Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi, everyone, and welcome to this leather crafting course. We you'll learn how to create your very own leather
wallet from scratch. In this class, you will learn how to prepare your template, which is included in the
documents of this course for you to download and
use it for this project, how to cut your leather,
paint it, lui it, and stitch it together to create a bifold wallet that you can use on other
projects as well. The final project for
this course is to create your very own wallet following
this in detail class. Without further ado, I hope you enjoy this class and I'll
see you in the next chapter. While we'll prepare our template for our project. See you there.
2. Preparing the template: Welcome to the first
chapter on how to make you a handmade
leather bifle wallet. In this chapter, we'll focus
on preparing the template, you'll need to cut
and guide yourself to obtain the leather
pieces of your project. The template of the bifle
wallet includes three pages. The first page
shows instructions on how to print
your template and some considerations
of the design such as the type of lines you'll
see in the next pages. It also includes a copyright
information of the design. The second and third page
includes a template itself, along with a small 1 " square
on the bottom of each page. To print your template,
set your printer to 100% scale and US letter paper. When you print your design, the first thing you want
to do is to make sure the small 1 " square
measures exactly that. So grab your ruler and measure the length and width
of the square and make sure it measures 1 "
or 2.54 centimeters. This will guarantee your project to have the correct dimensions. Next, we need to cut out the template from the
rest of the paper. However, we don't want to cut it right in the very edge of the design rather at an offset
of around 1 centimeter, giving it a little extra space that will
be used later on. Either pair of scissors, cut out the templates from the
rest of the bond paper. Do this for both
pages of the design. However, for the second page, cut the template as a whole, as you can see in the video, so you can work
with a single piece for these parts later on. Yes. The template is really
simple to follow. Part one so sit over part two on the space indicated
with large total lines. Then part two will sit over part five in its
corresponding space, and the same will happen
for part three and four. Now, the template can
be used the way it is. However, if you wish to produce
several wallets to sell, I suggest you glue your
template to a stiffer paper, such as card stock
or cable paper, like the one I'm using
for this project. This step is
completely optional, but it does help you
keep your templates in much better shape
as time goes on. Glue your template to these
papers will make them longer. Many of the templates I use
are glute to cable paper, and so if I want to make several wallets or products
with the same design, I only need to print
the template once, use it, and then store it
until it's needed once again. To glue the template, you can use any type
of glue you wish. I like using the
same leather glue I use from my project
because incredibly, it glues the paper
together extremely well. To glue both papers together, you only need to apply
glue to the back side of the template and then join
both papers together. This is also a good
opportunity to start using your
glue applicator. I also like using my fingers to apply and spray the
glue on the template. You can do this if
you wish as well. However, some people might feel uncomfortable getting
their hands full of glue. So it's a matter of preference. If you wish, you can also use a non toxic glue
stick for this job. When you're done, simply flip your template and place
it over the cable paper. Make sure there
are no wrinkles on the template when joining
both papers together. Do the same for the
pa part design. Here you can see a use
card to apply the glue, which is also a great
option if you don't want to get your hands full
of glue later on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Make sure to press the templates very well to the cable paper. You want to have them
as flat as possible. Then with your pair of scissors, cut out the template and remove any excess of paper from
behind as you can see. Yes. When you're done,
your template is now ready to be used
for many wallets, and we can move on
to the next chapter.
