the road?

I wouldn't glue it down at all, I'd stitch it to the inside verticals of the pockets on the backside, then attach your pockets to the wallet back as you normally would, could you post a picture of one of these so we can see better what the issue is.  

[TheCyberwolfe]

I made a long wallet once with similar gaps and used pigskin to line the entire thing, it worked out pretty good. The pigskin was about the same thickness as canvas, so it added very little to the overall thickness.

[koreric75]

On 3/14/2018 at 7:54 AM, superpacker said:

I'm making a bifold wallet out of dark brown buttero veg tan. The inside has a column of card slots on either side. My problem is the inside spine of the wallet - where about .5" - .75" the flesh side of the leather is exposed  right down the center. This is the flesh side of the outer panel of the wallet. And given the tight glossy hair side of this dark brown leather, this strip of exposed pale, matte, flesh just seems distracting, or amateurish. Is there anything that can be done to this area without making the wallet bulkier. I thought of dying this black to match the edges and give more contract to the brown. Any thoughts on this? Any other suggestions. 

Here's a liner i made last week for a wallet out of brown glazed pigskin, it's really thin but tough and doesn't stretch alot.  notice only the center area is stitched at this point to hold the pockets to the backing liner.  This has 2 layers back to back for the pocket backing, rolled the edges, and used some of the sb foot leather i recently recieved and the wallet is still only about .5" thick folded.  You could do the same thing with only a center strip between the pockets, but then you have the flesh side of the pocket material showing when you open the bill fold area and this brown is ugly on the back, the black glazed has a nicer suede on the back and doesn't look bad at all.

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Here a pic of the back after assembly, no stitch lines in the middle, only where i attached the liner.  I chose to do the 2d line of stitching around the pockets only because i suck at sewing and miscalculated the distance from the edge of the backer i needed to come in to get a good bite on the liner.  I made the pockets wide enough after rolling the edges to allow 1/4" and still fit a credit card.

P.S. I did the stitching with my little singer 15-91 with #69 white bonded nylon with a 110/16 needle and max stitch length.  You can see the marks from the feed dogs where it got tight coming up to the fold, I think next time i'll stop further from the fold and if it needs a few extra stitches i'll just use a small awl and hand stitch to the fold to prevent that, or measure right the first time and sew it from the back...lol.  The presser foot didn't cause any marks, but i actually like the look of the stitiching when sewing with the liner side up vs backer side.

[Northmount]

See this video for instructions on making an expandable wallet liner that hides the center fold and doesn't bunch up in the middle. 

 

The pattern for the liner is here https://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/download/K33pit53cr3t/Blog_Project_Patterns/TLF_BillfoldBlog_1115.pdf

Tandy has a number of helpful videos on many subjects.

Tom