Child's Leather Vest
Looking for a simple leather project for kids or younger leathercrafters? Denny and Liz are making a leather vest!
This is a beginner-friendly three-piece vest that laces together with no sewing required. Denny walks through laying out the pattern, cutting the leather, adjusting the pattern for different body shapes, choosing the right leather weight, cutting your own lace, and assembling the vest.
They also show how to make a bleed knot to start the lacing and how to securely finish the lace when the vest is assembled.
In this video:
• Building a simple three-piece leather vest
• How to lay out the vest pattern
• Cutting leather with a round knife, straight knife, or scissors
• Adjusting the pattern for a better fit
• Choosing the right leather thickness
• Planning how much lace you need
• Cutting lace from a leather hide
• Where on the hide to cut your lace
• How to make a bleed knot
• Lacing the vest together
• How to securely finish your lacing
• Ideas for fringe, pockets, tooling, collars, and other custom touches
Denny recommends around 3–4 oz. leather as a good starting point, although the temper and hand of the leather matter just as much as the actual weight.
The basic vest is intentionally simple, which leaves plenty of room to make it your own. Add tooled pockets, a decorative collar, fringe, contrasting leather, or whatever else you can come up with.
This is a great project for introducing someone to leathercraft—or just making a fun leather vest without dragging out the sewing machine.
Pattern -Â FREE PATTERN LINK
