A few weeks ago a friend and I decided to try out a nearby leather workshop. We spent the day learning how to produce leather goods, from cutting out the pieces, through gluing and sewing them together and final preparations of the leather. It was a fun afternoon; 5 hours well-spent!
We started out by using thick paper patterns to mark the edges of the wallet pieces, then used a straight edge to cut them out. Next up was gluing pieces together, and then punching the holes that we’d use to sew after that. There are a lot of specialized tools in leatherwork that I’d never used before, including punches that create perfectly-spaced holes for sewing. The teacher’s guidance made it very easy to create a fairly nice-looking product, despite our inexperience.
In addition to sewing, there are also some different things that you rub or buff into the leather to make it look right and protect it from the elements. I didn’t write any of their names down, so I can’t remember what they were. In the end, I was pretty pleased with the wallet I made! The location was so convenient and the workshop so fun that I hope I’ll get a chance to do another project sometime.
