Leather tool kit - DIY

THE NECESSARY EQUIPMENT

To complete this tutorial, you will need:

• 2 pieces of CLASSIC natural vegetable tanned collar leather - 20 x 30 cm - Thickness 1.6 mm
• FAUVE water-based dye - Eco-Flo N°7
• Set of 5 T4 screw collar buttons - Aged brass with 3x5 mm screws
• Rectangular loop - Aged brass - 25 x 6 mm
• Waxed linen thread spool - 18/3 - diam 0.65 mm - Black

And the following material:

• 1 paring knife
• Stamps on handle
• 1 swivel opening knife
• 1 awl with pliers for leather 50 mm fitted - saddle point

LEATHER

Pascal used a 20 x 30 cm piece of leather for the body and a second 30 x 40 cm piece to make the two straps (2cm x 40cm) as well as the two circles that will form the sides of the case (diameter: 8 cm).

1. CUT THE LEATHER

Straight cuts are made with a cutter and rounded ones with scissors.

2. TRIM THE STRIPS

Thin the base of the two strips with a paring knife to avoid excess thickness.

3. PUSH LEATHER

Push back the leather by making the patterns of your choice.
Pascal used a knife to open, two soft bevel stamps (2.5 and 5.5 mm) and the stamp (reference: 66294-00) for the grainy aspect.
COMPLETE LEATHER PUSHING GUIDE >

4. TINTING THE LEATHER

Dye your leather in a circular fashion with a cloth to give color to your creation and not leave marks.
Pascal overdid it in places to create shades - Teinture Fauve Eco-Flo N°7.

We can note a small drop of 2mm on the round parts which will form the sides. This hook will be used to position the leather in order to start sewing.

Attention : there is a right and a left part.
GUIDE / HOW TO DYE LEATHER? >

5. ATTACH THE COLLAR BUTTONS AND START SEWING

Fix the T4 screw collar buttons with a 3 mm diameter punch.
Do not forget the oval loops (aged brass - 23x5mm) otherwise you will have to redo the seam. In order not to have the screw heads inside the kit, the collar buttons are only fixed on the strap. A little thread locker on the screw should keep them from loosening.

Begin sewing the strips.
Pascal used a plastic trowel and a scoring wheel (size 6). Using the awl with pliers (reference: 050 - Vergez Blanchard) is really tricky. Gradually the stitches become more regular.

5. SEWING THE SIDES OF THE POUCH

Put the sides in place then sew.
Detail of the right side: we find the hook of 2mm which is used to receive the piece of leather (photo n°2).

The pieces of leather are positioned at 90°, and sewn on the bias without glue. This type of sewing is very painful and the result is unsatisfactory. On the realizations that followed I abandoned this method and used a classic saddle stitch by positioning the pieces of leather flat against each other (wetting the side piece of leather during the sewing).

6. WAX THE LEATHER PATTERNS

Make a hole (diameter: 4mm) in each strap for the collar buttons.
Use brown shoe polish to bring out the patterns.

Congratulations to Emmanuel who made his first leather tool kit!