Perhaps it's best to start with an apology to those animals who've given their skins or hides to be ruined by an amateur, but we all have to start somewhere.
In the past 2-3 months, I've spent most of my few, precious evening hours on learning how to make wallets and watch straps. It's quite unbelievable how many times a person can make the same mistake over and over again. A personal favourite of mine is gluing pieces together before finishing the top edges on a wallet. Another great one is using a manual creaser completely vertically, and so ensuring several slips and ruined edges along the way.
I've finished all of the pieces linked below before starting to watch Phil's video courses, and have therefore already learned a great number of tricks on how to improve. I've also finally spend the time to figure out how to cast when stitching, so it can only get better from here, one hopes.
I have the most trouble with keeping my stitch line straight, any kind of edge work (especially paint, which I've only tried with one of the wallets), not scratching of scuffing the leather (which is why I prefer leathers with some sort of texture - easier to hide mistakes), straight final cuts to enable better quality edge work, and perhaps most importantly of all, being patient and not rushing.
One of the most frustrating things for me so far is the lack of splitting services in EU-based shops. I've used tatraleather.com and beltsproduction.com, and have been relatively happy with both, but would love to have more options in terms of leather thickness. It's quite hard to find a large and varied selection of <1mm leather in Europe.
I've not taken photos of any of my finished pieces before they were used (and I'm generally not very careful with my belongings in terms of protecting them from scratches, etc.), so you can already see signs of use.
The photos are large, so uploaded them on Imgur: The magic of the Internet
Happy to receive any feedback and advice, and enthusiastically looking forward to getting better and enjoying a new hobby I'm passionate about. :)
Thanks for the advice @Leathercraft Masterclass! I tested 0.6mm goat with this one: Imgur: The magic of the Internet. It's surprisingly forgiving and easy to work with!
I used it for everything except the outer layer, so I was worried about the lack of rigidity. However, based on a few days of use, it seems to work perfectly as a bi-fold without re-enforcement, but let's see how it holds up in the long run.
Edges are DIFFICULT, but I guess just a matter of practice, practice, practice.
@jussi.pikk Great to see your progress Jussi. Thanks for sharing those photos.
Yes it definitely helps to have a splitting service nearby. Outside of that, you can purchase skins from smaller animals like kid goat which is naturally going to be much thinner and finer than regular hide.
If this hobby takes off for you, it might be worth considering purchasing a decent used bell knife skiving machine to split down small parts like T slots for wallets and watch straps parts etc.