Bifold Wallet

[charon]

Hi,

I'm Andy, I've been a reader a longer time here and I wanted to show you a wallet I recently completed. In normal life I'm an IT guy and a few months ago I had the feeling I need to create something with my hands to compensate my fully mind-based job, if you know what I mean. I came to leatherworking by the requirements that I can do it with my hands, I can do it in the apartment at home, I don't need big tools and I don't make much noise (since my son is sleeping by the time I'm working). While I now know that the last part is the hardest I came to have pretty much fun with leather so I think now it's the time that I can start to contribute here once in a while. So here's a Bifold wallet I made, the leather is veg tan kangaroo, lined on one side with some cotton, dyed by hand, finished by hand and stitched by hand with Fil au Chinois 332 blue. I started all my projects with Tiger thread and was pretty happy about it but since everyone talks about that French thread and common opinion is that this is the best thing to use, I gave it a shot. And...I hate it. I needed to wax it extra since without extra wax it was impossible to sew with and it created knots by itself all the time. Maybe someone has an advice for me, maybe I was totally doing it wrong but I breathed a sigh of relief when I was finished.

Since I'm a total beginner I used Craft Sha 3mm stitching irons and a standard saddle stitch (as explained from Nigel Armitage in his videos and I watched Ian Atkinson as well). However I can't get that zig-zaggy look on both sides. My stitching is always ok on one side (I chose the outside of the wallet for that side) and straight on the inside (can be seen on the second picture). Maybe my material is too thin, but I stitched a lot (compared to the time I'm doing leather items) but I can't figure out how to get it right. I also tried the overhand knot Nigel is referring to but that isn't helping. MAybe some of you have an advice for me.

 

C & C are appreciated.

Thanks,

Andy

[Tugadude]

Very ambitious project for a beginner but you pulled it off nicely!  I think the thread is a bit chunky for my taste.  Some may like it. Sometimes it is hard to get a good angle on both sides.  I wouldn't consider that project thin as you have a number of layers.  Not thick either, but not thin in the sense it would alter the stitching a lot.  Do you pull the thread straight when you snug it up or do you pull one side up, the other down?  That can help sometimes.  Ian covers that pretty well on one of his videos.  Overall your work appears very neat.  Not a fan of the blue thread but if you like it, it doesn't matter what I think.

You might also consider edge-creasing the pockets.  I think it adds a classy, finished look and is easy to do.   Depending on what tool you use it can also burnish the top edge.  One other thing I noticed is the top, rolled edge is kind of wavy.  Did you glue it all the way or just tack it?  Did you tap it down with a smooth-faced hammer?

keep up the nice work!

[charon]

Thank you for your suggestions. I made a few before feeling confident enough to post them here and I truly messed up a few before :-) You're right, the thread is pretty chunky but I like it a little chunkier and my sewing looks awful with 532 and 632 thread. I made a few with .6 Tiger thread, which come out a little thinner. I pull the thread one side up and one side down, just as Ian mentioned it in his video, tried a few different approaches but it's always one side straight and one side nice. Honestly I don't like the blue thread either but it was supposed to match the cotton lining. The color is supposed to be red brown and turned out nicely on calf, however on this roo leather it was more like a red so I had to make a choice about the thread/lining color and went for something unusual. Since I'm still learning material and techniques and am currently not able to sell the items I'm testing as much as I can.

You're right about the creasing but I only have one crappy Chinese adjustable creaser and am not happy with the results. I'm looking for some nice fixed creasers but they're hard to find in my area. In fact I tried to burnish the top edge, but the leather is .8 and a little sloppy, so it's hard to get good results. I did some versions where both the divider and the back piece are lined, in that case I have a rolled edge there too. 

The reason for the wavy rolled edge is not the glue (I glued it with contact cement and hammered it fairly well), it's the skiving. Since I want to avoid a bumpy look, I skive the part where the edge rolls to half using one of that bleck, curved safety skivers that Tandy and others sell. Having leather that is .8 and needing to skive it to .4 is a total mess. I screwed more leather than I used and when I manage to skive along the whole top with a straight, cut edge and no cuttings in it, the result is mostly uneven. So at the part where it looks ok I managed to skive it to .4 and roll it nicely. At the thin parts I skived it to like .2 or .1 (at some points you can even see through the leather) and the result is mostly uneven. To date I haven't found a better way to achieve a good looking result.

 

Again thanks for your kind words, you encourage me to show off more projects :-)

[Tugadude]

Keep them coming.  We're all learning, or should be!  I pick my own work apart constantly.  Kudos to you for posting!

[Tugadude]

This tool is cheap and does an amazing job as a creaser as well as a folder and burnisher.  Use it on a marble slab and put some moisture on the edge of the piece and it will crease and burnish at the same time.

