LEATHERWORKED: JUST A LITTLE LEATHERWORK

 

Oh how tempting it is to claim this as my own, quite fabulous work. Wanna know the truth?? My ridiculous husband made it! My ridiculously clever husband, P!

This my friends is a very retro tool saddle bag to go with the fabulous Brooks saddle I gifted to P for Valentine's Day 2013.

Can we be perfectly clear here?

I really think this is quite an amazing feat. P has never attempted leatherwork or sewing before. He conceived of the idea, created the design from scratch (including drafting the pattern), sourced the leather and hardware, dyed and finished the leather himself, and then sewed it completely by hand. The man's talents are limitless.

He knew exactly what he needed to get in there and carefully made a paper version to pre-test it all. Above are the leather pieces cut and awaiting staining.

I suggested he extend the side pieces so that they flipped inside to keep rain/road dirt out. I can claim that little nugget at least.

He used a special little tool to create the holes for hand sewing, then painstakingly stitched for a few hours over 2 evenings. It's really tough on the hands!

He even reinforced the seam ends!

And thought carefully about the stitch pattern on the reverse of the buckle loops.

He decided to keep the back simple and clean and cut slits to thread the fastening straps through.

I'm thinking with a few mods this could make the basis for a really cool handbag.

So folks that's about it. Thanks for letting P highjack the blog for a bit, but I think you'll agree that this project needed to be flaunted shared.

He has quite a bit of leather left and is in the process of designing an attache/laptop/iPad bag thingy. I seriously have to up my game.

P, I totally know why I married you. Handsome, funny, smart and creative to name a few. They're pretty awesome traits to claim.