What !! it’s NOT Leather
I love being handed someones old jacket to make it into something special, the excitement of checking out the leather for the first time and seeing what features the jacket has to reuse in the bag, on first contact with this jacket it was a brief exchange, from their car boot to my own, I discussed their requirements and tucked it away in my schedule for a few days. (keep following the videos in their order as there’s a twist in the tale !!)
When the information comes from a reliable source that the jacket is ‘leather’ I had no reason on first contact to disbelief him, he had no reason to state it was something that it wasn’t but the truth of the matter is he was duped at the point of sale, and worn it for some time believing it was leather. I myself had only handled it for a few minutes so hadn’t closely inspected it, but as soon as the heavy fleece and brushed cotton lining was removed, it revealed the jacket to be something other than leather , I could not believe it but was some sort of waxed cotton, gorgeous never the less but definitely NOT Leather.
Dilemma, my customer is expecting a cool new leather holdall overnight bag from his leather jacket thats not leather, how do I break the news to him. And even more embarrassing I have dismantled the jacket to make it unwearable and may not be actually useable for the job.
Ok , all is well, my customer is surprised the jacket isn’t leather and so was I but we hatch a plan to mix the waxed jacket material with a really old leather waistcoat and I am excited how it all comes together. Taking the fab pockets and the elbow pads to form the front and back of the bag , it is starting to shape and using the old waistcoat to add as an element of leather to it works well.
As you can see from video 3 the weekend bag/holdall is a really simply pattern, very few pattern pieces but like most bag making the preparation takes far longer than the actual sewing together of the bag. Here is the final video and finished pics of the bag. Feel free to message me if you would like any help with your project.
PS: Please leave a comment and share with your friends if you found this post valuable and go across to my website for more upcycled creations from the past, from clothing and furniture etc, and ‘how to’ make leather bags from a jacket. Keep dropping back as I add more ‘how to’ videos and new creations.
Aly Ashton – Saving items from landfill everyday of my life !
PPS :- got a business? as a side passion I help business owners build their businesses leveraging the internet just like I have !
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