Leather Music Folder

Greetings friends,

Ever struggling with finding a music folder that will accommodate large sheet music, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Having dabbled a bit in leathercrafting previously, I decided this would be a fun project to practice dyeing leather, and to construct a durable folder that will last for years!

I started with a large piece of heavyweight veg-tanned leather, and cut the pieces from it that I needed. I opted for a folder with dimensions of 12" x 15", small enough to not be cumbersome but big enough to protect large sheet music. I wanted 2 simple flaps inside the folder to tuck the music into, as well as a small pocket to hold a pencil.

For the dyeing process, I used Eco-Flo Waterstain in Bordeaux color. This stain was easy to use and wiped on with a sponge. I moistened the leather beforehand which helped the dye dry more slowly, so it was easier to achieve a consistent color. The hardest part of dyeing such large pieces of leather is achieving a consistent color, and I'm pleased with the job I did.

Punching the holes and stitching the pieces together was uneventful and very straightforward. I scored the interior of the folder down the middle, to assist in making the main fold. A little bit of water along the crease helped a bit. After all the stitching was done, I followed the usual progression of sanding the edges, dyeing them dark, sealing them with gum tragacanth, and burnishing them.

I fashioned a pencil holder out of a leftover scrap of leather, and stitched it to the inside of the folder. The pencil fits in a little bit tight, but it's better than falling out too easily.

After an amount of use, I decided that I wanted some way to keep the folder closed when carrying it, so I opted to add a snap to the open corner. This holds everything together really well and opens very easily. The folder has been really awesome to use, and I have yet to run into any large sheet music that won't fit in it!

Thanks for reading,

Juju

Plague Doctor Mask

Greetings friends,

Well, we're in the midst of a global pandemic... The coronavirus has halted the economy, reached 3 million cases worldwide, and exposed which world leaders are capable of handling this type of outbreak, and which aren't...

I thought it would be wonderfully fitting to share an old project of mine, made in the fall of 2018. This was my first dive into the world of leathercrafting, and it was loads of fun to make. This will probably be a relatively short post since the majority of the project involved stitching, which let's face it is not riveting... 😜 Lets dive in!

I found the plans for this mask on Etsy. There were many choices available, but since I was looking to create the most traditional looking mask that I could, this one looked the best to me. For the sake of authenticity, I also opted to use undyed leather in the hopes that over time, a patina would develop as the mask is worn and a more weathered appearance would result. I used some dark thread as an accent for the light leather.

Working from the pattern, I cut out all the pieces required for the mask. I used a surgical-grade scalpel for cutting which created nice clean edges on all the pieces. Once everything was cut out, I punched holes along all edges that would become seams. The following pictures lay show the progression of stitching seams together one after another. Each piece builds on the one before, and the whole mask comes together rather nicely.

This piece becomes the bottom of the "beak." The holes 

punched on the sides of the seam are vents for breathing.

The two halves of the face of the mask were each stitched to their respective side 

on the bottom piece, then folded over and stitched along the top to close the beak.

The forehead piece was stitched to the top of the beak first, then connected at the sides. 

Here it's easy to see the rivet holes on the sides of the mask where the straps would attach.

Sadly, I forgot to closely document the attachment of the straps, but 

behind the head is a belt buckle that holds everything together.

I was very pleased with my handiwork, especially given my inexperience in leathercrafting. This certainly motivated me to do more leather projects, some of which have already been shown on the blog and others which will be posted later on. I ultimately would love to work on a complete plague doctor costume, but that would surely take some time!

Thanks for reading,

Juju

Leather Dice Cup

Greetings friends,

A quick project today, only took a few hours to whip up! I wanted a small leathercrafting project to do, and I figured a simple dice cup would be a lot of fun. Let's get to it!

I found a pattern on Etsy, which had the look I was going for. The cup was an ideal size; I didn't want it to be too big. I laid out the pattern onto some scrap pieces of leather I had, and cut out the pieces.

Once the pieces were cut, I beveled the edges, cut grooves, punched holes, and dyed the leather. This all goes pretty quickly, so I'm only showing pictures of the major steps. 

The dye I used was "Bordeaux" by Eco-Flo which creates a lovely rich wine/cordovan/oxblood color, my personal favorite for leather goods. Two thin coats usually does the trick for the large (skin side) areas, and multiple coats get the edges to a dark shade.

It took a few attempts to get the bottom cut out well enough for my standards, so
here you see a comparison of the color before and after dying.

The side was very easy to stitch together. I used a simple cross stitch to join them, using a rust-colored waxed thread, which matches the dye very well and generally is my go-to when using this dye. The bottom was considerably harder to stitch and as mentioned above, I had to make several bottoms to get it right. Originally I had thought that pre-punching the holes into the bottom would be the way to go, but since the spacing of the holes had to be smaller than those punched into the larger piece of leather, that wasn't possible with my normal punching tools. I found some documentation discussing stitching cups, which recommended simply grooving the bottom cap, and piercing through into that groove from the hole already present in the sides. This proved to work quite well, though I could tell that more experience will certainly improve the quality of the stitch.

When the cap was firmly attached to the bottom I noticed that due to my inexperience, it wasn't entirely even. To (crudely) remedy this, I decided to simply sand down the high spots on the cap until it rested flat on a table, and re-dyed those edges. Following some burnishing with gum trag, the edges looked pretty decent.

A coat of leather conditioner and a quick buff completed the cup. I'm pretty happy with it for my first attempt, especially since stitching on the bottom was pretty difficult!

Thanks for reading,

Juju