Crafts - My Mom's Leather Tote

I'm not really fond of sharing my work here on After the Denim. I try to keep a distinction between, what I make and what I write about here. Of course it's interlinked, but I prefer the distinction most of the time and if you want to see examples of what I make, you can just check ATD's Facebook, Tumblr or Instagram. However every now and then I make something that I'm really proud of or really satisfied with, and  this is the case with this tote that I made for my mom as a Christmas present.

Now this tote is similar to another bag that I featured on the blog previously, however I've become more comfortable with bag construction and this worked out a bit better. The concept is pretty much the same; a simple, rugged and completely handsewn (as in using two needles and absolutely no machines) tote with one big compartment and an inside pocket. This tote was sewn with a braided polyester thread, as I wanted a optic white thread as a contrast to the turquoise leather, that I hand picked for my mom, when I visited the Tärnsjö tannery in Sweden in the summer. My mom has never been afraid of colours and her favourite colour is turquoise, so it was an easy choice. Luckily she liked it, and has been using it daily for some months now.

It was quite a lot of work folding the edges and sewing them, but I think it adds a nice touch. My fingers looked terrible afterwards, this braided thread is hard on the skin and some thousand stitches took its toll on my fingers.

Leather backed double capped rivets

The burnished edges aren't holding up as well, as I would have liked because the handles get bend quite a bit.

This leather has quite a bit of grain character. It's normally used for shoes, but proved to be an excellent material for bags.

Crafts - iPad mini Sleeve

Just before Christmas a good friend of mine came by the workshop wanting to make a Christmas present for his dad. He wanted to make a protective sleeve for his dad's newly acquired iPad mini. Since I hadn't been doing any sleeves for the mini, I decided to help him out, so I could get a pattern made. This means I didn't do much on this piece besides a little bit of cutting, but I just helped out as much as I could.

Basically we just used a design that I've been doing quite a lot lately. Calling it a design is a bold overstatment. It's not even a design, as it's so ultra simple, but the closing mechanism is great for covers/sleeves, as it doesn't incorporate any hardware, which can scratch the device.

It was made using a leather that is a bit similar to the very famous Chromexcel leather from Horween, as it is a oil pull-up, but not of the very greasy ones. It's very easy to work with and it's very easy to maintain. The leather comes from an Italian tannery.

It's hand sewn using a super thick (8ply) waxed linen thread from Germany that I bought as an early Christmas present for myself.

You can really sense the grain structure in the leather, where it bends. Nice and subtle.

I can't take credit for any of the stitches other than scrutinizing every stitch like a hawk. He did a really good job.

Unfortunately it's virtually impossible to burnish oil tanned leathers. So it's hard doing anything about the edges. You can either leave them raw or you paint the edges using a good edge dye.