Supplies
Supplies:
vegetable-tanned and tooling leather scrap bag
6 to 7 oz. vegetable-tanned leather piece, 5 sq. ft.
leather hole punch
white or tan nylon leather thread
2 – large dull-point needles
gum tragacanth edge finish
wooden edge slicker
leather awl
flat nose pliers
2 – 1 3/4” brass d-rings
2 – extra-large decorative brads
assorted small brads and decorative rivets
pyrography pen tips – ball, loop, micro writing tip
bench knife or craft knife
1/4” graph paper
#4 – #8 soft pencil for tracing
white artist eraser
satin brush-on leather finish
quilting rotary cutter
quilting transparent rulers
self-healing cutting mat
Basic cutting for leather purse pieces
1 Our project begins with a vegetable-dyed or tooling leather scrap or bundle package that is available through most leather supply outlets. These bundles come in varying weights and usually contain a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and even animal skin varieties.
You will also need at least one large piece of vegetable-dyed leather, measuring around 5 to 6 square feet. This will provide the leather for the front, back, and flap area of the purse.
2 Leather can be cut with your bench knife, a utility knife, or with a quilting rotary cutter. Use a self-healing cutting mat beneath your work to protect your table.
3 The stitching marks for the sewing holes, made with your awl, are marked at 1/4” from the outer edge, and at 1/4” intervals.
4 The leather scrap bundle from which I worked was a ten pound package, which gave me a very large variety of shapes and sizes from which to choose. This same leather scrap bag included several different weights of leather as well as a mix of hog and cow hides.
Some pieces in my bundle had branding marks, old scars, and raw edges that added a rough and tumble look to my finished slop bag. Note the front flap in the photo which shows one raw edge of the leather piece along the right side of the flap.
Have fun picking and choosing which pieces from your scrap package can add flavor and spice to your bag creation.
