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Women's weekend positivity... what's something that makes you happy to be alive?
(piefed.blahaj.zone)
this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2025
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Honestly I'm still in a rough place and I know I'm being a bit one-dimensonal with what I keep posting about but my relatively new found hobby in leatherworking is really making me happy. Its not just the fun and fulfillment of designing and making something but I've had so many nice comments on my work from so many people, family, friends, internet strangers and even from professionals who have praised me on the designs and execution to the point where they expressed interest to work with me and my patterns. I even made a new friend from it, an older lady whom I keep in frequent contact with over email about things we are making.
It has been my dream for a while now to have a side hustle with this and this feels like a good first potential step into that world.
Oh wait you're the person that made that cute little purple purse! You did such a great job with it. I've been thinking of getting into leathercraft myself - I did it a bit like 30 years ago in junior high and remember liking it. Do you have any suggestions for getting started? Materials, patterns, websites?
That's me! Thank you, im actually quite proud of that one! I actually attended a taster course which was about 4 hours at a local leatherworking supply place where we made a card holder. If you can find one I'd recommend it, it is very hand holdy and you get a nice item at the end of it.
They supplied the tools and after gave us a big deal on buying the stuff we used, which i used for quite a few little projects before looking into other tools and hardware like rivets and fasteners.
So what I would suggest as a mimimum:
You dont need to spend much money at all, most can be found super cheap. The chisels should be a bit more, avoid the mega cheap chinese cast things and get a set around the £15-20 ($20-25) mark and they will do a good job.
As for the leather, look around for suppliers that do offcut boxes (even better if you can visit in person). All of my stuff so far has been made exclusively from offcuts.
On my phone atm but i can send a few links later. I would recommend watching corter leather on youtube as his stuff is easy to follow and isnt on the full old style cordwaining and saddlers type work which, as a beginner, is too much. His saddle stitch tutorial is particularly good.
This is great - thanks for sharing such detailed info! :)
This is the saddle stitching tutorial I was talking about - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIGT_RXi8ZM - there are plenty of tutorials that do it the more "traditional" style with a stitching pony, a stitching awl and pricking irons, that really isn't necessary for beginners.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/317041430785 is the kind of mallet I'm referring to, perfectly decent for the job and the price is more than acceptable.
For a decent tool quality-price balance for beginner stuff the "Wuta" branded stuff from China seems pretty decent - available on aliexpress or ebay - recommended for stuff like stitching chisels. Otherwise you roll the dice and get unbranded and unknown soft stuff that are instant paperweights or you are looking on the expensive professional side of things.
There are normally plenty of stores online that can help with a starter kit, you do tend to get quite a markup on it, most of the tools I realised were in my kit were just that - the mallet I linked above is less than £5 online but sold for £18 by the place I did the workshop at.