bowreality

Fiebings Pro dye and Barge won’t be sold in Canada any longer. Law change starting 2024 banning both products in Canada because of VOCs.

If you like to design your own patterns check out Affinity Designer. Blows my mind!

Quick to learn how to draw patterns, easy to resize and so so much more.

Here is a great example from today: I tried to figure out how to get the length of the one side of an odd shaped part of my pattern. I know the measuring tool in Affinity but it seemed to only do straight lines, distance between objects or area.

Quick search and I learned I can break the curve points and then it shows me the length of the different sides and the area 🤯

Extremely handy especially when working with zippers in a certain size.

I also can export as svg or pdf. Print and cut your patterns (pdf) or if you have a Cricut or Silhouette (svg), cut the patterns with that! Or even the leather if not too thick.

I am considering selling some patterns in the future and I can even toss in the afdesign file for people so they can adjust what they want.

Affinity Designer btw is super affordable especially compared to Adobe Illustrator and such. If I remember correctly there is free 30 day trial.

Anybody else using Affinity Designer?

I recently watched this video by Corter and it was a bit of an aha moment.

Whether it’s repair, changing the thread colour or in my case fixing some mistakes … I love how leather products can be opened up and redone. Not everything of course but the stitch line is fairly simple to revamp, billets are quickly replaced and even edges can be re-burnished.

I love the 2nd bag that I ever made a lot but it was my second bag. I had missed a whole and one corner was therefore off, I attached the buckle upside down (it works but looks off) and a seam was opening up. Burnished edges weren’t good yet.

So I sat down today and fixed it all. It was easier than I thought and it’s a nice upgrade! I wish I had taken before and after pics.

Hi everybody,

I thought I would start a pinned thread to list suppliers here. Feel free to comment your favourites please. Incl. country, and what you like buying there and I’ll start adding here.

USA

Rocky Mountain Leather Supply (ships internationally as well) https://www.rmleathersupply.com

Weaver Leather Supply (ships internationally as well) https://www.weaverleathersupply.com The Ohio Travel Bag https://ohiotravelbag.com/

The Leather Guy https://theleatherguy.org/

Hide House https://www.hidehouse.com/

Springfield Leather https://www.springfieldleather.com/

Brettuns Village https://brettunsvillage.com/

Zack White https://www.zackwhite.com/

Buckle Guy https://www.buckleguy.com/ Hardware

Canada

OA Leather Supply (ships internationally as well) https://www.oaleathersupply.com

Buckskin Leather http://buckskinleather.com/

Lonsdale Leather https://lonsdaleleather.com/

Hand & Sew https://leathertools.ca/

Zipperloft (also ships to the US!) http://zipperloft.ca/ Great YKK zipper collection, lots of colours and styles. They also can do custom.

Emmaline Bags https://emmalinebags.com/ Selling lots of bag hardware, Giardini edge paint etc.

I got Fashionary’s Bag Design 😱 It’s amazing!!!

I now have sometimes (!) the issue that it triggers the outlet (Meross brand) on and then right away off again. So odd! It’s supposed to go on when fitness focus comes on and off when fitness focus is disabled.

Could it be that it’s a Meross plug issues?

I am having some issues burnishing some chrome tans. I would love to hear what everybody is using to burnish edges please

I would love to start a (maybe monthly?) WIP showcase. Any interest? I’ll comment on what I am working on below. Feel free to add yours as well

I got a message a couple of times now over night that a shortcut was activated. I am pretty new to this so I don’t have much. I only get these messages on and off now since I created a shortcut that activates when I switch to fitness focus. I have other automations, mostly manually triggered (outlet on/off stuff). And one that is timed for Sunday night. I can’t figure out what triggers these messages now. Like last night at 10:40pm while I was asleep and my sleep mode on.

I would love to discuss designs and esthetics here as well. I got this new closure for a handbag and I am wondering if I need to go with a somewhat round or even just rounded corners?! Any ideas?

I am still fairly new to Leathercraft and just got into making handbags. Here are some pics of my first two handbags made from my own designs. Leather is Hidden Water from Sepici (green) and Blue Tidal from Arif & Sons (Blue)

I hope we can create a community here for Leathercraft. From beginners to experienced pros. Hobbyists, side hustle or professional saddle maker … all are welcome.