3. Cutting the outer leather piece: Welcome back. In this lesson, we'll focus in cutting
the outer leather piece. This will be the largest
part of your wallet. For this project, I'll be using a clear brown texture leather that I bought from
a local store. I decided to use this leather because of its
beautiful texture, which looks natural and gives the leather a
very elegant look. Now, when working
with texture leather, the first thing you
want to do is to consider the orientation
of the texture itself. In this case, since the
template extends horizontally, it's best to have the texture of the leather in that
same direction. Okay. Find a nice spot that you like on
your leather and place your template over it. Make sure the leather
and the template are as flat as possible. Then with your leather pen, draw an offset line
around the template. It doesn't need to be right at the very edge of the paper. Rather, leave a few
millimeters as some excess on the sides and use your scissors to cut the piece
from the large hide. This will make the piece
much more manageable. With your piece, place your
template over it once again, and with your scratch mark the four edges of
the leather part. Press your template with one
hand and make sure it stays still all the time while you mark the edges as you
can see in the video. What you want to
do here is to have the exact points of
the template to then cut the lines and guarantee that your leather measures exactly
what it showed in the end. As you can see, the marks are well visible
in this leather. Even though it is textured. In a flat on texture leather, these marks are
even more visible, especially if you're working
with vegetable tan leather. In this case, this
texture leather is crumb. Now, use your cutting
ruler and scratch all to connect the marks with
straight lines on the leather. These lines are going to be the edges on the
sides of your wallet. One trick to do this
faster is to place a tip of the scratch all in one of the holes you've marked, then drag the ruler towards
that tip and finally move the ruler so that it is aligned to the next hole as you
can see in the video. When you're sure both
marks are well aligned, press your ruler firmly
with one hand and use your scratch to mark a line between both marks
with a scratch hole. You can see the line is
highly visible and it is in fact more precise than using
a leather pen in this case. Next, do the same for the opposite side of
this first line. You want to mark first
the opposite line, so the original marks you did with a scratch won't get lost. If there's any excess
of leather left on the piece that is getting in
the way, you can cut it out. For instance, you
can see there's a small square shaped section that is getting in the way
when moving the piece. So what I'll do is cut it
out and then proceed to mark the rest of the lines
for the rectangular shape of the outer part. Now, to cut the leather,
you'll need your exact knife. You can see I'm using
a very simple knife, which is made out of plastic
and it is very lightweight. There are many brands and
types of knifes out there, such as the one I'm holding now, that is made out of solid price. This is a beautiful
finely made knife that feels and works great
when cutting leather. However, it is expensive. When you're starting
with leather crafting, I don't recommend you buy the most expensive
tools out there. Rather, look for
good quality tools that you can take good care of. The plastic exact knife I have here works perfectly
well for the job. The only thing you really
need to be aware of is to always keep your blade
as sharp as possible. When working with
knife and leather, there's nothing
more dangerous than a non sharpened knife. This is because the
more sharpen the knife, the more pressure
you will want to apply to the leather
to be cut out. The more pressure, the
more probable it is that your hand goes on
one side by accident. I will go with a
much stronger force, and you can end up having an accident or damaging
your materials. Okay. So I always keep your
tools in good conditions, especially those
that are used for cutting and punching
the leather. As you can see the video, I decided to use a new
blade section of the knife to make the cuts much easier and without applying
any force to the leather. So to cut out the leather, place your ruler
over the leather, making sure it passes right through the first
line you wish to cut. I suggest you cut
the smaller lines first to reduce the length of the larger sides and make
it easier to cut later on. When your ruler is well
placed on the leather, press firmly with
one hand and pass your exon knife slowly
to cut out the leather. You can tell the cut is
very clean straight and was done without having to force the blade
into the leather. Also, notice that I
passed the blade twice. This is because it's
always convenient not to apply to much force on the
blade for safety reasons. The blade is new, so no
matter if the leather is four or five millimeter stick
and you'll need to pass it more than three times
the cuts you'll make will look as neat as long
as your tools in this case, the blade is in good condition. So when both smaller
lines are cut out, you can do the same
for the larger ones. And because now the
leather is shorter, it will be easier to
cut out these lines. Finally, a good way to verify you've cut your
letter correctly, is to place it over
your template and check that it fits
perfectly under the sign.
