Handmade Leather Bags

1. The entire process takes 18 hours.

2. I will need: leather (I prefer only natural and high quality), adhesive sealing to give the bag the desired shape, fabric for lining and pockets, zippers for bags and pockets, cardboard, bag pattern, ruler, knife or scissors, pencil leather, awl, punch for leather, glue, paper clips, hammer, rivets, sewing machine, machine to insert buttons and rivets.

3. The beginning of work: I make a bag pattern on a paper, put the pattern on the leather, mark with a pencil, and cut the finished parts.

4. When cutting pieces of leather handbags by the ruler I measure every millimeter that the bag turns out flat in all its details.

5. Of each detail I save 1 cm on the edges for seams.

6. I sew on the main part of the cloth to the bottom of the bag.

7. I glue the seal to the details of the main cloth (with glue on one side).

8. The glued seal will keep the shape of the bag.

9. To main cloth I sew the side parts.

10. For sewing leather bags I use a conventional sewing machine, the leather is pretty soft, so the problems with the stitching do not arise.

11. I glue to the bottom thick cardboard to make it hard.

12. I glue all the seams on the inside.

13. Before gluing of each detail, applying the glue you should wait 10 minutes until the glue impregnated the leather. Then you need to glue the parts hammering them.

14. I sew a zipper on the bag, tapping by the hammer (for strength).
Then I sew the zipper on a sewing machine.

15. I cut workpieces of handles for bag, glue them with the glue.

16. Before gluing of each detail, applying the glue you should wait 10 minutes until the glue impregnated the leather. Then you need to glue the parts hammering them. The glue keeps the leather so strongly that it is impossible to tear up the parts from each other after gluing.

17. The handles for the bag are ready, their length is 45 cm.

18. I attach the handle to the bag with rivets (I use the special machine).

19. Step 18 – the bag with handles is ready. Then I proceed with the lining. By the same patterns of the bag I prepare the details of lining with a pocket.

20. By the same patterns of the bag I prepare the details of lining with a pocket. Then I sew up the details, the pocket and a zipper to it.

21. I sew the lining into the bag (manually).