Making the Dieselpunk Leather messenger bag

hey guys and welcome back this is James and today we are making a satchel bag and to start off bear in mind that you can go and grab the template anytime I am going to be linking the link in the description below this is not a template that I made but a template I found on the internet and I have to say it was really really great it's a great design great template and I definitely would suggest you pick it up if you want to make something similar do note though however that I have switched around a few things just you know small things small details here and there just to make it really my own as you can see all the stitching marks are written down on the template and you can definitely follow those if you want to however I did not now the reason I didn't is because I wanted to have a stitching which is a bit more precise and I wanted to make sure that you know I got stitching that I really really liked and not just the stitch nose you know basically made for you I wanted something a bit tighter so I decided not to follow these stitching marks but that's up to you my method resulted in some very annoying passages later on in the build process and I would explain those as we go along but first of all the thing you want to do is cut out your template and make sure it's all laid out and ready to use I am using relatively thick veg turn lever leather so a vegetable tanned leather the first step I always do before anything else is make sure that the leather is treated with neat's-foot oil bear in mind that these leathers have been sometimes stored in rooms where you don't know what the conditions are you don't know how long they've been in storage you don't know how dry they are you don't know exactly what the the oils inside the leathers are like anymore so the first thing I would recommend is always make sure you give your leather a good coat of neat's-foot oil straight out of the box or out of the bag or out of the fold or whatever however you get your leathers and this that also enables you to have a look at the different stretch marks and the line standard different different things that might be present on that leather every leather is different I mean the cow has lived a full life hopefully and will maybe have some marks on it so make sure you get an idea of what's on your leather what your leather looks like to know exactly what you want to do and how you want to use that leather I am using filings oil dye which is also known as the pro dye I believe they were very depending on where you are you might find one or the other I'm told the oil dye and pro dye are pretty much the same thing I'm not I'm not an expert so that's up to you to see how what you want to use and how you want to use it I sometimes like to add in a bit of neat's-foot oil inside my die just to dye use it a bit it means that I can get more coverage overall it also means that the different the different steps in dyeing going to be so different and once this is done again I come up some neat's-foot oil bear in mind that dyes tend to use solvents to get the pigments inside the leather and these solvents will dry out the leather quite considerably depending on which dyes you're using I do know that there is a difference between their their regular leather dye and the pro dial oil dye and the regular dye will wreak havoc on veteran leather making really stiff really dry and this is the final result after dyeing as you can see the dye is not perfect but that's okay because with the different uses of nice with oils with time with basic patina and stuff you'll find that that dye will even out gorgeously and even though you can still see some marks from where you've dyed one bit more than other over time those marks disappear and actually during the build itself these marks tend to disappear just by the process of using your hands and adding oils back into the leather and shooting another properly this will give it again a nice even color the next step I want to do is Mark out all my templates and just make sure that my leather is big enough because yes this has happened to me before where the leather piece was simply not big enough a bit embarrassing happens I wouldn't worry too much about it just this is an obvious step while you're doing this bear in mind of where the imperfections on the leather might be I mentioned that every piece of leather is gonna be a bit different now you may want to try and avoid some of the stretch marks you may want to try and use it in my case I was definitely trying to get all my big pieces going in the same direction as the stretch marks and using those stretch marks and you can see them here and you can see them on the back of the piece I really wanted to incorporate these stretch marks into the bag to give it a really interesting look it's a bank that can look quite simple ish it's not the most complex bag in terms of designs so I really do like the addition of these stretch marks into it giving it that real character that I I really like about it simply put another thing I would always recommend and I believe I say this every single time take time to sharpen your tools this is very thick leather 2.5 millimeters thick if not more some points I mean it's it's quite sturdy stuff and if you're sure if your knives aren't sharp enough you are going to make mistakes having a blunt