How To Begin Working With Leather

A few years ago my husband came across a woman in our area who was a leather worker looking for someone to give her scraps to. Always excited about potential opportunities for our kids to explore, he picked up the bag of leather and brought it home. This began a journey into leatherworking that turned into a passion for several of our children. 

If you have children interested in making things out of leather, here is a list of recommended resources that my kids put together, as well as their basic step by step instructions on how to put together a hand stitched leather item. 

Cutting Leather

A razor knife is the easiest way to cut leather. You can draw your cut line on the leather first to give you a guide. A simple pouch of two leather squares stitched together on three sides might be the easiest thing to start with. We enjoy the free templates offered through the Make Supply website. They also have a video tutorial on how to make a simple leather wallet. We skipped doing the part where he cut out a “thumb slot” because it’s easier and we liked the look better without it. 

Always keep your knife blade sharp! Not only does it produce better results, it is also safer to use a sharp knife instead of a dull one that doesn’t cut well. 

Preparing Your Leather For Stitching 

Although you can just freehand punch holes in your leather for stitching, there are a few things we do to make the finished product look more professional. 

First we draw out a stitching path using a compass tool. This is the line you will punch holes along for stitching. 

We use a thin line of leather glue to attach the pieces of leather that we will be stitching together. This makes the whole process easier. After applying the glue we use binder clips to hold the pieces in place until they’re dry. It only takes about ten minutes for the glue to dry. Then you’re ready to take the clips off and start punching. 

Punch Holes and Sew

Since leather is too tough to push a needle through, you need to pre punch your holes. We use these 5 mm stitching chisels from Weaver Leather to make holes through the leather.

Set the chisel on the stitching path you drew and give it a couple taps with a hammer until it just barely pokes through all the pieces of leather. Continue making holes along your whole stitching path. Try to space them evenly each time you set the chisel down again. 

Once we’re done pre punching holes we sew the pieces of leather together. Our favorite stitching needles are the John James needles in size 002. We use this waxed thread to stitch with. Using thread that is waxed makes sewing much easier! 

This video shows the process well. You can skip ahead to minute 4:15 to see how to line edges, punch, and stitch your leather. We enjoy watching his channel for ideas and techniques! 

Although you can buy your leather on Amazon, we recommend first searching around your area for a leather upholsterer who might give or sell you their scraps. We found ours through Facebook marketplace because she was advertising her leather scraps there. Calling local shops that you find in the yellow pages and explaining what you are wanting leather scraps for could make you a good connection. We have found that most people are glad to have someone come to pick up their scraps. It keeps them out of the landfill, and takes the extra mess off their hands without them having to dispose of them. 

There are a few other tools that we use and think you might enjoy. 

Self healing cutting mat: This keeps your surfaces safe while you are cutting your leather and also preserves the blade of your knife. 

Snaps: These snaps can be used as closures for pouches, bracelets, or any other project that needs a fastener. 

Rivets We use these rivets to give a decorative look to a project, although we don’t recommend using these for holding pieces of leather together.

Stamps Stamps are a fun way to dress up or personalize your project. We’ve also been experimenting with using a basket weave stamp tool. It can create a really amazing pattern across the surface of your leather. 

Beveler As you improve your skills you will probably want to start beveling your edges for a more finished look.