0004 - Dakota Tan Vertical Wallet

« 0003 - Tan Dakota Bifold Wallet 0005 - Chestnut Dakota Kindle and Notebook Case »


My second self designed piece, this time making a vertical design. I’m still getting my head around designing using Inkscape but I must say I’m fully enjoying the experience. This one I modelled off some quite nice vertical card wallets that I’d seen before. I particularly like the back pocket and the angled designs that come in towards each other as I think they’re looking quite cool.

I paid a lot more attention to bevelling the edges properly on this one and it shows in the result. The top of the pockets look a lot more even on this one which is good and I’m pleased with the result. I also made a lot more use of pegs in order to hold the design in place while I was gluing which helped the process a lot.

This one forms a gift to a couple friends as part of a set so I’m happy to have it done so I can give it to them.

I’ve also picked up a printer so hopefully the iteration speed should be a lot faster now as I won’t need to print them out at work which means I can have an idea, design it, then make it all in the same evening.

Lessons

  • I need to work out how to get the guides properly aligned
  • Use “thinner” lines when printing images to ensure the dimensions are accurate
  • Round corners before stitching. I also need to learn how to round corners better.
  • Buy a better tool for reducing the thickness of leather for T-Pockets, I managed to accidentally rip off some of the (non visible) portions of the T-Pockets when I was thinning them out.
  • Still need to work out how to take proper photos of these things. Probably worthwhile for me to do a short course on this?

Materials

  • Leather: Conceria La Perla Azzurra - Tan Dakota Belly - 1.2mm
  • Thread: 0.5mm Ritza Tiger Thread in Havana
  • Glue: Kyoshine Elle - Leather Glue 100 Water Based
  • Edging: Seiwa Tokonole
  • Finish: Aussie Leather Conditioner (with Beeswax)

Pattern

Self drafted using Inkscape. Still learning how to use Inkscape properly to design these things. It’s a slow process.

Estimated Time

I think this roughly took me five hours to make end to end. I’m trying to work out where the slowest bits are so that I can speed them up. At the moment it seems to be stitching and cutting out the shapes themselves that is the slowest bit. A lot of time was spent waiting for glue to set. Potentially an opportunity here to structure the work differently so I can continue working on things while waiting for the glue to dry?

Photos

Internal View