knife means that you are putting more pressure on the blade means you're being putting more pressure into your cut and eventually you will slip and when you're putting pressure and slip well that goes straight into a finger that could go into a thigh that could go into a bit of your body you probably wouldn't want to have it in contact that close and that fast with a nice sharp object just keep it nice and sharp I've always got a small whetstone decide me I'm not the best at sharpening tools but with some basic sharpening techniques you can really get those tools wonderfully sharp I'm also going to be linking in the description below a amazon link where you can see all the different tools I have and all the different tools I'd like to get and all the different tools I'd recommend if you want to get into leather making yourself do bear in mind that I get a nice little kickback if ever you do buy something through link and that really does help me out so please go ahead and click on that have a look at what I use myself to start with curiosity and even if you don't want to buy anything bear that link in mind just for future reference if you want to help me out or any other fellow creator who has a similar Amazon affiliate link make sure you go on ahead and use those links because that really does help us out well I'll be showing a bit later some of the stuff I make as well on my website but right now let's get back to the bag once everything is cut out I always bevel the edges and again edge bevels can be kept really nice and sharp and I recommend you keeping them nice and sharp my processing here is always going to be the same it's being perfected a bit throughout the last few months or years to have been doing this but overall I'll make sure I bevel my edge sand it all neatly flat if need be then go ahead and add in the dial dye so I and as you can see it's the oil dye in dark brown here and I'm not diluting it I'm just adding it straight on I will then you use gum track or track account gum or had dragons gum there are different different types of garments more less the same thing every time it's a gun that will help you bring those fibers in nice and close and really seal in the leather around these edges I see you can basically just use a small drop of gum and lightly smear it across the edge there and once that's done you can some people let it dry a bit some people will just go ahead to chasten and rub at rub at it with either a wood slicker a bone slicker some people might use or just a piece of cloth I find that depending on you know how I'm feeling I tend to use either a wood slicker or a piece of cloth often if it's a nice sturdy piece I'll go for a piece of cloth if it's a piece that's maybe not as sturdy or slightly slimmer or thinner leather I might go for the wood slicker instead in the build you'll find that these strips here are made to hold together the front portion of the bag the side of the bag and the back of the bag and these all held together with two thin thin strips that go all the way across the bag you'll understand what I mean later but I am deliberately beveling on the inside of these strips because they will be twisted inwards and I want to make sure that if anything gets put inside the bag that it doesn't have any sharp corners hitting it and you'll you're you might be able to understand what I'm doing and why I'm doing it later it's a bit it's not necessary the most obvious thing to understand right now on the video but it really does help for the actual feel of the bag inside and then comes the interesting part not interesting for me at the time as I was doing this video because it's really annoying but interesting in hindsight where because I wasn't following the actual stitching marks planned for you guys or for us on the template I decided I had to figure out where the middle of my pieces were so they could all line up nice and neatly well in theory that's all great that works well find out where the middle is that way you can line them all up and everything works well except it doesn't work in practice or it didn't in my case because the pieces weren't absolutely identical and they didn't necessarily respect the template perfectly I mean I could have been off by a millimeter on one side and that would really seriously compromise the the the placement of my stitching so even though I got most of my stitching really you know precisely placed out not knowing exactly where the middle was was a bit more on the awkward side but more of that more on that later you'll understanding so I'm talking about in a minute so the stitching process is always going to be the very same I am using 0.8 millimeter synthetic thread that has been pre waxed so it's great for this kind of project where you've got a nice sturdy thread for a very sturdy leather I do use a I don't use sorry a how do you say basically I pre-punched all my holes beforehand and you saw me do that and that really helps me go much faster in my stitching I'm not using an awl yet I know that I probably should learn to use an awl but as I mentioned in a previous video it's something that's I'm a bit I'm still relatively new to this and this is a technique that I know works well for me and I'm afraid about using all's that I will simply not get the results I'm looking for at this stage although I promise you guys I will start practicing