Dear readers,A few month ago, I finally indulged in beautiful box of Japanese leather tools and sewn a phone case for The Old Man to try it out. Pretty soon afterwards, I worked on the project I'm showing you today. As with any new craft, the learning curve is quite steep in the beginning. It reminds me a lot of learning how to sew:
You are not sure how to handle your tools
You make wrong choices when it comes to material/fabric but
You love the results despite all the very visible imperfections.
One thing about leather work that I definitely appreciate is that it is relatively short compared to sewing. Of course, my inexperience makes me totally biased. I only tackle simple projects and I'm probably not putting in the level of efforts that professional finish would require. Sewing taught me that you don't have to be patient from the beginning, it's an acquired skill that develops once I get tired of making the same mistakes over and over. Only then I'll take the time to do things properly and wonder why I waited so long. Oh well...If you read my blog regularly, by now you have realized that I am more a copycat than a designer. My design "research" (haha), usually starts by endless Pinterest perusing, and for leather items, I find Etsy very useful too. For this project, I wanted to make something for The Old Man (again!! How unselfish of me...) in the same leather as his phone case. We travel regularly and we try so simplify packing. We both carry 2 passeports each and various electronics so I wanted to make a case that could hold an Ipad, travel documents, a pen and a few cards.The positive point is that I'm happy with the design, I think it's functional, nice looking and not too girly. On the negative side, the list a bit longer... First of all is the leather. It's definitely too soft for a structured case. When full and closed it's ok because the Ipad provides the structure, but the document side lacks firmness. I tried to remedy temporarily by inserting a piece of cardboard. Unfortunately the only solution will be to make is in a more appropriate leather (more on that later!).My second issue is with my hand stitching. Applying constant thread tension while saddle stitching is definitely a challenge. One that can only be remedied by hours and hours of practice I guess. The last problem is something that was just reported by the user. Apparently, the leather stretched out on the document side and things tend to fall out...Of course, it's a little disappointing to admit that this is not the perfect case that I had in mind, but I decided to treat it as a learning experience. When I was in New York recently I bought a BEAUTIFUL vegetable tanned hide, some more tools/finishing products as well as a Japanese book of bag patterns.After leaving Canada, I am doing a quick stop over in Guatemala but I can't wait to be back in Haiti to start scheming my next leather project!! Last time I posted about leather, one of my lovely readers recommended the blog of Gillian, Sew Unravelled, as she and her husband make beautiful leather items! I highly recommend taking a look at it, as well as at the blog of my NY friend E., The Pattern Line, where she just posted a leather corset belt she made for class at FIT. Do you have any other leather blogger recommendations to share?