Making A Tooled Leather Cross Body Bag - Leather Craft
In this leather craft video I make a tooled leather cross-body bag for my wife. The bag is made from natural vegetable tanned leather that has been custom finished and hand stitched throughout. The bag’s main exterior feature is the intricately tooled middle gusset panel that has been tooled with a basket-weave pattern. The bag can be held in hand by the leather-wrapped rope handles or over the shoulder with the adjustable leather shoulder strap. The inside of the bag is completely lined with soft chocolate colored suede and features an interior pocket for storing small items. I hope you enjoy the video and watching my process of making this leather bag.
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Leather:
Natural Vegetable Tanned Leather
- Bag Side Panels 8-9 oz ()
- Bag Gusset 5-6 oz ()
- Interior Pocket Piece 3-4 oz (), Gussets 2-3 oz (1mm)
- Zipper Pieces 3-4 oz ()
- Grab Handle Pieces 3-4 oz ()
- Loop & D-ring Attachments Pieces 3-4 oz ()
- Shoulder Strap 10-11 oz ()
- Chocolate Colored Pig Suede Interior Lining 1-2 oz
- 1/4” plastic rope (for handle core)
Patterns/Marking/Measuring
- Plywood pattern (for side panels)
- Cereal box (for cardboard pattern)
- Steel cork backed rulers
- TechTools brand T-square
- Scratch Awl (for marking)
- Ink Pen (for marking)
- Craftool Wing Dividers
- Multi-circle drawing template
- Craftool English point drawing template
- Digital calipers
Cutting:
- Kobalt brand box cutter
- Weaver Master Tool round knife
- X-Acto knife
- Steel quarter round punch (for rounding corners)
- 5/8” oblong die cutter (for strap buckle)
- Steel hole punches
- Weaver #1 edge beveler
- Owden #0 edge beveler
- Leather strop with green polishing compound
- Nail pullers (for clipping off rivets)
- Barry King #5 french skiver (for thinning handle ends)
- Glass plate (for skiving)
- Straight blade skiving knife
- Rotary cutter
Tooling:
- Water (for casing the leather)
- Foam brush (for applying water)
- Painter’s Tape (for backing the leather while tooling)
- Basket-weave stamp #X517
- Boarder stamp #C366
- Custom logo stamp
- Granite surface
Gluing / Sanding
- EcoWeld Contact Adhesive (for gluing)
- Plastic bottle (for applying EcoWeld)
- Cotton swabs (for glue)
- Craftool Detail Rougher
- Sandpaper (for sanding of edges)
- Bone folder
- Metal roller
- Plastic glue applicator (for spreading glue)
- Business card (for spreading glue)
- Double sided tape
- Clips (for holding leather)
- Reinforcement tape
Machines:
- Craftool drum sander/burnishing machine
- 1 Ton arbor press
- Central Pneumatic airbrush machine & airbrush
- NewTech bell skiving machine
- Cast iron snap/rivet setter
Stitching:
- KS Blade Punch 4mm diamond prong pricking irons
- 3” (75mm) Needles
- Lighter
- Ritza Tiger Thread, Beige & Brown
- Wooden stitching pony
- Awl
Hammers:
- Barry King tapered maul (for punching holes & tooling)
- C.S. Osborne & Co Leather Working Hammer
- 5oz tack hammer
- Ball peen hammer (for peening rivets)
- Anvil (for peening rivets)
Hardware
- #14 Brass rivets and burrs (with #14 setter & peening tool set)
- Metal 4 antique brass Riri Zipper
- Line 20 antique brass snap
- ¾” antique brass square loops (for handles)
- ½” antique brass D-rings
- ½” antique brass buckle
Finish:
- Fiebing’s Pro Dye Light Brown
- Fiebing’s Pro Dye Chocolate
- Fiebing’s Medium Brown Antique Finish
- Gum Tragacanth (for burnishing the backside of strap)
- Tokonole (for edge burnishing)
- Small needle bottle (for applying Tokonole)
- Central Pneumatic airbrush (for applying dye)
- Cotton Swabs (for applying dye to edges)
- Wool dauber (for applying antique finish & Gum Trag.)
- Flat tip cotton applicator (for dying edges)
- Paper towels
- Round wooden slicker (for burnishing)
- Fiebings Mink Oil Liquid
- RTC Sheridan Resist and Finish (for final top coat)
- Round cotton pads (for applying top coat)
0:00 Intro
0:04 Sides & Gusset Cut-out
0:33 Tooling The Gusset
1:32 Pocket, Handle & Zipper Piece Cut-out
4:06 Shoulder Strap Beveling
4:24 Dying The Leather
5:07 Applying Antique
6:07 Applying Oil & Top Coat
7:00 Lining Interior
8:35 Hardware Attachments
9:16 Making Handles
10:56 Interior Pocket Assembly
11:51 Installing Handles & Pocket
13:07 Attaching The Gusset
14:24 Zipper Assembly & Install
16:46 Making The Shoulder Strap
18:01 Finished Bag