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. 

***Year End Update***- This bag actually turned into a great IPad cover for packing in a bag.

The Hot Leather Pants

Hello Readers. If there is one thing I didn't need it was leather pants. They were made of really soft beautiful leather and I thought I could make something else from the them.

Here are the black leather pants. They didn't look good on me and they were SO hot. I could have hiked to the North Pole in these pants. I don't know how anyone could wear these pants and not have heat stroke. I was starting to sweat and the pants were going to stick to my legs. 

It was a little like this scene from the TV show "Friends".

I cut the bottom of the legs off and saved the top of the pants for later. I wanted to make something from the legs of the pants.

I made the ends off the pants into 2 different sized pockets by stitching the cut edge shut. Trust me, I had a reason. I also hemmed the cut off pants into shorts but I don't know when or where I will ever wear them.

 Do you have any fashion advice for leather shorts? Leave it in the comments.

I connected the two pockets I made of the pant legs. The hem of the pants made the top openings of my new purse. I added some fabric inside each pant leg/pocket.

 

I added some old black leather cord I had as a strap. And I found this flower pin stashed away in a drawer.

It was a pin, so I just pinned it on the purse. No sewing required.

It wasn't real leather but it looked good with the leather from the pants. It also helped weigh down the taller back pocket when I folded it down over the shorter front pocket to close the whole purse.

It is a great little purse. It is just big enough for my summertime essentials.

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 ***Year End update-This is a great little bag when I only want to carry a few things. I still don't know what to think about the shorts.

The Tough Guy Leather Jacket

Hello Readers. Have you been outside today? Outside of my front door is some chilly, cold weather. I had a great faux leather jacket that someone gave to my daughter and when it didn't fit, it came to me. (Thanks Carmen!) I liked the length and the color. (And it looks like I could jump on my motorcycle and ride off because I am such a tough guy. Like I could start a bar fight and win in this jacket.) It fit really well until you look at the arms. The arms don't look so good. Tough guys don't have jackets that hang over their hands like this.

 

 

My hands are in there somewhere. There is too much sleeve to roll up here, so I can't just roll the cuffs up and wear this jacket. It was nice and soft, surely I could just shorten the sleeves right? I have sewn through real leather before. It would be easy to sew through this faux leather, right?

Spoiler Alert: No, it wouldn't be easy at all.

 

 

It was easy to cut through the sleeves. They were so long that I just cut off the snaps and zippers that were at the cuffs. I turned the sleeves under and started sewing on my machine. That is when I realized it wasn't going to work as easily as I thought. The faux leather kept jamming up the presser foot of my sewing machine. It was so soft that it was almost sticky, and my machine couldn't handle it. It refused to sew smoothly. I finally got each sleeve finished and had two puckered wrinkled sleeves. I didn't want to try again because it would just jam up my machine again.

I was really bummed that I had ruined the jacket.

 I decided to try and cover the edges with trim. It would hide the problem and hopefully the trim would be smoother and wouldn't get stuck in my machine.

It worked!

 

 

I wore this jacket to a fabulous place in Frederick, Maryland. It was a bakery called Cakes To Die For. It was amazing. They do a lot of vegan baking as well as avoiding allergens like gluten and nuts. I can't eat wheat or gluten so I was SUPER excited to find treats at a bakery I could eat.

 

 

I wasn't exaggerating when I said I was SUPER excited. (Look at my face. Lottery winners are less excited than I am in this picture.) I had a chocolate cupcake, a chocolate macaroon, a piece of chocolate fudge cake, and a peanut butter cookie. It was a huge sugar rush and I loved every bite.

 

Thanks you for reading my blog and letting me share my refashion obsession with you. Now go make something fun for yourself.