This is what I was up to over the weekend…refashioning a leather jacket into a shoulder bag! Mike has been doing lots of studying, so I have had plenty of time on my own to work on my sewing/crafting (though I never seem to have enough time to think that trying to tackle my un-upholstered couch is a good idea…I think I’ll have to work up to that one!). I have heard about people refashioning leather jackets and then selling them on Etsy, and I decided to give it a try.
This was my first time sewing with leather, and I found out quickly that it is a bit different than working with regular fabric. One thing that I found I had to be careful about was once you poke a hole in the leather, there is no getting it out. This meant that I could not use pins to hold the leather in place, which was a little difficult at first, but since leather is so sturdy, I soon got the hang of it. The leather would pretty much go wherever I told it to, unlike fabric, which can sometimes have a mind of its own.
The permanent hole problem also showed up when making the actual stitches…I had to be extremely careful to line everything up properly, and only sew the seams once to avoid having a whole bunch of extra holes in my bag.
You can see from the pictures that I haven’t quite finished the bag yet, though I am getting really close. I still want to put a couple of tabs on the pocket flap that will go through the little loops on the bottom of the pocket. I have made the liner for the bag, but I still have to put it in and attach the zipper. And of course I have to put a strap on it. I will post a finished picture of it on Wednesday so you all can see how it turned out. I will also give you some more details on what parts of the jacket I used for what. Because a leather jacket has only so much fabric, you have to be a little creative in using it.
How was your weekend?
i absolutely adore this bag!
Wow, Kate! This bag is absolutely stunning! I think you had a much better experience with sewing leather than I have ever had. Some leather goes through my machine with no problems and others just sticks all the time. Very annoying but so fulfilling to make something from leather. Of course, none of my projects were made with real leather, it’s all faux leather, so maybe there’s the difference? Not sure. I want to try suede at some point as well.
I had a quiet weekend. Finished a few small projects that have been lying around for a while now, but did not make half the things I planned to. Disgrace really, as we had a long weekend in SA this past weekend and I had a whole three days to sew! Did not help that I had a migraine for two of them though. I was so keen to start my first project from my Chic Sewing book! Maybe this weekend…
Wow, that bag is great! I’ve always wanted to try this.
Fab idea! I’ll browse through my old clothe to see if I happen to have an old leather jacket I can transform! :-) I love revamping ol’ clothes vs. given them away if I can find a way to bring them back to life! Thanks for your post. Cheers, Julie
[…] Bag From A Leather Jacket from Curiositys (LOVE the repurposing here!) […]
brilliant! what a happy find your blog is.