I’ve been fascinated for years with the magic braid done with leather where both ends of the braid are uncut. I found a good tutorial that uses reclaimed leather, and I had to try it.
I did not make these into bracelets as in the tutorial, but into key chain fobs, by folding them in half and adding a clip.
My Dad let me take his Army trunk on our last visit. I cleaned it up and did some minor repairs, because it is still in good condition.
The first thing I did was gently ease the metal edge back into place so the lock latch slid to the outside rather than hit the inside groove. I used a pair of smooth needle nose pliers so I didn’t scar the metal. The lock latch is missing the actual lock mechanism, but I don’t need to lock it, so I’ll leave it as is.
I did remove my Dad’s social security number with some rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs, for security purposes. I left his name and rank because I want to remember that it is his. I wiped down the whole exterior with leather cleaner. I tried to polish the brass in a hidden spot, and it turned silver, so I stopped, deciding to leave the patina and the gold color.
Inside, I removed some old contact paper, which came out surprisingly well, with no residue, and cut some cedar liner to fit the bottom of the trunk.
The main side handle had some stitching come loose.
I was able to find the end of the thread and sew the leather layers back together without having to disassemble the handle.
It is traditional for Sweet Adelines to give small gifts of encouragement or luck in the time leading up to contest. Last year I crocheted worry worms, this year I made small four leaf clover charms from dyed green leather.
I designed the cut out in Adobe Illustrator. The grouping of four hearts represents the four voices of Barbershop Harmony. I originally wanted to do a fill engrave, then a cut out, but overall processing time would be 1.3 minutes each. I needed 60 charms. I redesigned the charm to be cuts only, using open slits to delineate the heart-shaped leaves, which dropped the processing time to 18 seconds each. The slits can also be used to hang the charm on a keyring or similar. I’m quite pleased with the number of pieces I was able to cut from a 12” square of leather.
I did lose three cuts on the left because the leather wasn’t completely flat, but all the other charms came out well. The laser does leave a charred edge, so I washed all the charms with water to remove the soot, then let them dry overnight.
I designed, printed, and cut flat cards and used glue dots to mount the leather charms to the cards.
I designed a couple variations of minimal wallets by starting with paper mock ups.
After getting my dimensions figured out with paper, I designed the leather cut out in Adobe Illustrator, and used a blue diode laser cutter to cut and emboss vegetable tanned tooling leather.
I stained the leather and let it dry, then applied a coat of resolene, which will make it water resistant.
I wanted the insert to have RFID blocking capabilities, so I used spray glue to adhere cotton quilting fabric to faraday fabric.
My favorite part of this project was learning a new-to-me edge stitch: triple loop lacing. It took a few tries on scrap leather to get the hang of it, but it was worth it. I love the braided edge look with the heavy waxed thread.
I wanted to add labels to my handmade items, so used the laser cutter to make some from thin leather. I added pairs of holes to the edges so they could be sewn on, my signature mark, and the primary material used for the item.
I’m really pleased with how these came out. I’m getting better at estimating laser cutter and engraving settings; I had only one test cut before dialing in to settings that gave me my desired result. For the cut I had a speed and power of 100, and the fill engrave was power 30, speed 100, line density 100. The labels are 1cm by 5cm, which is just about as small as I can go and still sew them into a circle.
Critters and Craft 