Saturday 30 July 2011

Leather work for kids.

Some kind friends gave us the leather from an old sofa they were throwing out.
The girls and I spent a day getting inventive with ideas for using it.

Emmy and Bujana made Sioux medicine pouches, using these online instructions...

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First they drew and cut out the pieces. Then they punched holes along the bottom edges using a hole punch.

making a leather medicine pouch

They sewed the sides and bottom of the pouches right sides together using a denim sewing needle and a long basting stitch ( about 6 on a regular machine) and reinforced this with an over stitch through the holes.

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After measuring equal spaces along the top of the pouch they punched holes for threading leather cord through to make a draw string.

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The drawstring was held in place with some wooden beads...

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Perfect for those long Summer hikes!

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Seraphina, Matilda and I cut stripes of leather into cords and made some bracelets...

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 I helped the little ones make some leather bookmarks.

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I traced around a tin pencil case to get the rectangular shape and helped them cut around the line.

They frayed the ends and punched holes along the edges using a hole puncher.

Lastly we wove some thin leather stripes that we had cut out earlier through the holes and secured them in place using some funky stitching patterns on our sewing machine!

girls leather bookmarks

8 comments:

  1. Ahh! I am so glad to have made a connection to you. You had me at "saturday artist" then added leather. Totally stole my heart with "Sioux medicine bags".

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  2. I have a box full of leather scraps that I have been saving for years...now I know something to do with it. Your timing is perfect since we are hitting 100 degrees today and I needed something [new] for us to do. Thanks for the inspiration! xx

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  3. So glad to connect Sherene :)Your blog is beautiful!

    Glad to be of inspiration Tracey :) You are most very welcome!

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  4. I love these, Suzy! I love the many things you managed to do with all that leather. I love the idea of use, reuse, and "re-love" :)

    (And Sherene's comment is awesome! Made me smile)

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  5. What an crazy fun day of creativity! I love those medicine pouches, they really are adorable! Nice work getting that energy flowing! :)

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  6. I love these pouches!!! And oh I bet they smelled good too, love the smell of leather ;). I would love to make these with the kids, now to find an old leather sofa. Is it bad that I am eyeing ours in the living room? Nothing's safe in an unschooling home, is it? :)

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  7. Just fantastic. I'm a big fan of tiny pouches. :)

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