4. Cutting the inner leather pieces: To cut the inner parts
of the wallet will use exactly the same method as
with the outer leather part. And as you can see the
template, the small slots, which are parts
one and three are horizontally aligned
with the large slots, which are parts two and four. And this arrangement
is done intentionally. So when you cut the upper and
lower sides of the slots, they end up measuring the
same since the cut would be done in one single passing
as you'll see later on. Okay. So place your template over the leather and with
one hand press it firmly while marking the edges with your scratchll
as you can see. Make sure you mark all the edges and you don't miss any of them, especially the ones that are
on the center of the page. In total, there should
be 16 point marks. The next thing to do is to draw the side lines and connect
the marks together. I suggest you start with
the horizontal lines first since they are shorter and then finish with
the vertical lines. Place the ruler over
the first line and make sure it passes through
the first four marks. Then with your scratch, make the line and
try to the points since they might hide a little when you
pass it previously. Then continue with the rest
of the short vertical lines, and when you're
done, you can rotate your leather and move forward
with the horizontal lines. A You'll notice that I'm using my ruler upside down. And this is because
the cork that is beneath the roller itself casts a strong shadow over
the leather that doesn't let me see well
where the lines are. So by placing the metal part
directly in the leather, the shadow is considerably
weaker and also helps me fix the entire length of the leather that will be out and
passing the knife. In any case, if you work with the der facing
upwards or downwards, always be aware of how you
handle your knife and always try to go slow and with little pressure when
cutting your edges. Remember that everyone is
responsible for its own safety, so always be careful with using any sharp or pointy tools, whether it's a knife,
an oil or a needle. Again, using an exact
knife will help you get a clean straight
edge for your wallet. You can use your
scissors if you wish, but there's no doubt
that cuts will be more regular
than with a knife. After you've cut the
first horizontal line, cut the rest of the lines that are parallel to that first one and then finish by cutting all the vertical
lines of the design. In this case, I'll focus on
one side of the we first. When the small and medium
slots have been cut out, you can place them together and check if they are well cut. Also, remember to follow the
same texture orientation on these pieces just as you did with the
outer large part. It's a small but hugely
important detail. Having one single
slot with the texture misaligned will make the
wallet look weird in the end. When you're done with one side, repeat the process of cutting the latter part
with the other one. When you finish
cutting all the parts, you can place them together as if they were assembled later on to check if the inner slots are well aligned
to the other part. You can also use
your template to check this by placing
the parts over the design and
verifying that they fit perfectly on the rectangles. Now, if you wish to work
with the slots separately, you can cut the template
in two sections, one with parts one and two, and the other one with
parts three and four. In the next lesson,
we'll focus on lining the outer part
with our black pigskin.
5. Lining the outer leather piece: In this chapter, we're going to line the main leather
part of our wallet. As you can see,
the inner side of the brown leather has
a nice sued texture, and if you wish you might
work with it as it is and make your wallet look
more rustic, so to speak. However, lining your
leather project will undoubly make them look
more elegant, more formal. To line this part, you can use some black pigskin as the one I'll be using in this lesson. Pig skin is a very
soft leather and it usually comes way thinner
than regular co hides. So to begin with, find a
section of the pig skin that you like and place your outer leather part over the pig skin. Then when your leather pen, draw a line that runs the main part and cut it
out with your scissors. It is important
that you leave off excess of leather as
you see in the video. Do not cut the pigskin at the precise measurement
of the template. This will be done later on. Now, place the pi skin over the table with the inner
side facing upwards and place the outer
part of the wallet over the pick skin with the inner
side facing downwards. This is how both
leathers will be glued. So use your leather pen to draw the rectangular silhouette of the main part to the pig skin. That is where both pieces
will be glued together. To glue them, we need to cover
both surfaces with glue, and I'll be doing it using my fingers first on
the pick skin leather. And then I'll use a card so you can see both
ways how to do it. When using my fingers, notice that I apply
a little by little, grabbing some glue with the
finger directly from the jar. So even though we do want to
cover the entire surface, we don't want to have an excess of glue left on the letter. Rather, you want to apply a thin coat of glue
since any excess of glue or loose fibers
between the letters will immediately stand out when both parts are
joined and pressed. When you're done
with a pig skin, you can leave it aside and I'll do the same with
the main a part. In this case, I'll be using this card as
a glue applicator. When doing this, be careful not to pour the glue
directly on the leather. Since we used to think we need a large amount of glue to
cover the entire surface. However, we only need a small amount of
it and it's better to apply it on the surface of the card or glue applicator, and then apply that to
the leather and spread it from the center of the
leather piece outwards, as you can see. Doing this will also give
you a better idea of how much glue you actually
need for every wall you make. Now, when both pieces have
been covered in glue, you can join them together. Do this carefully by placing the main part
over the pig skin, cutting yourself from the lines you just drew with
your leather pen. I suggest you align the main
part to one side and then join the rest once you're absolutely sure the
sides are well aligned. When both sides are joined, you can start applying
some pressure with your hands to make sure they're evenly glued
and flattened. You can remove any excess
of clue left on both sides. Leather clues are usually
easy to remove from the surfaces by just rubbing them with your fingers
as you can see. And to guarantee the
flatness of the letters, I'll be applying
some pressure with a flat and wooden box
and a board I have. You can also do this and leave the piece to rest for
around 20 minutes. When enough time has passed, the glue will be dried
and you can proceed to cut out the axis of the
lining from the main part. Use your scissors to do this and guide yourself from the
very edge of the main part. In fact, the thickness
of the leatherpiece is an excellent guide to
know where you should place your scissors
while cutting the axis. It will also guarantee
the cuts to be straight and clean as you
can see in the video. So when you're done, your main letter parter
looks something like this, and it's now ready
for the next step.
