A while back, a reader shared this New York Times article about a football shoemaker in Mexico. It’s a great, though somewhat bittersweet, story about how a custom cleat maker started his business and how it continues. It reminds me that starting a small business is sometimes about capturing a moment or an opportunity when […]
The Hidden Backstitch
When I was making Finishing the End of a Stitch a few weeks ago, I wrote a whole section on hiding your backstitch. I also made and shot an example, but it didn’t fit into the post. I learned the hidden backstitch technique from French saddlemaker Pedro Pedrini when he lived in California. Here are […]
Elegance Can Be Simple
Often, people come to me asking for advanced techniques, but they haven’t mastered the basics. They want to know how to build a briefcase or install the hardware on a doctor’s bag. When I ask to see their most recent work, it’s clear that they are not yet proficient in the basics. I was (am) […]
Finishing the End of a Stitch in Leatherworking
This week, I will show you a few ways to finish the end of a saddle stitch. While these techniques are primarily aimed at hand-sewn seams, you can also apply them to the end of a machine stitch. Sewing leather is a broad topic beyond the scope of this post. So today, I want to […]
Details on a Leather Valet Tray
I wanted to make a valet tray, refine the details, and make it my own. I’ve seen others do them stitched together or use snaps so that they can lay flat. While I like the utility, I don’t see myself having stacks of trays that I want to store away when I’m not using them. […]
Not All Leathercraft Projects Are Flat
Not all leatherworking projects are flat. Most are not. I consider flat projects to be mats, journal covers, card cases, wallets, and belts. Yes, they have components requiring true three-dimensional consideration, but they are relatively simple or involve only one project detail. For example, how does the middle of a wallet fold so that you […]
Giving Space for Your Creativity
Giving yourself adequate time is important when exploring your leathercraft style and design. People regularly practice sketching and forming roughs in other arts like drawing and sculpting. In leatherworking, we often try to make a finished product without giving ourselves time to improve our craft and explore our style. As a busy person, I fight […]
How to Store Leather
A while back, I wrote about how setting up your workspace is important to improving your leatherworking projects. Setting up purposefully for your work, your mise en place, leads to faster, easier, and more accurate work. One subject I didn’t cover was how to store leather. As a leathercrafter, you might have accumulated a lot […]
How To Choose The Best Thread For Finer Leather Work
A while back, a Reddit user asked, “[what is the] best thread for finer work?” Many people wrote in to say that our linen thread was at the top of their list. Update: Since originally publishing this post, I’ve extensively written about sewing and thread. I recently updated this post to reflect those articles and […]
What Do The Different Sewing Thread Sizes Mean For Leatherworking?
There are many articles, YouTube videos, and blog posts about sewing leather, but there are a few about one subject many people find confusing: thread size. When originally writing the content for this topic, even I found it to be a bit difficult, so I thoroughly revised my first version and tried to simplify everything […]