SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Gallery    Making a Leather bag
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Making a Leather bag Login/Join 
Member
posted
Been wanting to do a step by step for awhile and I think someone had expresses interest in the process awhile back so here it is. Lighting in my studio is a mixture of color temps but I tried to keep everything close throughout.



_DSF1324 by michicks, on Flickr
First is laying out the template. I draw a lot of my templates in auto cad and print the larger ones like this at a local printer and then glue them to a piece of Bristol board.

_DSF1333 by michicks, on Flickr
Cutting out the main section. I free hand cut as much as I can to speed things up and with this particular bag the only cut end that will be seen are the top so I can afford to be off a little without ruining anything.

_DSF1339 by michicks, on Flickr
Interior pockets laid out.

_DSF1361 by michicks, on Flickr
All the pieces cut out

_DSF1408 by michicks, on Flickr
Marking all the stitching holes. I upgraded to these prickling irons at the end of the year and in most cases I can get holes though all the layers which speeds up the stitching by not having to use an awl for every hole.

_DSF1423 by michicks, on Flickr
Stitching up the interior pockets

_DSF1455 by michicks, on Flickr
Stitched and finished edge on the pocket. I use a product called Tokonole as a burnishing agent and then seal with beeswax. Depending on the leather I use a hand slicker or a rotary slicker on a dremel to burnish with.

_DSF1435 by michicks, on Flickr
Main Body of the bag laid out. This bag will be stitched inside out and then turned so I thin the outer 3/4" all the way around to reduce the thickness where it is stitched together and get the leather to bend the way I want.

_DSF1457 by michicks, on Flickr
My big bag clamp. This bag and the larger ones I made really were a pain to get held into place for stitching so I made this clamp that has ~18" of clamping surface.

_DSF1458 by michicks, on Flickr
Everything Stitched and bag ready to turn.

_DSF1459 by michicks, on Flickr
Turned bag

_DSF1461 by michicks, on Flickr
Inside. I normally had a set of shorter handles that mount on the inside behind the pocket. Customer decided to leave them off after I started which resulted in an extra set of holes above the pocket. The larger d-ring is for attaching keys.

_DSF1460 by michicks, on Flickr
Finished bag. Build time on this style/size bag was a pretty consistently 6 hours but with reorganizing my work space and the new bag clamp I finished this one in right at 4-1/2 hours.
 
Posts: 2489 | Location: Arkansas | Registered: July 21, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Awesome, thanks for the process explanation, it looks great
 
Posts: 1702 | Location: Alpharetta, GA | Registered: September 30, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Raptorman
Picture of Mars_Attacks
posted Hide Post
You did a great job.


I cut the polycarbonate templates and stiffiners for a leather worker on out laser bed. I can cut 48x96 piece of poly in one pass.


____________________________

Eeewwww, don't touch it!
Here, poke at it with this stick.
 
Posts: 34081 | Location: North, GA | Registered: October 09, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Info Guru
Picture of BamaJeepster
posted Hide Post
Thanks for posting that! Really interesting to see the process, I love seeing how craftsmen do their jobs!



“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
- John Adams
 
Posts: 29408 | Location: In the red hinterlands of Deep Blue VA | Registered: June 29, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
You did a great job.


I cut the polycarbonate templates and stiffiners for a leather worker on out laser bed. I can cut 48x96 piece of poly in one pass.


At some point I'll have to get some poly templates made for the ones I use the most and wallets as soon as I settle on a design.
 
Posts: 2489 | Location: Arkansas | Registered: July 21, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Shaman
Picture of ScreamingCockatoo
posted Hide Post
You know I have a sewing machine that will sew through that like warm butter...





He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.
 
Posts: 39716 | Location: Atop the cockatoo tree | Registered: July 27, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Little ray
of sunshine
Picture of jhe888
posted Hide Post
Very nice.




The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything.
 
Posts: 53117 | Location: Texas | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by ScreamingCockatoo:
You know I have a sewing machine that will sew through that like warm butter...


I think I remember you posting when you snagged that machine and was envious.

Scored a deal myself about a month back on 2 Adler 267's and a Singer 107w zig zag machine but haven't had the time or space to get them setup. I'm also a little torn on switching over to machines as things have been growing pretty good with my hand stitched work and to switch over to machine would mean lowering prices and having to produce more work so I'm looking getting set up with the machines to do small batch manufacturing and keeping it separate from my hand stitched work.
 
Posts: 2489 | Location: Arkansas | Registered: July 21, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 

SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Gallery    Making a Leather bag

© SIGforum 2024