I often find myself procrastinating. There are things I would love to learn to do but a combination of lack of free time and confidence means that I tend to buy all the kit to start and then it sits unused on a shelf while I go off on a side quest.
Leatherwork is one of the skills that I have really wanted to learn. Often, I see the beautiful work that my colleagues produce and think I could never be that skilled, never produce something that would hold a candle to their work.
I have such happy memories from my childhood of sitting in the front room watching my dad work away for hours repairing saddles and making tack out of huge bags of broken harnesses he bought at Beverley horse market.
He never bought any expensive kits; to be honest he never bought anything other than needles. I would see him carefully unpicking stitching and reusing the thread to make repairs and tack we needed but couldn’t afford.
He never bought a ‘how to’ book and the internet was a few decades away yet.
Everything he learnt he taught himself by deconstructing things and trial and error. I was always in awe of the things he could turn his hand to, and over the years I sat and watched him teach himself a new skill whenever he needed it.
He built a working trap for a horse show from four wheels and a bare metal frame, right down to reupholstering the seats and painting it up in traditional traveller designs. It won second place to Hull Show that year and I can remember looking at all the entries as it was driven round the ring and in my naivety, I thought everyone there had built their own trap or rulley, which of course they hadn’t.
We had 20 plus horses at one point, and I never saw a farrier once. He not only learned how to shoe the horses but how to make sets of shoes from a mixed bag from the horse sales, cutting them down and reshaping them on an upturned sink grate.
My Dad is an incredible person and an inspiration to me.
So, with him in my mind I resolved to start from scratch and build my skills the way he did, not to focus on what my peers were producing but to make what I needed with what I had to hand.
So I decided that on our pre-Christmas family holiday I would take some basic leatherworking tools, some leather I had stripped from an abandoned sofa and spend some evenings making bits of kit that I needed. It didn't need to be pretty…just functional.
I settled on a basic sheath for my Bahco Laplander and basketry secateurs. I'm forever putting them down and forgetting where I put them so I needed something that I could attach to my belt but not with a clip, I find they spin and tangle.
First problem to solve was the attachment. A loop to put my belt through would be the best solution but changing tools would mean undoing the belt and rethreading another tool on, as I’m always switching between equipment this just wasn’t practical.
Wanting to keep everything upcycled I set off to the local charity shop and grabbed myself a used leather belt and made it into this belt dangler.
This means that the rest of the belt can be used on the sheaths and the tools I need are easily interchangeable. They will sit flat and not spin around and get tangled either.
Job number one done and all it took was a couple of rivets.
Now for the sheath itself. I just cut two rectangular pieces that fit my saw. I wasn't sure what kind of closure I would use, if any. So just to sew them together now! It was about this time that I realised that I didn’t have any thread or anything to make the stitching holes with.
Time to improvise! I had a hole punch and shears so I could use the hole punch to make the stitching holes and the shears to cut thin laces from the edges of the leather pieces.
I made a stitch template out of some scrap cardboard, marked up my leather and used the punch to get my stitching holes in place.
Before I could start to bring the edges together I needed to get my strap in place, just a few rivets through the holes that were already in the section of the belt I cut and it seemed pretty secure.
Time to start stitching. I had to get creative with this as the needles I had weren't suited to the laces I had made and the only thread I had was what was left from the seams of the sofa when I took the leather. So I cobbled together this, not very elegant I’m sure you’ll agree, but it is functional and that's all I needed.
I went for the simplest stitch possible and took care to lay the lace suede side up to contrast with the outer of the sheath.
This part is quite time consuming and being as all the work with edged tools had been completed I made the difficult decision to complete this part at a cosy little Norfolk pub. I was on holiday and it is Christmas after all so frankly it would be rude not to.
With the stitching finished I secured it by passing under some of the loops to hold it in place.
So far so good. Now for that fastener. Nothing fancy I just used a scrap of leather to make a strap that would keep the saw secure using a rivet to secure it to the belt piece and a press stud I added later to keep it closed.
So here they are, the finished articles. Functional and interchangeable, I made them both the same way but added a bit of extra leather to account for the point on the secateurs.
I was finishing up and asked my youngest, Ezra, what he thought of them, he said, "They’re amazing Mummy! I love to watch you making things, you're so clever."
I hadn’t even been aware he was watching me, maybe my dad wasn't aware that I was watching him and that I was amazed by the things he made, that I cherish those memories so much and that I saw how clever he is and it inspires me still to this day.
So this blog is for my dad and all the wonderful gifts he has given to me without even knowing it, gifts that I can now give to my children.
I love you dad, you're my hero.