Sunday, 7 November 2010

If this was my toiletries bag I'd fill it with testosterone

Steven is a hard man to shop for and an even harder man to craft for, but I wanted at least one of his birthday gifts to be handmade. When I saw the lovely leather in Mandor's a couple of weeks ago, the dark brown / black skin struck me as testosteroney enough for man -crafts. And so, I finally gathered the courage required to cut into the leather and fashion it into a toiletries bag.


It's a bit bigger that the make-up bags I've been making as I wanted it to be capacious enough to fit his shaver and other various manly accoutrements. The dotty fabric has been in my stash forever and has a spot that's a perfect colour match. Steven was impressed enough that he didn't think I made it.


My verdict for sewing with leather? Painful. Obviously I couldn't pin at all because of the puncture marks, but most frustrating was that it didn't want to feed through the machine and sewing required a lot of pushing and pulling (especially tricky when I was trying to hold the two slippery surfaces together!). Any tips for sewing leather?
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11 comments:

  1. Jen Walshaw7 November 2010 at 14:38

    That looks wonderful, I read somewhere about treating it like oilcloth or using masking tape on it

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  2. Kym7 November 2010 at 15:02

    I was also going to suggest masking tape, I have used it to sew faux leather before, It helps to give a bit of grip for the feeder feet. I also used paper clips to hold things in place, but you have to remember to pull them off just before the needle.

    The toilet bag looks lovely.
    x K

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  3. Millie7 November 2010 at 16:33

    The case looks amazing...I also recently bought leather, but I sewed it to a wool fabric for a duffle coat. Mine kept skipping stitches.. I was only topstitching, so possibly the special machine foot (non-slip?) might have helped in my case, sorry I can't help. I used pins on the top stitching line.

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  4. darcey7 November 2010 at 16:41

    Looks very well done! Birthday wishes to Steven from all of us.

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  5. glitterboy17 November 2010 at 18:09

    Very nice!! I'm glad he liked it.

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  6. Apryl7 November 2010 at 19:46

    that is an awesomely manly man-bag of manliness... I am *definitly* no singing along to 'Men in Tights' on my internal radio.

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  7. WinnibriggsHouse7 November 2010 at 21:46

    I am glad your man was impressed, I certainly am. Have never sewn leather but have very thick faux leather and I too used masking tape to get some grip.

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  8. Amy7 November 2010 at 21:52

    Yeah, so I've never actually sewn leather, so take this suggestion for what it's worth--but isn't this slipping and sliding of layers problem theoretically what a walking foot is for? Or am I making things up? (And whatever problems you had in the construction, the final product looks fantastic.)

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  9. Amy7 November 2010 at 21:53

    Oh, and also--I *have* used the masking tape trick to keep things steady and together while sewing, and it definitely helps.

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  10. Victoria Paige @ Boutique Uniquely8 November 2010 at 01:18

    Looks great!! I wouldn't have guessed you had one problem with it.

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  11. Karin van D.8 November 2010 at 10:48

    gI can imagine he was impressed. What a great toiletries bag, and very manly indeed. Happy Birthday to your love!

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