6. Painting and burnishing the edges of the small leather parts: At this point, we
have already cut all the leather pieces we
need to construct our wallet, and we've also lined the main outer piece with black pigskin. In this chapter, we'll
focus in painting and burnishing the edges of the
inner slots of the wallet. Now, many crafters like to
leave the edges as they are. This will give the wallet
a more rustic look. In the end, deciding
on whether to paint or of the edges is a
matter of preference. For this project, I'll be using a dark brown verne
heable edge paint. This is a great
paint that if left unpolished has a very
sober mat finish. We will also use our
edge paint applicator. Normally, these applicators
are made out of metal, which is great since they can be easily cleaned afterwards. However, I want to stress
out the importance of always cleaning your paint
applicators after using them. As you can see,
the applicator on the left is full of dried paint. While it can
eventually be removed, it becomes harder as paint
starts building over the tip. Always clean your applicator after you finish your products. If you happen to have excess
of paint on your tips, you can simply peel them out. To begin painting the edges, shake a puddle of
paint well and grab your small card slot
firmly with one hand. Then carefully grab
some paint with your paint applicator and start painting the edge
in small sections. You don't want to rush while doing this since
some paint might drip over the sides and you'll need to clean that
before it dries out. You'll notice I rotate a piece whenever I finish painting
a small part of it. This is to check if
there's no excess of paint on the main
surface of the slots. When you finish the first lot, place it standing in a horizontal
position with the paint facing upwards and repeat the process for the middle slot. Now, if you happen to drip a small amount of
paint over the sides, you can quickly remove
it with your hands by simply stroking your
fingers over the leather. You'll end up with some
paint on your hands, but you can easily
wipe them out by washing them with some
water and so later on. When you finish painting the
middle slot of one side, repeat the process for the two
slots of the other side of the wallet and leave them to
rest for around 15 minutes. Once the first code
of paint is dry, we're ready to apply
the second code. So as you did previously, grab your small slot firmly with one hand and start painting the edge with your
paint applicator. This second code will make
your edges look and feel smoother than the first one since the paint will
dry more evenly. Also, because you're now
painting over a code of paint, the fibers of the letter won't be visible with the second code. Once again, paint all the
edges of the car lots and leave them to dry for
around 20 more minutes. With the second coat
of paint is dry, we can now polish the edges. To do so, we'll use some toco the burnishing gum and a
small piece of canvas. You can leave the edges without polishing if you wish as well. Just keep in mind that they
will have a mat finish and won't shine as much as
if you were to polish them. With your finger, grab
a small amount of burnishing gum and put it
over the painted edge. Then rub the gum with
a small piece of canvas until you hear
a cracking sound. That sound is an indication that the edge is now polished. Repeat this process for
all the edges of the cars. When you're ready,
we can move on to the next lesson to see how to
punch our stitching holes.
