To be on the safe side and to ensure I had sufficient things to build on holiday, another ‘kit’ was put together for the bag I intended to make with the hide purchased while travelling around Japan. Again the aim is to make to major components before heading off. Leaving just the stitching to do.
Leather: Michelle Loves Leather hide in Rubi Light Blue 1.5mm
Threads: #1 Vinymo, Colour 179 with stitch length of 3.25mm (with hindsight I’d go for a thread offering a slightly contrasting colour to show off the stitching)
The front and rear panels are lined with 1.5mm self-adhesive foam to give a more luxurious feel.
The outer 10mm of the panels was skived down to 0.7mm at the edges.
Renia contact adhesive was applied to the leather panels even though the foam has a self-adhesive backing. This is to ensure a really good bond.
The foam was cut oversized to ease application.
The foam is then trimmed back afterwards.
The outer 9mm of foam around the edges and 5mm anlong the top edge was removed as these are the seam areas.
A thin strip of 0.6mm bonded leather glued to the top edge provides additional strengthening.
A 17mm strip of leather was thinned to approx 0.75mm and wrapped around a 1.5mm cord. It’s important to make sure the cord is positioned along the centre line when closing – hence the silver guide line.
Cutting out a notch in the piping just where the inner cord ends enables it to be bent outwards approx 5mm from the top of the seam. This makes a neater finish to the piping once everything is stitched and turned the right way out.
The piping bonded to the outer edge. The outer few millimetres of the piping was scraped with a blade to remove the top surface of the leather to achieve a strong bond.
A piece of 0.3mm Talyn Soft Leather Reinforcement bonded to the outer edge. The outer few millimetres of the piping was scraped with a blade to remove the top surface of the leather to achieve a strong bond.
The piping bonded to the outer edge. The outer few millimetres of the piping was scraped with a blade to remove the top surface of the leather to achieve a strong bond.
The piping bonded to the outer edge. The outer few millimetres of the piping was scraped with a blade to remove the top surface of the leather to achieve a strong bond.
The other issue with using Nappa lining leather is it’s quite stretchy so I had concerns it would stretch out of shape over time. To address this it was backed with a piece of 0.3mm Talyn Soft Leather Reinforcement.
The interior of the bag has a zipped pocket (above) and open pocket.
Again the edges were skived down once the lining had been backed, to reduce bulk at the seams.
The open pocket is full thickness of leather (1.5mm) and lined. The outer 10mm of lining was skived to avoid too much bulk. The opening is strengthening with a strip of skived leather down to 0.6mm.
Bonding the pocket lining.
The rear strengthening strip is glued proud of the top.
The excess can then be trimmed flush before edge painting.
The two lining pieces have a leather strengthening strip along the top edge, which will also be used for attaching the closing zip.
A #3 YKK zip was bonded to the lining panel using contact adhesive. The pocket is made from a canvas material – double sided tape will secure it to the zipper tape before stitching.
First the pocket lining is stuck to the bottom edge of the zipper tap and then stitched..
It was necessary to use the stitching irons to make the stitching holes through the interfaced backed canvas in order to stitch the bottom edge.
Once the bottom edge is secured, the pocket material is folded down along the stitch line, then folded upwards to make the pocket.
The top edge is then stuck down with double sided tape to the top of the zipper tape and then stitched..
The top edge and pocket sides stitched to complete the zipped pocket.
A strengthening piece was added to the top edge – the jury is out whether this is needed or will end up making it too bulky. I also decided to use fabric cement and apply tape to the pocket sides to make sure nothing straitened fraying.
The strengthen piece was just bonded for the top 20mm or so.
To complete the inner piece the outer finishing strip was bonded and stitched to the top edge. The stitching for the closing zipper will use this strip.
The same approach was used for the edges of the gusset pieces. The jointing seam skived back approx 17mm.
A temporary strip of double sided tape helps keep the two gusset pieces together while stitching. It shouldn’t be bonded as the seams will be folded back.
The seams folded back from the joining stitching and bonded.
The folded seams are then stitched.
Again, foam was applied the the back of the full length of the gusset and the outer 9mm of foam removed. Care is needed to just cut the foam and not damage the leather..
Next, a piece of 0.6mm bonded leather is bonded to the foam to make the gusset stiffer.
Finally the lining is bonded to complete the gusset piece. I had debated over what type of fabric material to use for the lining. I had used cotton twill for the two-tone Tote but had to use interfacing to avoid fraying. While pondering what to do, I came across a roll of very soft Nappa leather I’d used to line of a pair of shoes I’d made. Decision made … although I have a slight concern that it’s quite thick at a nominal 1mm. The edges were skived to remove bulk at the seams just in case.
The ends of the gusset have a leather piece matching the buckle/strap ends – both for aesthetics and to avoid sinking threads when sufficient thread tension is applied.
The buckle attachment was made from a piece of leather thinned to approx. 1mm and then backed with 0.6mm of bonded leather. A central piece of 1mm Texon card (not shown) was added to give an embossed look.
The embossing effect be adding the 1mm Texon card. I think the embossing is a little too ‘subtle’ due to the thickness of the piece. I suspect it will be more obvious once the stitch pulls the top &nbottom pieces together.
Marking the position of the strap keeper, which will be stitched in situ.
The shoulder strap is made up of a length of full thickness of leather, a 1mm thick Texon card to repeat the embossing look and finished with a thinned piece of leather down to 0.8mm. Unlike the buckle piece, the strap’s top piece of leather can be skived down so the embossing will be much more pronounced..
Needles were pushed through the bottom piece periodically along it length. The aim is to ensure the pre-punched stitch holes in the top and bottom pieces align once bonded.