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Selfish Sewing

This weekend I got to sew for myself! Wooohooo! I bought a piece of leather from Leather to Lace at Etsy. Originally, I wanted to make the entire outer shell out of leather but then I realized I only had enough to make a small leather bag. No worries, I had some home decor fabric to add to the bag making project. I decided to make my wave bag by trimming the edges and strap in leather. To make the home decor fabric tie into the leather, I monogramed using the same color thread as the leather. 
The embroidery design comes from Meringue Designs. 
Here is a quick how to video on embroidery....




When working with leather there are a few rules you have to follow. 
  1. Use a leather needle, it makes a hole in the leather instead of pushing the fibers away.
  2. Make sure your stitch length is longer, set to a 3.5 or higher. If the stitch length is short, the leather will tear on your seam.
  3. You should sew with a seam allowance of .25ā€, so you will have less bulk in between your seams.
  4. Decrease your thread tension as you increase the thickness of your leather project.
  5. Use the wallpaper roller to roll the seams flat and glue the seam excess down with cement glue.
  6. Do not iron.
What supplies should you have before you start?
  1. leather needle
  2. wallpaper roller
  3. rayon, nylon or polyester thread Do not use 100% cotton it will break.
  4. binder clips
  5. teflon foot is nice but if you do not have one use baby powder or tissue paper.
  6. rubber Cement glue
I love my new bag and can't wait to use it. Hopefully it will match all of my fall clothes.  
Thanks for listen to me ramble!

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