De Havilland Bag

I have enrolled on this course in December and made some of the smaller items, such as the card slot card wallet. I made 3 before I was almost happy. There is always something that doesn't lend itself to the project, such as the type of leather or tools at your disposal. I used ostrich leg for the front and after a while the very small scales dislocates from the flesh, due to angles of cut, pricking irons used, so I will attempt this again with different materials. I use Japanese style pricking irons ( French style on order) and this definitely impacts on the final look of the product.

I moved on to the De Havilland bag and there also a few lessons learned for the next time. I use a bell skiver and I managed to set it perfectly from the video in this course. Skiving is now a breeze, but the leather pieces wasn't skived down thin enough. 0.1mm over a few pieces makes a difference in the final assembly before stitching. Material choice is also a factor. I used Aneline tanned leather for most and Veg tanned for the zipper cover and handle attachments. The Aneline leather is very soft and results in the piping being too soft and without decent definition. Material and tool availability in South Africa is difficult and lead time is an issue when you want to do something now. I used what I had at my disposal and completed the bag with lots of notes for improvement.

The handles was done in a waxy Aneline with a solid 9mm rubber core. Leather cord in the required dimensions is not available for me.

All stitching was done with 4mm pricking iron and 0.5mm Amyroke thread. 0.6mm would have given a better definition. All edges was finished with Uniters edge paint.