Last summer one of my best friend's, Rune, came by to give leatherworking a go. He spent hours burnishing the edges on the belt, that he made and it was a joy seeing someone so consumed of this one thing. It was just him and the leather - everything else seized to exist for some time. Just before leaving he told me about an idea of making a sleeve for his iPad and so we did, when he came to visit from Copenhagen this weekend.
Rune made the sleeve himself - almost at least. I tried to help, but it was mostly in terms of design. The details he picked himself and of course he decided to use the most extravagant solutions. He picked the football leather from Horween and the fattest, thickest and most greasy thread, that I have in my arsenal; a thread called Nyltex. Nyltex is not a braided or twisted thread - it just consists of of multiple strains, which makes it hard to get an even stitch, as the thread becomes either twisted or totally flat. Normally a thread, that I would use on very thick leathers and honestly I usually avoid it because it's so hard to get nice, even stitches, which is what I always strive towards.
The design is a fairly simple envelope design, but it's very functional and we added a couple of nice details.
I'm amazed by the surface of this leather. Especially this irregular pattern, that runs across the sleeve. It looks a bit like small flowers. Very beautiful.
The stitches turned out quite well considering the fact, that Rune has very limited experience with stitches, but he took it slow and was very thorough.
Edges were finished in black using Edge kote by Fiebings. A product that I very rarely use, but it turned out quite good. It's impossible burnishing the edges of this leather.
A button stud makes for the closing mechanism. Very simple. Plus I got to use my antique leather buttonholer, which is always a joy.
The stud button doesn't come in contact with the iPad itself, so there is no danger of scratching the darn thing. And again, that texture is just something else.
I'm very interested in seeing, how this sleeve ages. The key wallet, that I made for my brother in law some time ago, has aged quite nicely, so my feelings towards this leather is becoming more and more positive, although it isn't the easiest to handstitch.
