Leathercraft

I honestly don’t even know where to begin with this obsession. It started so many decades ago and endures to this day and has become an integral part of many of my projects. What follows are the things I know that work for me, places I shop online for hides, tools, supplies, dyes, and other refinements.

There’s also a link to a page chock full of some of my leather projects so feel free to check it out or browse through the rest of the site as I’m sure you’ll see leather stuff scattered throughout that might not have made it onto that page. The featured image for the page is one of my many plague doctor masks I’ve made over the years which is made with a fiberglass shell and covered in leather and leather bits.

Online Suppliers

So those are my main four places I trust to get leather online from. I’m VERY VERY picky when it comes to buying leather, I prefer to see the whole piece I’m buying and actually see it, touch it, look at both sides but when I can’t because my local supplier is out, I know the above place won’t let me down.

In addition to leather hides, they also offer a very wide range of tools and supplies that you will need for finishing your projects like punches, threads, rivets, hammers, mallets, and so many other items you may never knew existed. So if you get bored I suggest you take the time and go browse those sites to see what they have to offer and familiarize yourself with them.

One other site I want to mention is Amazon. Now this is where I first found Leather Unlimited. But it’s easier and better to get your leather from their site. I use Amazon for cost effective tools, many of which I will be showcasing and reviewing in upcoming posts and videos. I’ll to make a list of the tools I’ve purchased off Amazon in case you want to get the same ones.

And finally, one last resource for spur of the moment leather needs if your local Michaels, Jo Anne Fabrics, and my all time fave… Hobby Lobby. You just can’t beat Hobby Lobby’s 40% off coupon for an item making some of the tools or kits far cheaper than buying them elsewhere.

Tutorials

As of late I’ve found myself caught up following a gentleman name Tony over on YouTube who has a ton of tutorials and videos as well as highly cost effective patterns available for sale on his site. So to kick off this small section I’ll start of listing him.

Tony’s information is:

I’m going to be doing a post about one of the projects I started using one of his free patterns and buy the tools and materials to complete it that cost me less than $50 USD to get EVERYTHING I needed from Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago. So yeah, if you want to get into making things from leather for yourself or to sell, check out what Tony has to offer.

Patterns/Templates with Video Tutorials

Tony isn’t the only person out there with nice templates and tutorials, but he is without a doubt one of the easiest to follow along with and to purchase the tools to follow along.

Here are some links to other sites that offer patterns/templates for sale or free as well as video tutorials so you can build along:

This is by no means at all a complete or anywhere close to complete listing. Do yourself a favour and just get on YouTube and type in “free leather template” or “leather template download” and you’ll find a whole bunch more in addition to the ones I listed above.

I will say that I do have a couple of projects from GizmoLT in the works right now as well, namely the Samurai Mempo which I am stoked to do and at some point will post something about it.

Last Updated 7-7-20