 

 

[koreric75]

I think it looks awesome, love the color on that roo,.  For your "zig zag" i would try using a longer stitch and less tension. The #x3mm should give you ~5 stitches per inch according to the website, just counting your stitches that wallet would be 10"W x 6"H....that looks like some really soft stuff, you can see it puckering where the stitches are tight.  I've never tried to stitch something that soft on a wallet,  when i have a problem with stitching or other techniques I'll see if i can find some  scrap the same as the leather I'm using or something close to see if i can recreate what's happening and see what i can do to change the look of the stitch until I'm satisfied.  It should only take a few inches of the leather folded  over the same thickness to run a few different stitch tests.  I can't tell for sure, but the inside stitch on the wallet backer looks like it came out differently than the liner,  at least from the angle i see.  I have at least 3 or 4 wallets in a drawer at my workstation that I miscalculated or just didn't like the end result, so far i've taken one apart and reworked parts  of it to see if I've learned a technique that could fix whatever i didn't like about that particular item.  I'm an IT guy as well, as well as previously a maintenance technician, and I use troubleshooting methods in just about everything I do, I find sometimes this craft has my brain rolling smoke more than my day job...lol.  Keep 'em coming, looking forward to seeing more.

[bikermutt07]

Great effort. Your miters look really good. And the cuts for your pockets look great.

I think you would be happier with a 3.85 or 4mm spacing with the stitches. That thread looks a little crowded with 3mm spacing.

Tap your stitches flat. It will make them present a little better.

I also like the color you achieved on the leather. Contrasting thread color is always cool, but it will break a project if it isn't totally clean looking.

Keep working at it, and keep having fun.

[charon]

The 3mm Stitching iron gives 8.5 stitches/inch, the wallet is roughly 5 inch (4.7) by 4 inch (3.7) closed and I agree that it looks a little crowded with the thick thread. I'll try a lighter thread the next time but I think something like a bifold wallet looks rather rough with a 5 or 6 stitches/inch. I tried to improve the stitching with a piece of scrap but the only thing that changes the overall look is an overhand knot or even a double loop, which improve the "straight" side slightly to an angle but also make the "neat" side look less neat. You're right, the inner of the divider looks different just because I flipped directions, having the straight side on the inside of the wallet where it's less frequently seen. I totally agree about the maintenance method thing, I think as an IT guy you're aligned to work that way. I also break my project into smaller steps and complete them one by one just as I would do in programming and I totally have some unsatisfying wallets in the drawer too. 

The grip of he roo is firm but since it's a 1-2 oz leather it's soft when it comes to tighten the thread. Maybe I should try to pull it not too firm.

@bikermutt07 The stitching is hammerd down really well but this damn Lin cable is hard to tame (Maybe it really is way too thick for the item)

If anyone has a suggestion for a better skiving that wold be really nice. Because I ruin a lot of leather when trying to skive the 2oz leather to 1oz and the result is always uneven with that nasty safety beveller.

Thank you for your input guys, highly appreciated

 

[bikermutt07]

The only advices I've seen for skiving is practice, practice, practice. 

Wait a minute, I remember someone saying something about using a bottle turned on it's side to aid in skiving. Try that.

[ComputerDoctor]

Very nice work!

It still amazes me that something that looks like it should be easy in fact ends up being a LOT of work! Only a leather worker knows what I'm talking about: You are bored and you spy some nice scrap laying around, so ya think; "Well maybe a little wallet project!" and then the hours stack up! Fun but labor intensive.

To me, it's all fun and a nice little hobby:)

Sam

[YinTx]

On 3/23/2018 at 3:41 PM, bikermutt07 said:

Wait a minute, I remember someone saying something about using a bottle turned on it's side to aid in skiving. Try that.

Are you supposed to half empty the bottle?  Was the bottle supposed to contain a consumable volatile substance?  Is this to be done following the skiving work?

YinTx

[bikermutt07]

2 hours ago, YinTx said:

Are you supposed to half empty the bottle?  Was the bottle supposed to contain a consumable volatile substance?  Is this to be done following the skiving work?

YinTx

Drink ⅓ before skiving, ⅓ after skiving, and ⅓ to enjoy with your contact cement. 

[YinTx]

39 minutes ago, bikermutt07 said:

Drink ⅓ before skiving, ⅓ after skiving, and ⅓ to enjoy with your contact cement. 

Lol.  That sounds like a recipe for disaster!

YinTx

[baroness]

I'm thinking that in one of Nigel Armitage's videos (I think one of the stitching chisel/pricking iron reviews) he used a chisel on both sides of the leather to get it to angle on both.  Is Does everyone's stitching angle on both sides?

[charon]

I tried some skiving yesterday with the bottle trick Bikermutt mentioned and at least I can say that after some help of my good friend Jack that I was pretty satisfied with the result. However, my wife had another perspective...

@baroness thanks for your input, afaik you need reverse versions of your iron to use it on both sides but my holes come out angles on both sides with my Japanese stitching iron. Ordered some WUTA 3mm pricking irons to see whether it makes a difference when I use an awl or if it's just me thats untalented :-)