7. Making the stitching holes: Making the stitching holes
is not a difficult task, but there are a few tricks
during this process that will make your stitching holes
look more precise and clean. The stitching holes
will go around the cars lots where they'll stitch
the main liter part, which is the one we lie
with black pig skin. To begin with, we'll
use our wing divider to mark the lines at the right distance where
the holes will go. The wing divider has
a screw that allows you to easily open or
close the tips together. It's basically a compass with two metal tips instead of
a metal and graphite tips. Now, there's two ways to get the right distance of
the stitching line. The first one is by placing the wind divider
over the template. One table will touch the
border line of the design, while the other should touch the stitching line that
is marking the template. Then you can open and close the divider until defined
the right distance. The other way is to use
your ruler and simply open the divider by guiding yourself with the measurement
marks on the ruler. When you're ready, place
your small cars slot with the painted edge facing
towards you over your work table and
pass the wing divider, as you can see to mark
the first stitching line. Then move along the vertical
side of the slot and the other horizontal line until your letter
is well marked. Okay. Do the same for the middle slot, but only mit a small
section that is going to be visible and then repeat the
process for the other slots. Now, tomato sitting holes, we're going to use
our diamond chisels, polymllt and polyploc. The polyploc I'm using
here is made out of a soft polymer that won't new chisels when
punching the leather. You can see, however,
that this block has bended probably due
to heat exposure. If this is an issue for you, you can also use a cutting
mat instead of a block. These mats are also made
from soft materials, so they won't harm
your instruments. In fact, as you can
see, I've been using this mat instead of the
block for quite a while now. If you do go for
the mat, however, keep in mind that
they need to be replaced more often
than the block. Good thing is that
the small mats like this ones are
not expensive. To give you an idea, I've been using this mat daily for a year, and this is how it looks. Okay. Place your leader of your block or mat and place your diamond chisel over the stitching line
you just marked. If the mark is not visible, you can always pass a
wing divider once again. To know where the
first hole will go, place the chisel
over the line with the first step outside
of the leather, but right at the
edge as you can see. Place your diamond chisel to
know where the marks are, position vertically over
the leather and with your polymlet punch the first
holes of the card slot. Next, place the first tipple chisel over the
last hole you did and guide yourself with
the stitching line to know where to punch next. They will guarantee
the same distance between your stitching
holes every time. Okay. Do the same a third time until you get to the corner
of the stitching line, which will also have a
stitching hole in there. On the stitching
hole of the corner, play your first
tip of the and do exactly the same for the
vertical line of the card slot. Then when you get to
the other corner, rotate to the left and do exactly the same process
as you can see the video. When you get to the
edge of the cars lot where the painted side is, you might notice that the
distance between the edges and the stitching hole is on this
side as on the other one. If this happens on the
worry, in the end, the stitching holes on
the one side will be joined with the ones on
the other side. Okay. Now, I'll be using
my cutting mat to make the rest of the stitching
hole for the wallet. So grab you win divider and do exactly the same process we just did with the small card
slot of the other side. Okay. Here, you can see that the cutting map
works perfectly well when punching the holes and won't
harm the cheeses either. Oh. When you're done with
the small car slots, you can now grow them to the
corresponding middle slots. To do this place your slots
where they'll be and with your leather pen
mark the width of the small slots over
the middle ones. However, I suggest
you first move your small slopes
slightly outward so that you can roll the marks
and they won't be visible when you blue
both pieces together. To glue both parts together, we'll use our leather
glue and apply a very small amount right over the edge of both sides that
will be joined together. You don't need to
put a lot of glue. Just enough so that
both pieces are fixed to work with them
as one single assembly. So join both parts
together and start the one corner so that you can first glue one of
the small sides, glue the other corner in side, and finally the large side. This way, it's easier
to have your aligned. If you see any
