DIY – Last minute Mother’s Day gift and totally handmade!!

Whenever you feel like you don’t mention enough that your mum is the best mum in the world, Mother’s Day would be the perfect time to show her your love.

Just for your information… Mother’s Day is this Sunday… Aaah!! If you have forgotten all about it, you still have some time left. My mum used loved all those handcrafted flowers or drawings I used to make when I was little, so instead of buying let’s make her something! I have finished this great, handmade and totally awesome Mother’s Day leather sunglass case in just one day! So if I can do it, you certainly can too!

What do you need:

• A piece of leather of about 30×20 cm + a little extra strip for the nose bridge
• Stanley knife
• Cutting mat
• Two leather needles
• Matching or contrasting thread
• Beeswax
• Design for sunglass case
• Rubber hammer
• Pricking iron
• Leather glue
• Two small rivets (could also be stitched)
• One snap to close the leather sunglass case

Optional:

• A Kingsley machine, foil and logo stamp
• Edge paint

Step 1 – The design of the Mother’s Day gift

Since the sun is shining and her old sunglass case shows some signs of wear I thought ‘it is time for a new one’! She told me she loved the look of the leather covered notebook with the crocodile embossing, it’s here if you missed this other great DIY! Luckily I had some left. Before we start cutting we first have to design the case. As an example did I use her old one, cut it open on the edges and adjusted it, because the flap didn’t close perfectly. Like I always do, first, make a paper example, fit the sunglasses inside it and determine if you like it like this!

Step 2 – Scratch and cut

Once you have approved the design, scratch it onto the right side of the leather. Tracing with a pen might ruin your leather when you make a mistake. Time for some cutting! In this case, it might be a little bit more difficult since there aren’t many straight edges. Take your time and you will be fine! And don’t forget to cut a small piece of leather for the nose bridge.

*  optional: add your logo!!

Step 3 – Hole punching and rivet setting

The next step is to determine how much stitching you are willing to do. You can decide to stitch all edges also on the single layer of the flap as decoration. But if you in a lack of time you might just choose, like I did, for only the double layer, side edges. Besides punching the stitching holes this is also the time to punch the holes for the rivets and snaps.

Step 4 – Intermezzo

Before you continue with the sunglass case you need to finish the nose bridge. I have ordered a trial package of the Giardini Edge paint to learn also this process of edge finishing. So can you! But if you don’t have any edge paint at the moment you could make a folded edge or any other type of finish you like. Once you have finished the nose bridge you can set the rivets to secure it to the Mother’s Day leather sunglass case and the snaps as well.

Step 5 – Continue with the sewing

Glue and sew the bottom part to the middle part as shown in the images below and you are almost done! If you forgot how to do the saddle stitch, check this blog post out!

Step 6 – Finishing touch!

As a final step you finish the edges and of course, you should get some wrapping paper and the biggest bow you can find!! Happy Mother’s Day for you and your mum!

If you want to show your amazing results or you have any other questions don’t hesitate to leave a comment or email me at florine’at’florineleatherstyle.com.