How to Make a Cowhide Ladies Bag

I have been dealing with leathercraft for a couple of years. The reason I learned this technique is that I found too expensive these products and I also regarded leathercraft as a challengeous activity. By now I usually make these products to order such as this bag. Principally I use cowhide, because that is the most accessible material which is heavy-duty but also esthetic.

Now I will present the making of a ladies bag, from blue cowhide.

Step 1: What You Need

As you can see on the picture, I used these materials and tools, to make the bag:

- Cowhide (blue, and a little piece of black)

- Lining leather (black)

- Shoemakers glue

- Belt buckles x2 (for 2 cm belt)

- Carton

- Waxed thread

- Scissors

- Round awl

- Blade

- Lacing chisel (2x3mm)

- Hammer

- Hole punch pliers

- Tracing wheel

- Sewing awl

- Harness needle x2

- Diamond awl

- Tabletop lace cutter

- Lacing needle

Step 2: Making Patterns and Marking

First I design the parts of the bag on a sheet of carton, then cut them with scissors. After this mark them to the leather with a round awl.

Step 3: Tailoring and Punching

I cut the marked parts using a blade, then with a lacing chisel(2x3mm) and a hammer, I punch it around approximately a half cm from the edges. Now I punch the strap with the punch pliers.

Step 4: Sewing

The parts to be sewed should be attached before the lining so that I can get an organic surface, then hide all the thread. At this point I sew up the strap and buckles by hand. First I mark the place of punctures with a tracing wheel, after I finalize them with an awl. Finally I fix the parts with saddle stitching.

Step 5: Sticking and Punching

I stick up the lining to the parts, taking care of the smooth surface. For that I must consider the drying time of the glue, because the faster it dries, the less time I have for smoothing the leather. After drying, I punch the lining with a diamond awl along the external holes. Finally I cut the surplus lining leather with scissors.

As you can see, I sticked the parts to the front side of the lining leather, because the backside is more scratch-resistant on this type of leather.

Step 6: Lace Cutting and Lacing

I cut laces from the rest of lining leather, adjusted to the size of the holes(3 mm wide) then I lace around the bag. I use "triple loop lacing", but you can use any other lacing techniques as you wish. I recommend to read the book "Lacing & stitching for leathercraft", you can find many useful techniques in it.

Step 7:

I hope you enjoyed my description, and took a liking to make your own bag, like this. If you need any help to make a same bag, ask in comment, and I will try to answer.

For curiosity here is some pictures about my other creations.

Thanks for reading!