misalignment on the sides, this is a time to correct it. You can nglue your
pieces, align them, and glue them once again
with the same glue that they already have since glues takes
some time to be fly dried. When you're ready,
you now need to punch the holes of the assemblage
is just exclude once again. It's important to do
this to guarantee that your stitching holes are
well aligned in the end. This is because leather
is a flexible material. If you punch them all at once, it will expand differently
on each layer. Also, the leather might move or becomes slightly
more unstable than if you guide yourself
from the holes of each layer onto
the next ones. This has happened to me
before and it's very frustrating when you're already halfway through your project. So place your assembly over
your block or mat and guide yourself from the holes
of the small car slot to punch the entire assembly. Start by punching the holes of the small section
of the middle slot that is going to be
visible and then work your way through the
rest of the holes you did. When you're done, your assembly
should look like this and the stitching holes shod pass all the way through
the layers of leather. So does this for the car lots of your wallet, and
when you're done, we can focus on
gluing and punching the holes on the
larger leather piece. Place your first assembly over the large piece
and once again, move it slightly outwards to draw the marks with
your leather pen. Again, these marks will
indicate where you should put the glue on the
edge of your leather parts. Apply glue over the edges of your main part and
the first assembly and simply glue
them together just as you did with the
cards previously. Do this on both sides
of your wallet. Okay. When you're done, place your wallet over your
block or mat and once again, punch the stitching holes
with your don and poly molet. I suggest you start
with one corner and you can see the advantage of having to punch the holes three times when
you look backwards. The stitching holes
are well aligned between the front and
backside of your wallet. When you reach the gap between
both middle cards slots, trace a line with
your winivira and place your diamond
chesel over this gap so that the first and
last stitching holes coincide with the tips of
your chesel as you can see. Then simply punch the holes and move forward with this job. Your stitching holes
will look more even and by doing this. When you're done, your leg should look
something like this, and we can proceed to stitch
it in the next lesson.
8. Stitching the wallet: Great. So at this point, we're more than halfway
through our project. And in this chapter, we'll focus exclusively on
stitching the wallet. To stitch your wallet, you'll need a pair of
stitching needles, your thread, and
your stitching pony. The stitching needles
I'll be using are the John James
needles in size 002, which are the ones
that I recommend you use when you start
working with leather. These needles are very different from machine stitching needles. They are thicker and
much safer to handle because they are not as pointy
as traditional needles, and they also have a nice, large hole where you can put your thread without problem
and lock it in place. I'll use this 0.8 mill
mi polterthire thread, which is similar in
color to the leather I'm using and has a nice
wax consistency. So first, you need to know how much thread you'll
need for your wallet. And for this, you'll
need to measure the entire length that
will be stitched. In this case, the four sides of the wallet and multiply
that length by four. If you're working with
thicker projects, say two more layers of leather to the thickness
of this wallet, you might want to multiply
the number by five. But in this case,
multiply it by four, and you will end
up with a decent amount of sred to work with. So measure the four sides, multiply a total length by four, and that's the amount of thread that you'll need
for the project. However, I would like to leave an extra 20 to 30 centimeters of the length since you want to work comfortably
with the needles. Also, this guarantees you to have enough thread
for your project. The last thing you
want is to stay a few stitching holes short
from finishing your wallet. If this does happen to
you someday, however, simply do the same with those holes that were
left unfinished, measure the distance, multiply
the distance by four, and leave some extra amount just to work yourself comfortably
with the needles. You can tell this pool
thread has a good amount of walk simply because
it doesn't bend easily. It stays straight, which is actually great for your project. To prepare the thread
for stitching, grab your first needle and pass the thread
through the hole, then pass of thread
so that you can stitch the thread with the
same needle as you can see. Pull the thread backwards and when it's
closed to the hole, simply pull a small excess of thread also backwards
