Originally I was going to have this be one entry about transferring a pattern onto leather but I decided I wanted to talk about the lead up to the project. From the idea to right before you pull out your knife to cut the leather. To many this might seem like the boring part. This is the part that many people skip. That is a bad idea. The lead up can be the most important part of the project. And if it is done right then it will make the rest of the project a lot easier and fun to do.
Until recently I didn't have much of a "pre-project ritual." I would do the bare minimum and go on my merry way. In fact a lot of my projects were from kits so most of the planning stage was done. I just had to decide what I wanted to tool on the leather and then follow the instructions for everything else. You don't have that luxury when you are making a project from scratch. There are a lot of things you can do to make the overall project easier.
Currently I'm working on a project that I have tried before. Many years ago I came across a box pattern when I was still working with my leather teacher. I made the box and was pretty happy with myself. I still have that box and it sits on my shelf holding remnants of old art projects. The tooled design of a rose looks good and the natural leather color is attractive. But I hate the way it is stitched together. I like the box but it doesn't feel like a box. It was made with thin leather and many pieces. I learned a lot putting that box together and while I still really like it I would never consider making another one the same way.
Here enters my new project. I have been thinking of making another leather box for years now but I hadn't figured out how I was going to do it. I stumbled across another leather worker's cell phone case and it was very "box like." After further examination I figured out how it worked and decided to try it his way. My planning has begun.
When dealing with an idea and only an idea you need to get it down on paper. So sketch out what you think the finished project is going to look like. If you are not good at drawing it is fine, you just need to get an idea of the general dimensions of the project. Here I made a small sketch of the box and then labeled the sizes next to it. I decided I wanted the box to be 7 inches wide, 2 and half inches tall, and 4 inches deep. I marked those measurements and then I began to mentally "unfold" the box in my mind. I wanted to see what it would look like in a pattern format. Again I did a crude sketch of the pattern. This sketch, like the previous one, doesn't really have to be exact, you just need it get a general idea of how the pattern should look flat. After I finished sketching this out and I added the measurements to the pattern so I know how to mark out the actual pattern.
Now I add another step that I like to try before I go any further to verify that my pattern is going to work. I do this by measuring out a pattern that is in centimeters rather than inches. So it's 7 centimeters wide instead of 7 inches wide. I carefully measure out the pattern, marking the lines that need to be folded versus cut. Then I cut out the pattern, fold on the dotted lines, and tape the piece together. I have now made a paper scale model of the piece. This isn't necessarily something you need to do with every project. (For example, a bookmark.) But in projects like a box it may help to give you a better understanding of how it will go.
This is how I do the pattern. You don't have to do all of this. I like to as I don't want to get to the "assembly" stage and realize that I didn't think of scenario "X" and now I have to work around this problem. Also you may want to skip directly from the initial sketch to the accurate full size pattern. Or you may be able to do the initial sketch in your head and can unfold mentally without the physical visualization of the piece. More power to you. I do recommend trying all these steps at least once, then weed out the ones you feel you personally don't need on the next project.
Here is where I stop, sit down, and write down the rest of the steps from tooling to stitching. I want to be sure I have thought of everything and that I'm doing it in the correct order. Sometime a project will require you to do one step prior to another where another project needed that step done later or not at all. After I have all the steps on paper and I'm sure I have them in the right order I proceed to the next step.
I'm going to stop here as I have already written a pretty hefty entry. The next installment will go over what I do next and then getting a tooling pattern together and ready.
Until then, Happy Crafting!
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