Show us your leather

[Duke Mantee]

Another variation of the sling bag - this one for @ATWM

[sensy]

Such beautiful work @Duke Mantee  

I wanted to write a little on the bag I made, and this ”pleat fold” in particular, cause it took me a while to figure out how to do. 

It’s there not only because I think it looks cool, but also the Liston locks can be sort of fiddly, so being able to get a finger behind to support the insertion of the lid lock part. 
Anyway, I think this technique is only possible if hand stitched, but I’m not an expert at machine stitching so I could be wrong. To do it, I prickmark the stitch line, one line on each side of the lock. Then I stitch from the bottom up, until the first mark seen in this image:

The mark isn’t super visible, but its just at the top of the lock at the stich line. At that mark, I folded the bag over, and stiched through two layers. I continue until the second mark, where I fold the bag back again, and stitch through 3 layers until I reach the end. The top of the bag is skived to zero to make it easier to stitch the binding. 
I have never seen a guide on how to do this pleat, so I figured I could type one out. Theres probably even a name for it in french or something, I just dont know it. 

[Duke Mantee]

Cheers @sensy

The pleat in your bag is a tricky thing to do … reminds me a bit of the old US postal bags

 

[sensy]

Man, old messenger bags always look so cool. I've made a couple, but nothing I'm particularly happy with. Like there's something about the simple design I can't quite capture and make my own. 

 

Lately I've been making a couple of my cash and card wrap wallets. I'm sort of thinking about making some kind of store where I just put stuff to break even and can continue making whatever I want whenever. Not super hopeful about it working out, but I'm willing to try. 

[Duke Mantee]

I hope it does work 🤞 - I’d imagine those cash/card wraps might be a popular thing

The biggest challenge is ‘handmade’. I’ve said enough about it previously - but mostly I’ve found folk don’t really care about that aspect so beware what you charge, despite what it costs. Just use ‘popular’ tanneries (love me some Badalassi 😂)

[Duke Mantee]

@srudy just keeps asking for stuff - a mini sling:

 

[Duke Mantee]

The slings are actually complicated bags - the standard and smaller sizes both have about 14~16 pieces of leather and a LOT of saddle stitching in relation to their volume 

Stitching is where the time is taken, that’s why you’ll see on commercial products the work is done by machine; or smaller businesses who do want to truly claim hand made but still look for ‘profit’ will look to use a design that has much less sewing (folding/glueing/rivets) and perhaps employ low SPI where sewing is still necessary 

[srudy]

Ha! I do keep asking for things from you @Duke Mantee 😊🙌

I really have never had such nice leather pieces that bring me so much joy until you. Your work is impeccable, the leather you choose is interesting and luxurious. I couldn’t be happier!

[sensy]

This is my latest work, a briefcase/folio. This somehow has less pieces of leather than @Duke Mantee's bag - but with big pieces like this it's easier to have one piece of leather than having to do more long stitch lines. Especially when you're dumb like me and decided to use 2.7mm irons for a bag. 

Learned lots, got better at perlage (setting rivets and making them look not shit) and decided I like French stitching clams. 

[Duke Mantee]

The smaller the stitch the longer the job - lovely work

[spidereye]

Red color

 

 

 

Edited April 5 by spidereye