DIY I Made a Leather Bag – Hand-Sewn with a Saddle Stitch – Advanced Leatherworking
I’m proud to present my latest leather project, the one I’m most proud of. It all starts with a pattern bought from a Vietnamese merchant. This bag took me months of thought and research. There are 22 cardboard pieces corresponding to 22 pieces to cut, for the outer leather, the leather lining, and the reinforcements. Add to that the skiving to be done. There aren’t many explanations, so it took me a long time to understand, and my leatherworking teacher had to help me decipher the diagrams. Just the prep takes a whole day, and luckily I had help from two friends. My leather is full of flaws (stretch marks, bites), so we had to think hard to cut around them and make sacrifices in less visible spots.
I wanted to slightly change the design compared to the original pattern, so I’m rummaging through my stock of metal hardware to see what might work. I chose silver hardware because it goes better with the leather and thread I picked.
I opted for a dark pink Negonda leather from Tanneries Dupuy and grey Swift leather from Pomari. These are colors I wouldn’t have chosen for myself, but I have an abundance of these leathers (from a big purchase of leather scraps), and it’s a gift for a child, so I thought it was perfect. Usually, I always use a light-colored lining leather (to easily find items), but again, it’s for a child, so they can get it as dirty as they want, that’s even fine. For the thread, I chose cream. I also have pink thread, but I thought that since I’m hand-stitching, I might as well show off the nice saddle stitch work.
I start with the handle. The handle on the left didn’t pass JB’s “Quality Control,” who judged that nothing was right: not the cutting, not the stitching, not the edges. I had to redo the handle (on the right) being more reasonable, setting aside the 3D effect that I don’t master well.
At first, I wanted a red-pink edge paint, then black, then I thought that with the little selection I have at home, the simplest is to mix black and white to get a grey shade that matches the grey lining.
This color works for me pretty well.
Normally, for edge painting, to get the desired shade, you only need two or four base colors (CMYK system), but I haven’t bought them all.
Third attempt at sewing the interior pocket, I don’t know what was wrong, but the stitch line isn’t quite straight. I’m tired, we’ll leave it as is.
Now for the bottom of the bag. I wasn’t supposed to add feet, but I said to myself “why not,” so here I am placing them temporarily to see if the feet I have can work with this small bottom. The metal feet keep the bag clean and they’re not that heavy, so it costs me nothing to add them.
Now we sew the front panel to the bottom.
I also prepare the gussets.
I put the handle in place. It will be supported by a piece of steel, which will allow the handle to support the full weight of the bag without deforming. This piece of steel is the well-kept secret of quality bags.
What a thrill! It’s the first handle of my life, I’m quite proud! It can also flatten completely so you can use the strap without being bothered.
The pattern doesn’t include a strap. After much hesitation, I decided to add 2 rings on the back panel to support the removable strap. This is the first time I’ve learned how to do it.
Someone asked me why the two rings weren’t placed at the gussets: it’s to avoid the strap rubbing against the bag (which could damage the edges). The gussets aren’t sturdy enough to support the full weight of the bag. Placing them at the back of the bag risks making it tilt backwards, but after testing, I realized that wasn’t the case when wearing the bag crossbody. The ideal spot would have been at the handle (to take advantage of the steel bar), but I don’t have the necessary metal loops. That’ll probably be for another project.
All the pieces are ready, time for assembly.
First, you need to put all the metal hardware in place before gluing in the leather lining.
Make sure everything is clean and well protected on the inside against friction, before putting in the lining.
The grey leather lining now has a small pocket. I wanted to add a carabiner for keys, but I thought it wouldn’t survive a child’s attacks: they’d pull on it and tear the lining, so I abandoned the idea. But if it were a bag for me, I would have added a spot for an AirPod plus a carabiner for keys.
I glue the lining to the outer leather, run the edge creaser.
I glue the gussets to the panels, and it’s time to sew. I make the mistake of gluing while the glue is still wet, clogging the stitching holes I had already made, making the sewing super difficult. I’ll never make that mistake again, promise.
We start working on the edges.
When the paint is fully dry, I attach the second part of the clasp. It’s an intense moment because if you make a wrong hole, you have to start all over.
And here’s the final result (I’ll finish the edge work of the strap later).
Outer leather: Negonda from Tanneries Dupuy. Lining: Swift from Pomari.
This is the first time I have all the professional tools at home to make a bag as neatly as possible; even my knife was sharpened by my (bookbinding) teacher so I could skive properly. Before, I thought I was bad at skiving, but when I tried it on a perfectly flat surface (which I didn’t have before) with a sharp knife, for the first time in my life I managed to reduce thickness from 0.4mm to almost zero without tearing the leather.
The two new things I treated myself to are: the creasing iron and the stitching pony with an extension, specially adapted for bags. These two tools made by Vietnamese artisans have changed my life. It just goes to show, you shouldn’t be cheap, and it’s essential to invest in quality tools to produce quality (not to mention the leatherworking classes I took with my teacher). I’m thrilled with my investments!
I loved having a project that uses metal hardware; I absolutely love it! I think it really adds to the project.
This time, I didn’t skimp on reinforcements; I bought 5 types of reinforcements of different thicknesses, and it was a great pleasure to use the right reinforcement for fragile parts. I think it shows because the bag stands up on its own (whew) and will keep its shape (I hope) in the future.
Unlike other projects where it was a race against the clock, this time I had enough time to go step by step and avoid mistakes. I followed the steps in order, with long breaks due to the Olympics. I had so much time to think that you can, for example, appreciate this detail: the continuity of the leather grain across two pieces of leather on the front vs. a store-bought bag that didn’t benefit from the same consideration. At the cutting stage, I was very careful to achieve this continuity, selecting the best part for the front of the bag and orienting the pieces so that the grain follows perfectly.
There are still noticeable imperfections (stitching, reinforcements, paint, lining), and the design can always be improved, but it’s already a big improvement over my other leather projects. This is only the second leather bag I’ve made, and the stitching has greatly improved compared to the first. I made mistakes that I can clearly avoid next time. I really enjoyed having a cardboard template to align the holes and ensure the leather pieces are accurate to the millimeter (my soft leather stretches a lot, so it’s great to be able to check before sewing). However, this template supplier isn’t very reliable, and there are a few errors in the template. Ideally, I’d like to make my own templates using, for example, my Silhouette cutting machine (which I’ll do later with this Yule log bag)..
Budget
- Pink leather: 1322000VND (this scrap has many flaws so I couldn’t use much) which is 49 euros, bought at 3Q Leather
- Grey swift lining leather: 1100000VND (I have a lot left) which is 40 euros, bought at 3Q Leather
- Template: 400,000VND, about 15 euros
- Clasp: 330,000VND, about 12 euros
- Metal feet: 100,000VND, about 3.7 euros
- Iron bar: 2.5 euros
- D-ring rings: 0.5 euros
- For the strap: Stainless Steel Swivel Bolt Snap 10 euros
- Reinforcements: Salamander 0.6mm, Hotmelt, Lysiane, self-adhesive fabric (I won’t count them in the budget because I bought large quantities)
- TOTAL (excluding tools, threads, and edge paints): 132.7 euros
