Cut Out + Keep

Leather Tote (Recycled From Lg. Men's Leather Coat)

Experiment with leather! Rescue a dusty old coat and make it something functional again.

https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/leather-tote-recycled-from-lg-mens-leather-coat • Posted by Celine R.

This project is inspired by Canadian artist "Kim" who works in Victoria, B.C.. He sells his beautiful bags at top clothing stores around Victoria. I have always been inspired by his work, so I thought I'd try my hand at one of his bags. I had never sewn leather before, but I had heard that it was possible on a regular sewing machine. I bought the supplies and started experimenting on scrap pieces. Initially I was having problems with thread tension on my sewing machine, but I kept tweaking the settings (I was determined)! Finally I came around to an appropriate material, thread, needle and tension combination. I found regular 100% polyester thread to work best with industrial sewing needles. I chose an old leather coat with soft, medium thickness leather and sewed it with my thread tension at about "4" on my Singer sewing machine. Like I said though, you might want to experiment with your sewing machine beforehand... I have two machines (one from the early 80s, and my newer fancier one from the late 90s) and the one from the 80s (ol'betsy, as I like to call her) absolutely refused to sew leather! But my newer one, while stubborn at times, did the job very well for me. As always, sewing is a test of patience (which can ultimately be very therapeutic)! Good luck and I hope you enjoy this project. I'm really looking forward to seeing your results!

You will need

Project Budget
Reasonably Priced

Time

6 h 00

Difficulty

So-so
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Description

This project is inspired by Canadian artist "Kim" who works in Victoria, B.C.. He sells his beautiful bags at top clothing stores around Victoria. I have always been inspired by his work, so I thought I'd try my hand at one of his bags. I had never sewn leather before, but I had heard that it was possible on a regular sewing machine. I bought the supplies and started experimenting on scrap pieces. Initially I was having problems with thread tension on my sewing machine, but I kept tweaking the settings (I was determined)! Finally I came around to an appropriate material, thread, needle and tension combination. I found regular 100% polyester thread to work best with industrial sewing needles. I chose an old leather coat with soft, medium thickness leather and sewed it with my thread tension at about "4" on my Singer sewing machine. Like I said though, you might want to experiment with your sewing machine beforehand... I have two machines (one from the early 80s, and my newer fancier one from the late 90s) and the one from the 80s (ol'betsy, as I like to call her) absolutely refused to sew leather! But my newer one, while stubborn at times, did the job very well for me. As always, sewing is a test of patience (which can ultimately be very therapeutic)! Good luck and I hope you enjoy this project. I'm really looking forward to seeing your results!

Instructions