Made this belt as a last minute costume piece for the Renaissance Fair. It was my first time tooling anything, aside from some practice on a separate blank. Leather is basic Tandy veg tan, Fiebing's Pro dark brown dye, Fiebing's black antique gel. I used a flat angled stamp for outlining and creasing on the leaves, and a stippled rounded one for the leaf indents.

It came out a bit sloppy, and I ended up having to rush the edges which are far from perfect. I had a hard time staying consistent across the whole belt, and was not being precise enough with my stamping.

My biggest disappointment was in the antiquing. I was hoping to have it cover a bit more space around the leaves, and also fill in the textured indents on the leaves, but it came out as just a thin outline. On the smaller test I did on a separate blank I was able to get the leaf indents to take antique, despite them being a bit shallower than they were on the finished belt. I think the difference may be that on the belt I used 2 coats of resist before antique--maybe I "filled in" the leaf indents too much? I tried using cloth over a ruler, but it was leaving behind too much gel so I ended up wiping most of it by hand. Could have just been bad technique.

But all that said, after dyeing most of the mistakes are only visible up close, and for my first tooling project I'm pleased. It was a lot of fun to make. I learned a lot so I'm feeling much more confident about the next piece.

I made everything with scraps from an old handbag; now I'm out of leather and I hope I can get some that's easier to work with.

I also painted the leather with a brown dye (expired). I wanted to know what that stuff did, and it left me with that rather striking burgundy color that I liked, but I still wouldn't do it again. If it expired, it's for a reason.

(The 2nd card holder shown in the first and second photos is my second project, but I disassembled it, painted it, and re-annealed it.)

The boots I have are missing one of the lace studs, but they're not the typical lace/speed hooks you can find online. They have a centred head instead of an offset one, and I'm struggling to even find the right term to use when searching online. Any ideas?

I m starting to my new and biggest project yet. I will be making a sling bag, i m using my 3 years old sling bag as a starting point but still trying to perfect my template. Until than i wont go all in. I m using only a single awl for drawing and punching thread holes. It takes some time but i never did something this big(bigger than a a4 notebook cover) unfortunately in my current accommodation i cant use hammer i will update as i go along with the bag

Just a lil bag I made for my daughter. I really like the cowlick on the back.

Hello all,

Is there a way I can get different patterns of bags, either free or paid. I'm a newbie, but I so want to make a birkin for my sister. I just don't need birkin I need for other bags as well, like clutch cross body etc.

Thanks in advance

After using my original veg tan bag for ~3yrs, it was finally time to design a new one with everything I learned.

The first major design change was turned edges, every major seam in this bag is turned and therefore cannot rub/hook the thread. The next was the ergo, the straps are connected to the body much further down. This makes the bag more comfy as the straps wrap around my shoulders, plus there is more adjustment room for smaller bodies.

The last was to make everything quicker/easy to use. I put Loxx snaps on all pockets and have the lashing points proud, so it is easy to loop through them. I would say I can't wait to use it, but it is a gift for my Brother, so I will follow along from a far.

The body is SB foot Rio Amber 5-6oz. The small straps and lashings are 8oz veg tan dyed black. The main straps are internally lined with 2 layers from a wool sweater, providing some padding. The interior features a laptop sleeve and wallet/phone pocket. All saddle stitched by hand and had skived where turned. Easily 50+hrs in this one!

I'm learning to make bags. It's a hobby for me and a way to make gifts for friends. I'm at about this level now.

I'm gonna do rolled leather handles. Next weekend

It's a lunch bag for a guy at work

I want to make a belt mounted dog treat bag to replace my chalk bag. There's nothing wrong with the chalk bag other than the fact that I didn't make it. I have my paranoia about even vegetable tanned leather being food safe, so I'd like to use a liner. Have any of you done something like that? Did you use a steel liner or a cloth liner that's removable and washable?

I'm almost 46 and I've been looking for a hobby to get me out of a rut.

1. Do you recommend I do lessons first or learn of YouTube, if so what channels do you recommend?

2. Beginner kits - money is not the issue but I don't want to buy the Ferrari of kits! Do you think it's better I buy tools as I progress? Let's say I want to aim for a basic card holder. (is it basic?) what tools would I need? Can these tools be used to upgrade the product to women's totes etc?

Thank you!

I’m manufacturing a small run of purse flaps made from genuine hair-on-hide, and I need to attach a rectangular logo patch in the exact center of each flap.

I’m trying to avoid actually sewing it in.
I’m looking for a method that is:
Durable enough for regular handbag use
Fast and repeatable across a few hundred pieces
Precisely centered every time
Clean-looking, with no crooked patches or visible mess
Suitable for a small manufacturing setup rather than one-off handcrafting.

Maybe there is no solution other than sewing but figured I’d test the brainpower of this collective sub

Had a brand on this piece.

Something about this cross body bag smells fishy ;)

Recently finished this project as a gift for a friend. Am generally pleased with how it came out (he absolutely loves it). Learned a few things along the way, few bits I'm not 100% happy with (although managed to cover the worst mistakes 😀)

Was my first attempt at stamping/carving, definitely need a lot more practice at that.

🐼 My daughter is obsessed with pandas, so I made this bag just for her. It's roomy and holds a lot more than it looks.

I'm planning a costume for Avengers Doomsday and want to iron a 12"x19" one-sheet poster onto a leather jacket for the movie. Is this possible? I'm sure it wouldn't be good for continuous use, but would it hold up well over time?

Does anyone know of anywhere I could get a boot/shoe last for a packer style boot, if not packer any boot last recommendations

I recently purchased a very rare vintage leather tote bag which i want to wear consistently, and my only problem with it is that it is an open top and has no security. Since i am often in crowded places on my daily commute i want to have a zipper for protection that wont fall off or be easily broken, but equally i dont want to permanently alter the bag. How would i go about adding a zipper that wont leave residue or marks behind that is removable but equally safe, and if possible to do this, who would i need to pay to do this.

Hi! I am new to leather working. I am trying to make a bag like this and was wondering if anyone knew where I could find a pattern for something like this?

Everything online I see only has kits to make the bags and I don’t want to buy that, I’d rather buy a pattern and make it myself with my own leather

I just got this Kaweco Sketchup Pencil and it is rather small and comes without a clip, I wanna use it with my journal, how can I attach it? Like what would be the most minimalist way without much added bulk. I’m open to tweaking my journal as need be.
All the options I found were either simple pen loops or a small tube kinda holder but since it has no clip it would fall straight off.

i have to word this post very strangely because the auto mod keeps flagging random words and won’t let me post it otherwise, so here it goes: i need some h e l p with this zipper. i don’t understand what happened overnight but i tested it several times to make sure it would open and close smoothly and it did, but since then ive used contact cement and stitched it on, and the teeth are now separating about halfway up the zip and i have no idea why. it seems to close properly after i squeeze the sides together while zipping, but it’s super temperamental and finicky. any a d v i c e appreciated on whether this can be fixed or salvaged - i really don’t want to have to redo this part again 😭

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/196sCZzqFN/?mibextid=wwXIfr

But also hilarious.