using an awl I've got one here I just haven't really gotten out to doing much with it yet again back in the middle and these long strips you can see here me sewing on to the so this is the centre of the bag all the sides of the bag that will wrap around the bag and these long strips are going to be the ones that are holding all the different pieces together as I mentioned previously these are the long strips where I beveled on the inside because they will be twisted around internally and that's when I need the insides of it bevel so if you're you know moving around a book or anything or just brushing your hand inside that the bottom of the bags trying to catch a key or something that you don't have a sharp edge I am then going to be attaching this to the side of my bag and this is the pieces that will grab onto the strap and obviously if you've got the template yourself you know that this is not the way the template says it should be done this is the way I did it I like the idea of having something that could slightly pivot to turn if ever it was under stress so and I also wanted to play around with rivets as well as riveting something is very new for me and I really haven't had much opportunity to practice and obviously the people watching me here was I think what on earth is he doing and yes when you buy the riveting tool you do have something that helps you push down that rivet I'm afraid I am ashamed to say that I simply had mislaid it and thought that I'd be able to do it without it so I couldn't be bothered to go and find it and that's why I'm doing it here now if a compass I obviously that's not the best solution and yes I have found my riveting tool since then however this is what I did there yeah that's that's what it is as I said I'm not I'm I'm and as you know I'm not a pro here I'm just doing this my spare time and enjoying it immensely so that's my rivets those are my rivets in and at this point we're going to be attaching the back of the bag well at least the pocket on the back of the bag to the back of the bag yep yep spill yeah I tend to go a bit too fast and you know these things happen I guess no worries here I was lucky enough they spilled on the inside of the pocket and will not be visible before I did score out the rough marks of where that pocket would be so I knew where to put the the glue I did not score out or the leather first I didn't because you're supposed to rough out the leather before applying glue on the outside on the on the skin side of the leather of flesh side because that gives the glue a better place to hold on to I did not do this because I didn't really need the glue as a structural component I just needed it there long enough to be able to hold that pocket in place while I was stitching it so I wasn't too worried about doing things properly there I just needed it in long enough to be able to stitch it and this is what it looks like all stitched up and yes you can see the dye marks there definitely you can see the differences and dye but again bear in mind that these differences will very quickly disappear with time with use just having the oils from your hand just having the dirt from the general use and you know different oils that you might be adding in later if you're adding more neat's-foot oil later as I do later on in the build or if you're putting more wax on to protect it or just nourishing the leather however you guys take care of the leather bear in mind that this will these marks will tend to disappear over time I am now touching onto the front flap the two little pieces of leather will be used to hold the front flap closed you'll notice later on in the video that these are not actually the straightest I could have made them I did not follow any of the guides or the build processes that were recommended so I just did it sort of my to where I felt like doing it I would recommend you leave this piece till later because I actually did not put them on as straight as they possibly could and it turns out at the end that they don't close perfectly I mean you can close the back no worries there but they do not hold straight exactly so it's a bit severe normally I'm annoyed with it I'm in one of myself when I see this I feel like I've I went too fast here and I could have slowed down could've taken more time in the end is it a problem no absolute you're not the back works fine looks great and people love it but do I see it absolutely I do see it now leather wool tend to have a little bit give so it's no worries whatsoever if it's not entire straight and you can actually see it right there and as I was looking at I kept thinking oh should i redo it can i redo it no problem is once it's done it's now yes you can redo it but it means that you'll have holes all over the place and your leather simply won't be as strong as it should be or could be and I decided let's just leave it as is and at this point I'm just enjoying these wonderful stretch marks all across the leather here and I'm really excited to see this leather aged with time and see those marks intensify with the different oils and stuff and that are added in the bag is now stitched up halfway so the back is stitched on to the side and it's looking really good except that ah the centre's did not line up on one side it comes out really high on the other side it barely comes out at all and I let this sit for about two days thinking should i redo it shall I leave it as is can I leave it as is I mean the sensors are all aligned and everything so why why why how did I manage to do that well as I said previously I think it's just because of you know all it takes is for your piece to be one millimeter off on one side or something of that and then that's it more or less I mean obviously these I'm sure this better explanation on that here herbert after a good hour or so of such stitching these pieces on if not more i finally decided that no I can't accept this I have to try again have to realign so I counted the number of holes that were sticking out on one side and decided that if I'd moved half of those holes down start again then I should be okay blah blah blah blah well funnily enough I found out that taking these stitching's off and I guess that's why we use saddle stitching and not regular stitching but taking these stitching's off is surprisingly slow it's really annoying because you got left with tons of little pieces and it took me ages I didn't take me ages but it is so much longer than I expected to do this that I was frankly very surprised at how long it took me and the whole process of having to undo your stitching is so infuriating to start off with that you do not want to spend this long having to undo it and it was really annoying so I went ahead and stitched it all back together it was better still not great but better and let's move on these pieces here are these small pieces that will be on the front of the bag and they will have the attachment pieces to it which will allow me to close the bag and there's just me preparing him again cussing out burnishing this edges preparing the attachments for the front of the bag and getting all that centered in place finding out using the templates to try and rough out to where they'll be and this time I did take a bit more time to prepare my leather first to make sure that the glue had somewhere to hold on not necessary because it was needed for the structural integrity of the whole piece but again I it helps me place it all down hold it down while I stage and because they are it's slightly more important pieces I decided let's do this properly this time and take more time after my previous failings I sort of wizened up a bit and decided that it was time for me to slow down once more and it was time for me to figure out how I should be doing things properly before I XI getting out getting started with doing it so once everything's attached I can go ahead and add on the flap to the back of the bag should you do this before or after finishing the base of the bag that is to say attaching the back of the bag to the body of the bag I don't know so I went ahead and attached the flap to the back before attaching the front to the body of the bag and again you can see me trying to find the middle of these two pieces here and hoping against hope that I would be able to do this I actually actually I believe in this case here I mmm I counted out the number of holes on my two different pieces and figured out exactly which one of these holes was the middle hole and it worked out it worked out okay bear in mind if you're going to be building his process that I started in the middle and worked myself but worked my way out on one side and worked my way out on the other side because I felt like this gave me a stronger attachment or a stronger bond to the whole thing it just made the process easier for me you guys obviously can do it the way you want but maybe easier for me once that's all stitched up I was looking to do to make the strap and the first thing about making a strap is finding or creating one straight edge and then you'll be able to use a very simple strap maker to be able to cut over cut your strap you can do this just by scoring a second line and cutting down second line and cutting your have your strap by hand but I decided to go ahead and use my strap cutter directly I initially made a strap that was about I'd say six or eight centimeters wide and decided that that was just too wide this is a bag so I was going to be giving to my sister and I didn't want it to be too manly so I wanted you that is actually a thing or not but I didn't want it to be too heavy looking I wanted a relatively thin strap so even though I cut a first strap that you can actually see in the back there I decided to go ahead and make a second strap which was slightly thinner to attach the strap to the bag I decided because I wanted to be able to change around the length of the strap if need be in a very easy fashion I decided to use two pieces of leather that should have been used in a different piece of the bag and if you built the templates or cut out the template yourself you'll probably recognize where these pieces are supposed to go and to decide to use these to actually hold the strap to the bag in my previous videos I've been using a method at the end or product at the end lots of people have criticized me for and that is shoe polish the reason I use shoe polish is simple it's made for leather and it nourishes it and it protects it and it makes it look gorgeous and blah-blah-blah-blah-blah however many people have been criticizing me for something and they are totally right to criticize me for this basically saying that shoe polish inside have quite a few solvents sometimes especially the more the cheap