Dandelion Factory: Leather and Lace (well, not really)

My sister has a sweet connection with a manager of a large home furnishings store (I dare not give away my source here), and occasionally she give me huge sacks of upholstery samples. They are perfect for lining handbags. And every once in a while, I get some seriously nice leather pieces. I have a huge stack of small ones-- they measure about 4" x 8"-- which are perfect for little wallets and what I am about to show you.

I made these little pendant necklaces out of the smaller pieces of leather. They were super fun to make, and I wear one all the time. This is one example:

I took a rotary cutter with a rippled edge and cut out a circle. Actually, I cut out two circles and glued them together. With leather, it is important to fix the pieces together with glue before you sew them. If you don't, then the leather slips when you sew it, and that is massively annoying. Then I made a little red leather star and glued that on. Using a leather needle, probably a size 100/16 (and a teflon sewing foot comes in real handy), I stitched it with the radial lines and sewed the button on. On the back, I made a little tab out of leather that I stitched on before I applied the star. That way, it wouldn't show. Then, I strung a cord through, added jewelry findings, and now it is a super cute necklace! And you can buy it on my etsy site!

Here is another made with white leather. Same method, different look. I love the button on it. Vintage.

This one sports a little flower I made from thread. Using a water soluble interfacing, such as Solvy, you can make all sorts of shapes. It is a very cool product. You just have to make sure the threads all overlap, or it will fall apart.