Tagged leathercraft

this isn't actually a test post. more of an acknowledgement that i've been screwing around a lot lately with my website's layout instead of a) posting anything or b) doing anything that i could post.

i did manage to fix that a bit today, though. i learned how not to make a leather moccasin for a baby. i ended up producing an object that resembles a shoe, but would not really be useful or wearable as one.

this weekend was sorely needed, last week at work dragged on far longer than it should have, and it just made me miserable by the end of it. i dread waking up tomorrow because it means going back. i don't exactly hate my job, i don't even dislike it!! but it would go a long way towards me truly enjoying it if i was doing something fun, or exciting, or challenging on a regular basis, and i'm mostly not. tomorrow, for example, i have six one-hour meetings back to back. outside of that i will likely be generating more documentation. lovely! 🤮

back to this weekend: yesterday i made an attempt at finding a new d&d group to play with, and it was sadly unsuccessful. the gm i was going to play with and i didn't really click, and so i don't plan to return to participate in his campaign. alas, and my prayers go out to the poor soul who i helped build their character sheet. i wish them the best of luck, but i cannot and will not help somebody gm better. i have neither the patience nor inclination to step on toes when i could dance better solo. guess i go back to rotating my own blorbos.

thankfully yesterday wasn't a total bust. we took the kids to the library where they had an amazing time at the little toddler play area. today was largely full of relaxing, as well as the aforementioned creation of a not-quite-shoe-shaped object. dinner was wonderful greek quinoa and rice bowls with falafel, and it was really came together. delish.

that's about it for my weekend. maybe this week i'll find the time to figure out how to shoehorn a project gallery into this blog template. or maybe i'll give up and just use the minifeeds as-is, we shall see. signing off for now.

this project was quite the endeavor. my wife needed a laptop sleeve so she could take her computer to class with her on wednesday nights, and i offered to make her one. this was actually a collaboration! she made the interior liner, with batting to pad the laptop, and i made a shell and sewed the liner into it.

it was a stylistic choice to use a raw edge on the flap of the main compartment, the small outer compartment was a mock-raw edge.

this is another instance where i went without a pattern, although i don't know that one would have helped me much anyway. having to adjust the width and the depth of the seams (i.e. the amount of leather that went into the pocket of the liner) so that the leather wrapped around the fabric enough was tricky and i don't think i would have been able to plan ahead for it.

all told, i am really happy with the way it turned out, and my wife is as well! the front pocket is big enough for her mouse, which is an accidental win, if only just. the interior is intentionally oversized in case she wants to carry a notebook or something inside it as well.

this project is only partially born out of necessity, but what hobby isn't taken up half-on-a-whim?

at work we can get 12-packs of these little memo pad style notebooks (see below) and i wanted to make a cover for one. the style i went with is similar to a field notes cover, sort-of? but vertical, and without any supplemental pockets. maybe version 2 i'll add something like that.

i actually went patternless with this project, i think? it didn't seem like such a hard thing to put together, so i didn't really both other than making sure that i had straight cuts.

other than trying to size it right and getting it a little too loose, this project was pretty straightforward. the outer leather is a bit softer than the inner, so it has a nice feel to it.

i've got a list of at least a half-dozen improvements i could make to this design, like tighter tolerances, and swapping the pen loops between which is front and which is back. i hope to be able to pick that up and make another of these some time!

my fourth project was a zippered diaper & wipe pouch based off a youtube short i saw while stun-locked one day. this was very much a case of "look at this... i could make that!" and my wife going "you could make that!" she is so sweet and encouraging.

a few things going on here:

• this was sewn inside out so the seams don't have to be super pretty, thankfully.
• my first project with a zipper! that was fun to figure out.
  • i ended up doing a glue and then a sew, punching my stitch holes through the leather and zipper tape at the same time.
  • this zipper is actually scavenged from some old faux-leather boots my wife had.
• the rivets on the strap are a mess, even the shortest rivets i had were too long so they ended up set at a slant. i ended up putting little "washers" of the same leather, but only on one of the straps i think? in the end, i wish i had just sewn the ends of the strap, but this project was half-finished for so long that i was extremely ready to finish it as quickly as possible.

and that's about it? this was a relatively straightforward project that i tried to make more complicated than it needed to be. on top of that, this is something that could be knocked out in about an hour with fabric... i'm definitely guilty of looking for nails with the hammer that is leathercraft. but

my second leathercraft project, this was born out of a "well now what do i do" circumstance, after buying a large quantity of low quality leather remnants from hobby lobby.

i was looking for ideas, and a drawstring dice pouch came to mind. just like my belt pouch, this was an instance of making my own template partially out of necessity, because any i could find online used a large single piece of material for the entirety of the pouch, with a second piece as reinforcement down the middle. unfortunately this, and the fact that i decided to sew this right-sides together, resulted in it not being a very usable dice tray!

you can sorta see the issue in this picture: there are huge ridges in the bottom of the tray when it is unfolded, so dice don't really roll well in it 🥲 this photo doesn't actually do justice to just how much those seams get in the way.

oh well! it's pretty good at holding dice at least, or probably any other manner of things. i've thought about what might be a cool little trinket to hand out at a ren-faire... maybe i'll just pack it full of peanuts or some other walking-around snack

anyway, i'm happy with how this turned out, even though it was made with a bunch of compromises and doesn't really do it's job well. one thing i do really like about it (sadly not pictured) is how i did the belt loop; turning some super floppy leather into something a little more stiff and clean by doing fold-over edges.

i'd like to say i learned lessons here, but not really? i probably would have made it bigger if i had enough material to do so. maybe some day i'll make another dice pouch like this at some point, now that i have some reasonably-sized pieces of leather to use. now i just need to overcome the "only completes one project a month" challenge

this was my first (real) leathercraft project, and was directly inspired by my family's trip to a renaissance faire last october.

i had told myself that i would buy something there, but was unable to find something i liked that cost as much as i was willing to pay. not that anything was overpriced! having started this hobby, i have serious appreciation for the time and effort and materials that goes into products like these. i am just a broke father in a single-income home.

either way, i wanted a little belt pouch for the next time we went to a ren faire, and so i decided to make myself one with some large-ish scraps leftover from a previous anniversary gift/project. we had bought one of the low-quality-but-you-get-one-of-everything kits on amazon, with intention to make each other dice trays, but the ones we made ended up being much simpler than intended, because the leather we bought was thicker and stiffer than we thought it would be.

i didn't really know what i was doing here!

i made a pattern out of some cardstock, taking care to use only the amount of leather we had on hand; i didn't want to have to buy anything just to satisfy a silly whim. but i also wanted to make it big enough to carry my phone and keys. no pockets in period-accurate garb, you see.

i more or less copied a half dozen different things i saw online when i was making the pattern, hoping that in the end it would turn out alright. the belt loop is one thing i copied pretty directly, as is the closure.

i used quarter inch seam allowances, which makes the seams look really chunky, and i wasn't sure how close to the edge i could safely go. and i spaced the holes using a ruler (1/4") instead of a stitching chisel, which results in fewer stitches but a rougher look (i think it kinda works here, though).

in the end, i'm really happy with how this turned out! i haven't really gotten to wear it to a ren faire yet but there is a mini-one at a brewery coming up in a couple of weeks (as of writing in spring 2026) that i hope to be going to. now i just need to figure out the rest of my garb in those two weeks 😅