Making a Leather Clutch

 Hello Readers. I need to start with a full disclosure statement that I do not know what I am doing and just learning as I go along. (In sewing and in life.) I wanted to try and work with leather so I tried it. Let me show you what I made.

Before and after. 

I was given this leather. It was the scrap pieces from a sofa project. (Thanks P. G.) I don't think I would go buy leather but I was going to have fun trying to work with it. It was very soft and pliable. Could my sewing machine sew through it. Did I need special equipment? Let's find out.

I decided to make the simplest bag I could just to start easy. I cut 2 rectangles the same size. It was not hard to cut through the leather but it did move a lot and that was annoying. I had to do a lot of trimming to make everything even. 

Using a book to hold the leather piece helped a little.

I wanted to cut a circle in both pieces as a handle. Tracing the circle was very easy.

I thought I should cut both circles at the same time so they would match. This was impossible. 

Would a rotary cutter work better? No. I also tried a box cutter and it was awful. 

Mistakes were made.

This was the only way I could cut the circles. The curves were really difficult. I almost gave up because I wasn't even sure I would be able to stitch through this leather with my sewing machine. 

I lined up my 2 rectangles. I did not have special needles or thread. I had a universal needle and all purpose thread. and it was so easy to sew through the 2 layers of leather. I started slow and it went well. I sped up a little and never even broke a needle. I never broke the thread. I could not believe the sewing was easier than the cutting! It was easier than some denim I have worked with. 

My bag was done.

When the top folds over it makes a nice clutch bag. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.