with more strength to lock the thread
with itself on the back side of the hole of
the needle, as you can see. Yes, this process might be a
little confusing at first, but you get used to
it when you practice several times with your
needles and thread. Repeat this process with the
other side of the needle. Now, I'll show you once
again how this is done. This time, placing
the thread over the working table to
stitch it with a needle. If you don't get it
right the first ride, don't worry. Take your time. Remember you have that
extra 20 centimeters of thread to work
yourself comfortably. Okay. When you're ready, you can
begin stitching your wallet. I suggest you start at one
corner since it's easier to handle the wallet this way when using the pony as
you'll see later on. So insert the first needle
on the stitching hole of one corner and grab both needles with your
fingers with one hand. Then pull the needles and
threads away from the wallet so that you have an equal
length of thread on both sides. This is extremely
important to do. If you leave aside
considerably shorter, no matter how much
extra thread you left, there's always going to
be the risk that you stay short as well when
finishing the stitching. Now to stitch a wallet, first pass your first needle
through the second hole. Passes just enough so that the metal is between
the layers of leather. With the needle in place,
grab the excess of thread from the previous hole in
case it gets on your way. Then place the second needle perpendicularly to the first one and pull it out so that it's now on the soar
side of the wallet. I can grab the thread that
might get in the way with your right hand and pass the second needle through the same hole you
pass the first one. However, pass the needle in front of the thread, as
you can see in the video. With your needle fixed
between the layers of thread, pull it to the other side and
simply pull both threads of each side until they're fixed to the leather and will
tighten as you can see. You have just made the
first stitch of the wallet. I'll repeat the
process a few times so you can see again
how this is done. Similarly to stitching the
thread with the needle itself, this process takes a
few times to master it, but after a few
days of practice, you'll start noticing a lot of improvement to the point
that is almost automatic, so to speak, to stitch
the wallet by hand. What you need to do is to repeat the same stitching process
throughout all the wallet. Here you can see I've already stitched one complete side of the wallet and
wanted to show you that when you reach
the first corner, the process is exactly the same. Nothing changes here and you can continue your way through
until you reach the end. Again, this is a good opportunity
to show you the process, but this time a bit faster. Now, the best way to do
this type of stitching, which is actually called
saddle stitching is with the help of a stitching pony like the one you see here. Stitching ponies are basically adjustable clamps where you
fix your leather projects. This stitching pony has two
lower extensions when you can see it and have your projects right in front of
you as you can see. By framing your hands and always keeping your projects
in a fixed position, you guarantee that
stitching will look evenly all the way through. Here you can see how easy it is to saddle stage with
a stitching pony. Even though you can stage
your project without one, I highly recommend you buy it. Another great thing is that I am actually sitting
on a simple chair. This means the tool is very versatile and doesn't
occupy a lot of space. Just make sure the
chair is flat or has an even cushion so you don't
h the wood from the pony. The saddle stitching
with the pony is done exactly the same as I've
shown you previously. And this time, I'm able to
show you how it's faster and how the screw allows you to fix your project
quite easily. You can look at the
finished quality of the stitching that you'll have when using a stitching pony. When you finish
stitching all the wallet and reach the final hole, which is the one
where you started, you'll need to pack stitch 1.5 stitches to lock the thread
tightly onto the wallet. Follow the same
stitching process and stitch one entire
hole backwards and then on the second
back stitch pass only one of the needles
through the second hole. Now, because the threads are on the same side of the wallet, your exterior part will
hide all of the stitches. Pull both threads tightly to make sure they are well fixed on the leather and then cut them as close as possible from the
leather as you can see. If there's any small
axes of thread left, you can use a lighter to
quickly burn the wax left on the thread and press them to hide these final stitches. Great. So at this point, we're almost done
with our project. In the next and final chapter, we'll see how to paint and finish the edges of the wallet.
