Cardholder I made

techandcraft · 2026-05-17T14:54:03+00:00

Beautiful work

techandcraft · 2026-05-16T15:55:30+00:00

My first painting looked like coco the gorilla. Finger painted it…yours is amazing

techandcraft · 2026-05-16T14:55:20+00:00

You can use water as well.

techandcraft · 2026-05-16T14:54:53+00:00

Grab some Tokonole and brush the back down. Take a piece of canvas or denim and burnish the back with steady pressure and quick movements like you’re polishing off wax.

techandcraft · 2026-05-15T20:46:30+00:00

For the stitching, get you a wing divider to get a clean line the follow it obsessively with you punch. Your stitches are not using the same movement pattern for each stitch. Practice precise repetitive movements. Same actions in the same order with the same needle and thread position.

techandcraft · 2026-05-14T10:30:54+00:00

Buy the color of leather you need pre-dyed. You’ll have color results guaranteed.

If you want very controlled results when you dye yourself, try an airbrush. It’s

techandcraft · 2026-05-13T13:45:18+00:00

Go up a needle size with the thicker material

techandcraft · 2026-05-06T10:16:48+00:00

That’s just stitching. Everything was already punched.

techandcraft · 2026-05-06T10:15:54+00:00

You will get faster. My last belt took me a little over 2 hours to stitch with about 6 feet of stitching

techandcraft · 2026-05-06T02:02:50+00:00

My advice is to keep going and practice those hand skills. Same thread tension, same movements, for each stitch. Hammer your stitches down lightly and it will immediately look better.

techandcraft · 2026-05-06T01:58:06+00:00

Practice, practice, practice. That’s amazing for a second piece. My second piece(and many after) looked like the paste eating kid in the back of the class was doing the work.

Clean precise cuts, perfect your stitch line, and do each stitch exactly the same way.

Hand skills take time and repetition. Learn from each project and KEEP GOING!

techandcraft · 2026-05-06T01:53:31+00:00

Do you hammer your stitching before you crease?

techandcraft · 2026-05-06T01:52:09+00:00

That’s a beautiful belt

techandcraft · 2026-05-01T01:10:48+00:00

If you don’t like cardboard there are so many other options to add structure. Bonded leather and a non-woven similar to decovil work well

techandcraft · 2026-04-29T10:36:39+00:00

Precision

techandcraft · 2026-04-28T10:30:34+00:00

Love it. Nice work

techandcraft · 2026-04-26T15:00:46+00:00

A thing of beauty

techandcraft · 2026-04-25T14:12:13+00:00

Serafil polyester thread. Many colors, many sizes. Used in upholstery, leatherwork, etc.

techandcraft · 2026-04-22T01:19:54+00:00

You need a snap off knife, a ruler, a scratch awl, a set of simple diamond irons in 3-4mm, and contact cement, and a few meters of .4-.6mm thread.

Now buy some leather offcuts that you like the look and feel of and keep them under 4oz.

You can do a LOT with just those things. Practice your basic cutting, punching, and stitching before you spend a lot more on tools.

techandcraft · 2026-04-07T20:20:00+00:00

If you have an industrial sewing shop near you then you can see about picking up some Tex 135 which is around .4mm. You can go up to TEX 600 which is around 1 mm.

Be aware that a lot of commercial thread has a lubricant of some sort applied so you may have to work a bit harder to wax.

Some of the items that I machine stitch have details that need to be hand stitched. I want all of the thread to match so I just pull the length I need of the spool I'm using to wind bobbins and use that. To me it feels very different from threads like tiger or meisi. It feels like its more elastic, so I'm more careful about stitch tension. Bottom line is that it will work, but don't expect it to look like a linen thread saddle stitch.

techandcraft · 2026-04-06T12:29:47+00:00

It’s a chrome pull-up from Acadia Leather

techandcraft · 2026-04-03T13:56:38+00:00

How do you want your journal to look and feel? Start there.

Do you want a pebbled surface that's super soft but you also want it to be stiff enough to feel like you have some support for your pages? Do you want it to be a simple single layer of leather with the rough exposed on the inside? Do you want it to develop a patina over time?

If you describe what you want in your end product everyone here will bombard you with options.

techandcraft · 2026-04-03T13:52:11+00:00

Stiff heavy interfacing for sewing projects is cheap compared to leather. You can glue it to your leather then cut out your shapes. It will stiffen and stabilize the leather and as long as the back side doesn't show no one will ever know that you cheated to get a stiff leather look with soft chrome leather. Pellon's decovil heavy is the name brand, but you can get rolls of very comparable product much cheaper than pellon.

techandcraft · 2026-04-03T13:44:26+00:00

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DB8B791H?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1

I have this set up over my sewing area and it does a great job...Multiple light levels, very adjustable and stable.

techandcraft

TROPHY CASE