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In previous blog, we have shown you how to make a leather watch straps. Maybe or maybe not that you have done your own so today, we’d like to show you a simpler tutorial of making a leather card holder.
Supplies list:
- Leather (color of your choice)
- Pen & Cardboard: To do pattern
- Utility knife
- Ruler
- Hammer
- Diamond Chisels
- Contact cement (a.k.a Dog Glue) – For gluing the ends of the leather
- Polyester thread, needles in various sizes
- Leather stitching clamp: It’s good to have this tool but if you can’t find it. No problem. Use your knees 😛
Step one: Choose your leather
Choose your own style of leather
No consistent rule on choosing leather but leather for the cardholder shouldn’t be too thin or it will get flimsy. Just pick anything you like and have fun with it. In this tutorial, I choose tanned cowhide for my card holder.
Step two: Make patterns
First thing, you will need to figure out in your head that how big your holder will be. The size could be various, depends on your taste. It could be a hand-palm size or a bit smaller so that it will look cute 😀
Nextly, draw your patterns on a paper (preferably on a cardboard in order to make sure the highest correction when cutting the patterns off).
The size to draw my pattern is 155×110 mm and 02 other smaller pieces: 110×65 mm
Prepare the pattern
Step three: Cutting the leather
Ok! Now you’ve got the patterns, let’s cut the leather according to that.
Trace the patterns you’ve made onto a sheet of leather then cutting your leather as the mark you made. You need to get your blade as sharp as possible, this is extremely important because you will want your cut lines to be smooth and clean at edges.
Now, you will need a help of the ruler. Use a utility knife alongside a straight ruler, hold the ruler firmly to avoid cutting outside of the lines.
After all the pieces are cut out, now glue the edges of the three parts together in this position like this:
Let the “dog glue” dry a little bit first then glue the pieces together. You might need to use Hammer to punch lightly along the entire edge and make sure that they hold together, or you could just use your fingers to press them down, it’s fine too.
Step four: Punching holes
The leather is way to hard for needles to poke through, therefore you will need to punch some holes before doing it. Take advantage of ruler and pen to mark the lines. The gap between the line and the card holder edge should not be more than 2 milimet.
Now it’s time for the chisels take action.
Step five: Stitching
Bring out the leather stitching clamp to keep your card holder steady. Otherwise, using your knees to hold it is also fine! It looks still cool :))
Tie 2 needles on two sides of the thread and you’re ready to Stitch them til’ the last hole.
Tips: The length of the thread you gonna use is 3 times longer than length of your first half stretch you gonna stitch.
Keep doing the same with the other half. You might need to burn the spare thread with lighter at the end.
Voilà! It’s done.
Make your own collection of card holders
Tutorial-with-pictures:
If you planning to visit Hoi An, Blue Lotus leather handmade workshop is the best place to visit and we provide the best experience to do when you are here even if you have experienced working with leather before or not. Best way to craft your real leather goods from scratch (design patterns, cut leather, do punch holes, hand-sew and personalize). We’re always here to help you design what best fits your needs.
So don’t hesitate to join us for a fun workshop in Hoi An. Good vibes, good music, best coffee in town included 😉
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Blue Lotus Leather & Coffee Shop
Address: 98 Hung Vuong, Hoi An, Vietnam
Hotline: + 84 916-183-279
