Passport Cover

This is another Scrap Store creation.

After scoring some wonderful bright pink leather I googled around for ideas of what to make with it.

I found this tutorial on Design Sponge which led me to this one on Poppytalk, and using a combination of both I made this passport cover.

I used a modified template from Poppytalk and cut out all the leather pieces for my cover.

I found it much easier to cut the leather with a craft knife and metal ruler instead of scissors. 

I glued the pieces in place a little bit so it would be easier when it came to sewing.

The tutorials suggested using a stitching spacer and I remember I actually had one from a cheap sewing kit.

The dots it made were quite close together so I used my pokey tool (yes, that's what it was called on the packaging) to make a bigger hole in every other dot.

Then I sewed around the edge using bright pink embroidery thread.

The technique is to have two needles going at the same time, crossing over each other. It's better explained in the tutorials I've linked to.

I thought a matching luggage tag would be perfect so I made one in a similar way.

I put a slip of lined paper with a piece of acetate on top in the tag.

The side nearest the strap is left open to get the paper out.

And now I'm all set for a holiday abroad.

Except I don't have anything booked...

But the next time I do, I'll be ready!

Re-cover

Like my new notebook?

It started life looking like this.

Pretty boring right?

I removed the front and back cover so that I could cover them with brown packing paper that I'd scrunched up to make more textured.

Then I attached a piece of lace for a contrasting texture.

I got a matching piece of leather, which I got here, and stitched on a pair of cowboy boots.

The leather is pretty thick so it was a bit of a struggle but a thimble greatly helped.

Bunting necklace

My Dad recently gave me these booklets of leather samples that his work no longer needed.

Tiny bits of leather in all different colours.

I've seen loads of great tutorials using leather scraps so now I can make them too.

I started with this bunting necklace which I love so much.

It was based on this tutorial by Mrs Priss, which in turn was inspired by a necklace from Anthropologie. 

It was super easy to make, and more so because I didn't need to colour my leather like in the tutorial.

I kept mine quite simple with only a few triangles and didn't add any ribbon, but I still think it looks cute.