Wallet..... Leather Coat part 3

The upper collar not including the lapels, the piece you see below, was used to make a simple no frills wallet.

There are 2 pockets on either side.

I considered sewing the wallet by hand, but then just went ahead and ran it through my machine. I used regular office binder clips and a few hem clips to hold it all tightly together......leather does have a tendency to stretch and slide as it goes through the sewing machine.

I'm having sooo much fun doing this. I really am the kind of person that needs to be given a problem or a challenge. In the next post I'll go a little bit more into how I do/did things and what's going on my head while I do it. I promise not to make it too scary for you. I'll tone it down and only relay the pertinent thoughts! :-)

I realize the book and the wallet aren't that exciting as far as designs go, but I made them first for a couple of reasons. The first is I've never really worked with leather before. I wanted/needed to get a feel for it. I needed to know how it would behave under the foot of the sewing machine, and how easily it was to hand sew it. Notice also that I used a heavy Perle cotton on the book and "regular" thread on the wallet. I also now know how the leather behaves as a single layer, doubled, or tripled. The second reason is cuz I didn't/don't know what all the future projects might be. I had to make a couple of things that used small pieces of leather, or pieces that I wouldn't be sorry about using and no longer having them for something else. The wallet used the otherwise mostly useless, oddly shaped collar, a piece of leather that wouldn't be missed. The book used half of the sun bleached sleeve, I wouldn't be using that sleeve for any future designs....at least not as a sleeve!

Now I have a fairly large list of things I COULD make. I have the maximum amount of yardage still at my disposal. And I've got a pretty good idea what the leather will and won't do.