I’ve been meaning to do leatherwork for a long time, but hadn’t let myself approach it. I’m inspired by some projects I’ve seen, and I turned up a few free patterns to try. Eventually I’ll design my own, but picked this as a first project:

Cutting the leather was easy enough, but I didn’t spend enough time de-sooting, especially in the stitching holes. I lightly dyed with a few applications of coffee, and then figured out saddle stitch with the fancy gadget I bought on Amazon:

‪ https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0049W6XRE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00

This is the result: