Crafting with leather and making your own goods, clothes, and accessories can be a steep learning process, but there’s nothing like it once you’ve made something with your own hands. Whether you’re just getting into leatherworking or have become an old hat at the hobby, here are our top five leather crafting ideas to try.
Leather Wallets
Leather wallets are a common project, but it’s a great place to start if you’re still learning or just want to get yourself warmed up. What can make your crafting idea fresh and new, however, is how you design your wallet. Challenge your leatherworking skills by implementing various designs to create a final product that is completely one-of-a-kind. We recommend using either a 3-4 or 4-5 oz weight veg tan leather if you’re following a template. If you’d prefer, however, there are wallet kits available instead, which will help you understand the general process more.
Leather Hair Pins
Less common but still an easy craft to try, leather hair pins are high quality and have been popular hair accessories for years. As a more casual project, you only need to cut out the leather and have it molded into shape. From there, you can design and decorate your hair pin as you see fit. We again recommend using veg tan leather, such as Hermann Oak or Sepici, for this project, as the leather is best when molded, which chrome tanned leather can’t do.
Leather Book Covers
Got a favorite book or a journal you like to carry around? Leather book covers are one of the best leather crafting ideas to try in 2023 because they can protect books, notebooks, journals, and more from being damaged, as well as leveling up its appearance. This project can be used to fit any size book, so you can make covers for all your favorites. Any 4-5 oz chrome tanned leather will work great, which is 90% of the leather that’s out there, such as Big Sky bison leather or Rushmore leather.
Leather Footwear
For something more complex but equally practical, leather footwear is some of the highest quality and most comfortable footwear available. With absolute control, you can make footwear that fits your exact style—whether it be traditional or modern, colorful, or patchwork. We have various leathers for boots or shoes, such as our Yellowstone leather. Making sandals and flip flops will be a lot simpler to make, and you would only really need a soft chrome tanned leather. some crepe and soles.
Leather Artwork
Lastly, sometimes an idea doesn’t need to have a practical purpose or utility. Crafting leather art using one of our leather project kits is just as fun and incredibly freeing, as you can make whatever you want how you want. Leather is an uncommon canvas, so you’ll be making something truly unique that you can show off to your friends and family.
