2/12/2013 – I decided to take a dive into the world of hand stitching leather as I thought it could be very useful all around the workshop. Therefore I bought some beautiful cows leather from Nakara for the first project of this nature being a shop apron. Up until now I have been using an apron made by my dear wife. It worked quite well, but like with most things there were a few bits that needed improvement. Here you can see the leather.

 

I found the two images below on the net, which helped me to improve the design of my apron. The first image shows Lie-Nielsen’s version of a leather apron. What I borrowed from them was the split bottom part and the belt around the waist that wraps all around the apron as apposed to only being attached to the edges of the apron. I found that it was a bit of a mission to squat with my previous apron which did not have the slit at the front. The second picture shows the x-strap design which distributes the weight of the apron better and takes it off one’s neck. This is also a part of the Lie-Nielsen design although the second picture is not a LN apron.

 

Initially my plan was to take the bits (pictured below) of leather (already cut) on holiday to RSA and ask my mother-in-law to stitch it together with her sewing machine. This did not work as the leather was far too thick for her machine.

 

Once back in Windhoek I made some enquiries and found an old German shop that specialises in all the tools needed to hand stitch leather. Unfortunately I did not take pictures of the process, but here is the final product.