Spent a lazy Sunday pulling apart the magazines that have piled up over the past couple months…and came across this Lucky Magazine feature in one of their issues from a little while ago (not sure which one). Sure, P.S. I Made This did a DIY of the obi-style belt back in February, but this is a little bit of a different style – plus includes some sources for buying the leather. Here are the sources mentioned in the blurb above:
MJTrim.com
SDTradingCo.com
LeatherUnltd.com
All great sources for leather, but I would also add:
TandyLeatherFactory.com
(with stores throughout the U.S., this is THE place to get leatherworking supplies, tools, hardware, and skins)
SBearsTradingPost.com
(variety of exotic leathers and hides)
JustLeather.com
(includes frogskin and metallic hides)
HideHouse.com
(extremely high-quality, full-sized hides for a variety of end uses)
And, my absolute, all-time favorite:
Sommers.com
(beautiful, amazing array of FAUX leathers and manmade vinyls!! Yay!)
My Tips: When using lambskin or lightweight leather in a loose, tied belt like in the picture – all you need to do is cut and tie. (Yay for simplicity! But don’t ever ever EVER use your the same scissors/rotary cutter you use on fabric on leather…that’s a sure way to blunt your instruments.:-( Have dedicated leather-cutters if you can! [I use my kitchen shears that I use to cut other stuff in the kitchen with b/c they’re tough and can really withstand the abuse…but I’ll never cut fabric with them! LOL])
If you want a more structured belt, say like Gucci’s S/S 2011 RTW metallic python version with tassels – finishing the edges properly will make all the difference between looking “home-made” and “couture.” If you’re using real leather, don’t forget to burnish the cut edges!!! (What is burnishing? you may ask. A how-to coming in a future post, chickadees!)
xoxox
Carly
Gucci runway photo Style.com, Yannis Vlamos / GoRunway.com
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Really digging this belt!!
Hope you had a nice weekend!!
xoxo,
melrod
modanista junkie recently posted…Mel Made- Split Romper
I’ve been meaning to make a leather obi belt for just about forever! But I’ve been putting it off because my sewing machine doesn’t like leather much.
I had no idea that you shouldn’t use your nice sewing shears on leather, though. Yikes, I’ve been doing that for awhile now, but I’ll definitely stop. Looking forward to your tutorial on burnishing, too!
Yeah…many sewing machines just aren’t really built with leather-sewing in mind. The arm tends to “stick” to the leather (even using a teflon or a walking foot); the shanks of the needles are so thin that they snap with the pressure needed to punch through leather repeatedly…it’s a tough thing to work with on a general-purpose home machine, I’ve found. When I tried sewing leather folded over on itself 4x, on an industrial walking-foot machine – it went through the layers like buttah!! Like butter, I say!!:-)
Yes, sewing shears should only be used for fabric (therefore not plastic hangtags, pattern paper, vinyl, or leather) since other materials will dull your sharp, expensive shears faster than you can say “$50 down the drain!” I figure, why pay for continuous sharpening when shears can just stay sharp for a long time by keeping them dedicated to fabrics? Manufacturers have separate shears for pattern paper (incredibly expensive btw!), separate shears and cutters for fabrics, and again, separate shears and cutters for leather, as well as just general-purpose scissors. It’s a lot to buy, but since I spend most of my time working with fabrics, I invested my money in a nice pair of Gingher fabric scissors, and just use my toughie kitchen shears for cutting leather (which I don’t really work with that often). Leather shears I’ve found are less expensive than fabric, so I may put them on my birthday list!!;-)
Loving this idea. Obi belt just finishes any outfit nicely.