9. Painting and finishing the edges: We have our wallet stitching
completely assembled. The final step is to paint
and polish the edges. To begin with, we need to make sure the edges are
as even as possible. No matter how precise we
cut and glute our leather, there could always be
slight misalignments between the layers of leather. To make them completely even, I'll be using a small piece
of 220 s grid paper to send away the excess
of fibers and glue that might be
left over the edges. So fold your small piece
of sand paper in half and gently rub it over the
first edge of your wallet. You'll see immediately
how the fibers are being removed and
loosened from the leather. This is actually a good sign. Since you want to
be able to send it, we are going through
too much trouble. When you're done
with the first edge, repeat this process
with the rest of the edges of your project. If there's any leftover of glue, you can also pull it
out with your fingers. Great. Now your wallet is
ready to be edge painted. To do this, follow
exactly the same process as you deal with the
edges of the car slots. This time, however,
you'll notice it's easier to do
since the surface is. You have more leather to
grab on to one hole in the wallet and you've already practiced the step on
painting the slots. If you notice any paint ripping, use your hand and fingers
to easily remove it. After finishing the
cot of the first side, leave your wallet to rest for around 15 minutes and move on to the next side
as you can see here. Repeat the process for all
the edges of the wallet until the first coat of paint is dry on all the four edges. And once again, when you're
done with the first code, apply the second
code to the wallet. This time, you can clearly
see the irregularities and loose fibers on the edges if you leave your
wallet as it is. So make sure to apply the next before polishing
your project. When the paint is
dry, you can see it looks much better
with the second code. Notice how fibers are not so visible this time in comparison
with the first code. Here you can see the
comparison between two edges with only one code
and two with two codes. Before finishing with
the second code, I wanted to show you this so
you can easily compare it. Oh, no. With two coats of paint, your wallet looks way better. However, you can
make it look even better if you apply
a third code. The third code normally
seals and hides all the remaining fibers and irregularities and
makes your products feel smoother as well. Also, the polishing
gum works better and looks nicer with
three coats of paint, which is why I suggest you
apply it to your project. In this case, I'll do it
and then proceed to polish the edges with the tono gum just as we did with
the car slots. Now, before applying
the burnishing gm, this tool, which is called
the edge or wooden slicker. It is also known as an
edge burnishing tool. And what it does is it
slightly polishes the edges of your projects and leaves a nice rounded finish
while doing so. As you can see, this liquor has different slots with
different thicknesses. The idea is to place your
wallet on the slot that best fits this liquor so
that when rubbing it, the edges of your project
will look and feel smoother by leaving a
slight rounded edge. You can alternate between
the different slots and the main wooden bar to polish
the edges even better. In crump ton letters
like the one I'm using, this is slightly visible. In vegetable t letters, however, you'll notice a
huge contrast when you use this tool
and when you don't. So I suggest you try it on both letters and see the
difference by yourself. You'll be impressed
how cool this tool leaves the edges on
vegetable leather projects. So again, with your finger, place a small amount of
furnishing gum on the edges. This time, however, try
to spread it through the entire edge before rubbing
it with a cavas cloth. When you're done
with the first edge, repeat the process for the rest of the edges of your wallet. And because this
time the edges are, you can clearly see how the gum polishes the leather paint
and leaves it really shiny. If there's any
dripping, you can also use your hands and fingers
to remove the gun. However, something
important to have in mind is to avoid
the gun to touch the main areas of leather since it can leave a mark
in some leathers. So try to be careful when
polishing these last pitches. As a final polishing,
you can grow a small amount of gum and
spread it in the campus. This way, the polish
will be finer and you'll end up with
much less gum axes. Then Pesa Woodliqer
once again over the edges to give them an
extra polish with the wood. The final step for this
wallet is to remove any potential excess of glue that stayed
inside the slots. So with your bone folder, pressure of the inner edges of the slots to remove any
excess left inside. Awesome. You've now finished
your leather wallet. Congratulations. Now you can try it on with some cards
and see how it looks. Remember that you can try
different types of letters to create many wallets using
the same template design. This will make your project look completely different
between them. You can also get
very creative by trying different color
threads and edge paints. You can make your wallets
look more rustic by leaving them painted and
unfinished on the edges, and you can make them look
more sporty by using and contrasting stitching
such as blue or red ones. I hope you have enjoyed working on this project
as much as I did. With the techniques and methods you've learned
in this course, you'll be able to start working your way on any type
of leather product you want since the processes are practically the same in every
handmade leather project. Once again, thank you so
much for taking this course, and I hope to see you in another fun project.
Have a great day.
10. Final Project: Friends, we've now reached
the end of the course. I hope you have enjoyed watching this class and find it valuable. For your final project, you will now create it
by a full wage yourself following the methods and techniques learned
in this class. When you're done, remember
to pose your project in the project section below so other students can
see it as well. Thank you so much for taking
this class and I hope to see you in the next
one. Have a great day.
David Gonzalez, Industrial Designer
