Finally Done!!

[Sheilajeanne]

My two Celtic themed bags! I hated the leather button in the middle of the small one, so found a nice Celtic one at Tandy.

The larger bag is definitely the most complicated project I've done to date. Except for the flap, and the heavier weight pieces, the leather was horrible. The straps were SO BAD that I seriously considered replacing them. They fought me every step of the way. The did not take dye well. They looked like something had been chewing on the hide. I tried 4 times to dye the edges and finally gave up. I covered the ugliness on the backside by dyeing them then using Atom wax leather balm to make sure the dye wouldn't rub off on clothing.

I dealt with the ugly fuzziness of the inside of the bag by lining it with pigskin. Thereby hangs a tale...

When I started to sew the bag together, I realized the parts I had lined were the pockets, not the interior of the bag. Darn it! That was the part I most wanted to hide. But I'd already sewn together the 4 layers of the bag at the bottom, which was one of the most difficult sewing jobs I've ever had to do. Well, I decided, I'll just rip out the other stitching, and line overtop of the bottom stitching.

FIrst, I tried Heat n'Bond to get the liner to stick to the inside. I could only find the Lite version, and it did not work at all. Oh, it worked very well on the fuzzy interior of the bag, but did not bond the pigskin liner!. I could not peel the stuff off the inside of the bag. I had to SAND it off!!  And even then, some of it remained behind, especially along the edges, which is probably why the edges didn't want to stick together when I glued them. In spite of re-gluing numerous spots in the edges several times, I still got some major separation of the lining as I was sewing the gussets to the bag. 

This was the first time I tried using Hidepounder's method of finishing edges. That didn't go very well either, as you'll see from the photo. The glycerin soap worked well. Then, I tried applying the Fiebings saddle soap. It was a DISASTER! Hey, did you know Fiebing's paste saddle soap makes a GREAT dye remover?? Yup. And it also sometimes leaves an ugly dark line along the top and bottom edges of your project. 

I found out about the dye when I tried to burnish the edges on my second Windsor bag project. The flap wound up with a nasty dark mark along the right side. I thought maybe I could remove it by rubbing the flap with the saddle soap and a soft cloth. Suddenly I noticed the white rose in the center of the flap turning GREEN!! WFT?? I looked at my cloth, and found It was covered with green dye! And this flap had already been buffed and treated with Satin Sheen!  

I grabbed a paper towel, and rubbed the dye off. As soon as the saddle soap was gone, no more dye came off. But enough dye had been removed that I had to redo the flap. And of course, I forgot the dye was not straight green, but had been mixed 50/50 with yellow to make it more of an olive green. [sigh!]  Despite several coats of dye, I was unable to restore the original colour. 

Anyway, it's done. The last thing I added was the toggle tie at the front. I decided it really did need something to keep it closed, but I wanted it to be as minimal as possible, so as not to take away from the Celtic horse carving. I also wanted it to look antique and not modern. So, the leather lace and toggle button seemed like the best way to go!

 

 

Edited July 11, 2018 by Sheilajeanne
forgot the photos!!

[Sheilajeanne]

Re: the edges: The heavier leather took the glycerin and paraffin quite nicely, and with more practice, I am sure my edges will improve. The crappy thin, floppy, fuzzy milled leather was a total pain to try to burnish. It was pretty much impossible to get it looking nice. 

The top of one of the inner pockets is laced rather than sewn. You may wonder why. Well, my rotary cutter got away from me while i was trimming the liner, and this was the best way of hiding the resulting cut! You have to look really hard to see it... 

Edited July 11, 2018 by Sheilajeanne

[ABHandmade]

Hello! I congratulate you on the completion of the great work. I like both of your bags. Looks great!
If you do not mind, a little advice (from my own, albeit small, experience). I noticed that the edge looks thick enough. I had such a situation, if I did not work the edge well enough with a hammer, after applying tragacanth to it. The subsequent burnishing of the edge in this case is better.

[Sheilajeanne]

AB, I did not apply tragacanth to it, nor do I hammer my edges. I am trying to understand just how this would help. I did skive my edges, though maybe I should have done more to make them thinner? But then if the edge is skived too much, I might have trouble getting the pigskin liner to stick due to the slope?

Does tragacanth help to make the edges stiffer and less floppy, therefore easier to burnish?

And what would the hammering do, other than flattening knots and stitching? 

Thank you for the advice! I just want to understand how it would help make things better.

[ABHandmade]

1 hour ago, Sheilajeanne said:

AB, I did not apply tragacanth to it, nor do I hammer my edges. I am trying to understand just how this would help. I did skive my edges, though maybe I should have done more to make them thinner? But then if the edge is skived too much, I might have trouble getting the pigskin liner to stick due to the slope?

Does tragacanth help to make the edges stiffer and less floppy, therefore easier to burnish?

And what would the hammering do, other than flattening knots and stitching? 

Thank you for the advice! I just want to understand how it would help make things better.

I proceed as follows:
1. I put a tragacanth on the edge with a brush. Wait a few minutes until it absorbs into the leather, but it still does not dry out.
2. Flatten the edge with a hammer.
The presence of liquid tragacanth provides the plasticity of the leather and allows to significantly reduce the thickness of the edge when tapping it with a hammer, and after drying it works as a glue, binding the layers of the leather and providing rigidity that facilitates burnishing.

Below is a photo of the belt fragment of my bag. Used "sandwich" of 3 layers of leather 4 oz + 5 oz + 2 oz. In this case, the thickness of the edge was only 2.5 mm due to the procedure described above.
I apologize for my English, but I hope I managed to convey the meaning.

Edited July 11, 2018 by ABHandmade

[Sheilajeanne]

Thank you, you did just fine explaining that!  

[ABHandmade]

8 minutes ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Thank you, you did just fine explaining that!  

I'll be much glad if it proves useful to you.

[Sheilajeanne]

I will certainly give it a try! It is not the method Hidepounder (Bob Parks) uses and has posted on the "How Do I Do That?" forum, but as they say, many roads lead to Rome!

So, of course, being something of a perfectionist, I just couldn't leave those edges alone...  I decided I had to touch them up with some dye. This led to one of the worst 'Oh crap!!' moments I've ever had. 

I somehow managed to spill most of what was left of a bottle of Fiebing's Saddle Tan all over my work table, some shelves and other stuff sitting underneath it, and of course, the floor!

Thank God, no projects got damaged by the spill.

The bottle of dye was only about 1/4 full.

The dye mostly missed me and my clothing, though my shoes have a few splashes.

Things I learned during the cleanup:

No matter how panicked you are, take time to put on some gloves.

Paper towels and denatured alcohol are your two best friends during a cleanup. LOTS of paper towels and lots of alcohol. You may want to apply some of the other sort of alcohol internally once you're finally done...

It's amazing just how well alcohol does at cleaning up dye. This is probably who Fiebings has switched almost completely to alcohol base dyes as opposed to oil dyes. (Also there's the VOC factor - the oil based dyes are much less environmentally friendly.) You would never know I spilled anything on the floor, and even my work table and cutting mat, which got the worst of it. have only very faint stains!

WHEW!! Going to go play outside with the dogs for awhile to get the alcohol fumes out of my brain!

[ABHandmade]

It's just a thriller of Hitchcock It's good that everything ended successfully

[alpha2]

Sounds like you had a long series of learning experiences on these bags. I exhausted and agitated just reading about it!

When I first read your thread title, I thought maybe you'd finished getting your shop all set up and organized. Heh-heh, I see that's not the case!

Jeff