2015 is off to a good start

After my winter break project of working with metal and synthetic fabrics, it felt good to get back to the familiarity of leather. Up first is a clutch modification. The client had purchased this leather clutch/portfolio at a thrift store, but wasn't thrilled with the monogram that decorated the flap:

She wanted a tooled leather piece with her own initials to cover the stamped monogram, which seemed simple enough. However, once I was ready to start sewing it into place, I discovered that, while the exterior leather was in great shape, the interior lining was extremely thin and fragile, and tore as easily as tearing a sheet of paper. I ended up replacing the entire lining with vegetable-tanned leather, to match the tooled piece on the flap:

Somehow it was rainy and dark the entire time I was working on this, which is why I don't have better photos of this project.
 Up next is a fun project - another squirrel wallet. The client wanted to acquire for his girlfriend a nice wallet, but wasn't exactly sure as to the specifics. He put me in touch with her, and we figured out the details of what would fulfill her carry needs - zippered all the way around, with enough space for cash/cards and a smartphone, plus a wrist strap. There would be some tooling on the interior of a saying from her dad, plus some imagery to match. And here is the end result:

Dark blue/violet pebbled Horween leather for the exterior, tooled veg-tanned leather for the interior, and the wallet zips shut with a sturdy YKK zipper.
This next project is another zippered wallet, and an Etsy request. She really liked the zippered wallets I have for sale, but wanted a different color scheme - something a little more natural. After some discussion as to what "natural" meant, we settled on black doe kidskin for the exterior, with an interior color to be chosen by me:

Usually I use a thicker leather and use that for the entire wallet, but the kidskin was thin enough to do turned edges and I think it turned out quite well. I'd forgotten how fantastic that particular leather feels.
A friend from work wanted just a plain, sturdy belt, and wanted to reuse the buckle from his soon-to-be-retired current belt. Here is is, made from thick Hermann Oak leather and dyed black:

And finally, I decided at kind of the last moment to make something complicated for my own special lady for Valentine's Day. She's a big fan of purple, and I had a lot of new purple leather to try working with, and it seemed like a good idea to turn it into a chambered nautilus clutch purse:

It's mostly constructed from soft purple cowhide, and gold speckly leather was used for the inlays and onlays, plus the interior lining. It closes with an antique brass YKK zipper.