versions and these solvents over a longer period of time are not recommended for to leather now would it make a big difference to your project probably not will it make a big difference in the long long run probably not did it make me think absolutely so what I did is made my own with beeswax and and simple just just needs for oil so I'm getting confused here half beeswax half need for oil if not forty sixty you guys can find a good version of that I added in some dried pigments as well to give it a group a brownish color and I use that nowadays and it works brilliantly for me as a homemade shoe polish it does take a lot of work because getting it on is not easy getting it off is a bit harder but it gives you a great result quick cuts here quick transition here before we actually see the end result of the bag in all its glory these are some small card holders that I make and I have on my website again as I mentioned do this not as a professional I do this totally as a hobbyist and I love leatherworking but it's something that costs quite a lot of money to get into if you want to buy really nice leather it doesn't cost much to get started but well eventually as all hobbies it has its own costs and I make these lovely little card holders this is my called holder of the card hole that I've been using for last three or four months and it's got a nice little patina growing on it which I absolutely love and you can grab them for you for yourself or for friends and family as a present on my website do go ahead and check the links in the description below don't forget you can also use the Amazon affiliate link to help me out in any of your purchases again this really comes in useful for me personally and could be a great present for you guys so these are very simple little card holders but they can store a lot of different cards and I've been loving the one I've got myself it really gives me the opportunity of having a smaller smaller wallet in my pocket although it doesn't necessarily you probably could slide a few coins coins in there anyway yeah so there you go there quite a few versions on my website this is my most popular one like every one but this is another version tymek which you can go and pick up as well which are very simple little card holders but very very effective indeed they're all made out of vegetable oil done completely by hand just the same way I make my bags just the same way I make all my products here all my yeah all my leather things or leather we're here and absolutely loving these little things so go ahead and click on those links really helps me out and yeah that's about it that let's have a look at the final result of this satchel am I happy with it yes I am delighted with it is it perfect no it's not perfect you can see right there the straps don't really align well with the bag when it's closed but to be honest no one really seems to mind that no one's actually picked up on this apart from me and my sister who saw it and I told about it does the design work well yes the design is great I find that the templates really worked out gorgeously the end result is very useful very practical good size it's a good depth it's a good everything it looks great my sister loves it and she's had loads of comments about it would I recommend this to people who want to get into leather work actually maybe it's not the easiest template to use simply because there are quite a few very long stitching parts and for someone who's not used to stitching this could not this may not be the best thing to start off with but if you're an intermediate leather work like I am definitely go ahead and grab that template it didn't cost me too much I don't think and it gives you a good result if you're patient and careful with what you do which is not let's say my case but all in all I'm very happy with us I'm very happy with the result and I have to say I've really enjoyed making this and I really loved giving it to my sister and all in all I would definitely try this again maybe for myself maybe this another friend I'll see in the future anyway guys hope you've enjoyed this video once again helped me out by clicking those links and go and see the tools that I use on Amazon and thanks for watching it's been great to have you do leave me a small comment and tell me what you thought about this video I always love to hear your thoughts and I hope to see you very soon in the next one thanks and bye bye

Channel: James Berry - LeFrenchCrafter

Views: 42,078

Rating: 4.8797593 out of 5

Keywords: james berry, james, berry, leather, leatherwork, leathercraft, vegtan, fullgrain, handmade, homemade, diy, make, how to, bag, satchel, messenger, dieselpunk, messenger bag, dieselpunkro, craft, veg tan, nitekore, tovlade, lefrenchcrafter, le french crafter, french crafter, french, crafter

Id: Co_L3xiUmpw

Length: 26min 51sec (1611 seconds)

Published: Sun May 12 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Aza404]

This is not a "how to" video, but a "how I" video ;) Hope you like it!

The leather is 2,5mm thick vegtan leather that I dye by hand using Fiebing's Oil Dye in dark brown. All pieces are saddle-stitched by hand.

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Tools used all listed here: https://www.amazon.com/shop/jamesberry

Pattern by Dieselpunk: https://www.etsy.com/fr/listing/65209...

[u/firewall03]

Looks good!