Make your leather bowler case - tutorial

THE NECESSARY EQUIPMENT

To complete the tutorial, you will need:

• Piece of vegetable tanned leather - 30 x 40 cm - thickness of about 3 mm
• Tragacanth gum for edge finishing
• Collar leather band - BLACK - Width 20 mm - Length 120 cm - Thickness 1.9 mm
• 5 x 50 cm piece of soft leather (for the protective tape)
• Preparation before dyeing - FIEBING'S #5 DYE PREP - 118 ml
• Stain (Eco-Flo WATERSTAIN style)
• 3 pressure buttons
• 17 large rivets (T4/T6)

• 3mm and 5mm Round Knockout Cutter
• Set of pliers for rivet (T4/T6) and press stud
• A straightener

1. CUT THE PATTERN

Cut out the 3 pattern pieces then assemble them.
Attention : all the balls do not have the same diameter. Make a preliminary test in strong cardboard. Here, the balls are 76 mm in diameter.

2. CUT THE LEATHER

Using the silver pencil and the pattern: mark the cutting lines on the leather.
The pencil is erasable on most leathers with a simple eraser (do not use on vegetable tanned leather). We advise you to do a test, before, to validate the erasable function on your leather.

Cut the leather: on the cutting mat and using a cutter and a ruler.

3. PREPARE AND TINT THE LEATHER

Using a tree frog, dig two grooves in the leather to fold the case. Prepare the split leather (interior) with DYE PREP (Fiebing's) - before dyeing. Tinting the leather (here Eco-Flo WATERSTAIN BLACK). Then, smooth the edges (apply tragacanth gum and burnish the edge with a lisette).
GUIDE: HOW TO DYE LEATHER?

4. APPLY THE LEATHER TAPE

In order to maintain the balls and gain in safety, add a corrugated leather ribbon. Cut a simple leather ribbon of 5 x 50 cm. Place the 10 rivets to hold the ribbon.

5. INSTALL THE TABS

To close the case, you have to put tabs.

• Cut 3 tabs in the remaining piece of leather
• Place the 3 rivets on the tabs and the case
• On the other side, place the visible part of the pressure button on the tab
• Put a ball in place and press the button on leather to determine where to put the second part of the press button

6. ATTACH CARRYING STRAPS

Drill and fix the two transport straps: with the pliers, pass through the hole made for the ball to fix the rivets of the straps.
With a strap of 60 cm in length, you can create two strips of 30 cm.

TO KNOW MORE :

OPTION

The initials were made before dyeing. You have to wet the leather, then, with a ballpoint pen without ink, write the message.
Once the leather is dyed and dry, rewrite with a silver pencil.

UP TO YOU !