Mood DIY: Leather Card Holder

I’m currently making my website for my leather goods brand, Brandhyze + Co, and thought….”hey, I’m gonna need a trusty new card case holder for my cards once they come in” (hope she doesn’t mind, used my hairstylist‘s cards here to demo). 🙂 So, I made a template, grabbed some leather from Mood Fabrics, and got to work folding and sewing — it’s really easy! You can add a snap, paint on your initials, etc…the possibilities are endless. Have fun making your own.SUPPLIES: pattern, rotary cutter/scissors, 3-4oz leather, skiver, tragacanth, edge burnisher, edge note, a q-tip, needle and sinew.
HOW-TO:
1. Cut out the template, trace it on to the leather, and then cut it out of the leather.
2. I wanted the stiffness and “stand-up” that a slightly thicker leather would have, but that thickness also made the case hard to fold. So, I used a skiver to shave off some of the “flesh” of the leather to make my job a little easier. (Note: I learned this the hard way while making a duffle bag once…but you’ll want to go a little slower until you get the hang of skiving, or else with a new blade you may shave a hole right through your leather).
3. After you shave some of the back off, there may be some leather sticking up along the edges. If so, use a little tragacanth and a burnishing wheel to smooth everything down.
4. Crack a window and lay down some paper towel or newspaper to coat the edges of your leather. I usually use about 2 coats and let it dry for about half hour before picking it up again. Lastly….I used a leather sewing machine, but feel free to use the method I always fall back on — good ol’ hand stitching (using the saddle stitch) like I did here.
Brandhyze Stanley is the chief voice of the award winning blog, Frugal-nomics.com; a platform designed to share with women how to live and look fabulous on a dime. A DIY girl at heart—Brandhyze has been featured on Dr. Oz, The View, The Today Show, InStyle Magazine, Essence Magazine, and MTVStyle. A Wilhelmina Model for over a decade, with a Business Degree from Loyola University Chicago, Brandhyze provides DIY content to the popular How-To Site, eHow; and has been a contributor for the Huffington Post, Yahoo Finance, Super Money, Good Housekeeping, and Newsday Westchester, to name a few. Brandhyze is a huge thrifter and a lover of all good deals, follow her on Twitter @MyFrugalnomics and on Facebook at Facebook.com/Frugalnomics