Last night I decided to have a go at using the leather awl tool I bought in the U.S earlier this year to make an iPhone cover (mine is shamefully bashing around uncovered in the bottom of my bag or pocket most days).
So - it was very simple to make, I measured around my iPhone, and doubled it length-wise, leaving about 3mm all the way around for seam allowance, drew the lines in pencil on the suede side and cut it out.
Then I folded it in half (end to end) and starting at the top, used the leather awl to punch holes through both thicknesses of leather at a time, about 4mm apart all the way down one side, this makes it much easier to sew through the leather as it can sometimes be very tough on your fingers and very time consuming.
Then I folded it in half (end to end) and starting at the top, used the leather awl to punch holes through both thicknesses of leather at a time, about 4mm apart all the way down one side, this makes it much easier to sew through the leather as it can sometimes be very tough on your fingers and very time consuming.
Then I got some thick waxed cotton thread (top-stitching thread would do) and used a medium sized needle to start off stitching it together along the sides (I am not sure of the exact technique I used, I pretty much just made it up as I went along but the correct one to use is Saddle-stitch, which is described very well HERE).
Then I just repeated the same process on the other side, punching the holes and then stitching the sides together and thankfully it came out a perfect fit for the iPhone :)
I realised that I really love hand stitching something together like that (despite its crude artisan appearance), it took me way longer than it should but I enjoyed every minute!
