How to Lace a Leather Wallet
Leather lacing creates a thick weave of leather cord around the edge of a piece. Its purpose is not just to look good, but also to help protect the edges of a leather piece from wear and tear. It is often used on wallets since they are particularly prone to becoming worn. You can add leather lacing to a wallet that you have either made or one you have on hand with the use of a few simple tools.
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Things You'll Need
- Leather wallet
- Ruler
- Overstitch wheel
- Leather punch
- Wood or rubber mallet
- Leather lacing
- Leather needle
- Shears
Instructions
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Open the wallet and place it with the exterior facing up. Place a ruler along the bottom edge.
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Run an overstitch wheel along the bottom edge, using the ruler as a guide to make a straight line. Overstitch wheels resemble spurs. They deposit marks onto leather that mark places where holes will be punched later. Use the ruler and overstitch wheel along every edge of the wallet.
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Place the tip of a leather punch to one of the marks made by the overstitch wheel. Tap the back of the punch with a rubber or wooden mallet. Do not use a metal hammer or you will damage the punch. The punch creates a hole in the leather. Repeat the punch process for every mark left by the overstitch wheel.
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4
Thread leather lace through a leatherworking needle and begin to lace up the edges of the wallet. Although you can try many kinds of stitching, the easiest and most common kind of stitch is the whipstitch. To begin the whipstitch, run the lace through one of the holes in the wallet. Only do this for one layer of the leather, not both.
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Pull the two layers of leather apart with your fingers to expose the inside. Pull the lacing through until there is at most an inch-long tail on the inside of the wallet. Use a knife to cut a hole in the lace. Thread the lace through its own tail, and then out an adjacent hole in the wallet. This secures the lacing and ensures it won't come undone. Press the two layers of the leather wallet back together when you are done.
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Begin lacing up the sides of the wallet with a whipstitch. To do this, simply loop the lacing over the edge of the wallet and run it through the next hole up. This creates lacing that is similar to a spiral bound notebook. Make sure that the loops are fairly tight.
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Run the lacing underneath three of the loops when you are done. Cut the lacing with a pair of shears.
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References
- Photo Credit full wallet image by green308 from Fotolia.com
