leather leaf cuff: how to

The little leather leaves from last week were my first foray into working with recycled leather. I loved it! Now every time I'm at the thrift store, I'll be scouting out potential leather. The green piece I have is soft and supple, so I felt brave enough to try it out on my sewing machine. An all purpose needle didn't work... not at all. I inserted a leather needle- what an amazing difference! So, as you can see, I stitched them up and added a button to make a cuff. I'm so excited about it, I couldn't wait to show you! I know it's just a little project, but sometimes these small discoveries get me the giddiest! It must have been contagious because I had a request for another smaller cuff from my daughter. Absolutely the best compliment I could ask for... and we do like to match.

Did I mention they're a quick whip up?! Another little cuff was ready in minutes. I'm might link some more leather in the form of circles... not necessarily cuffs next time, because they're versatile enough to morph into any number of creations. I'll leave it open-ended for now.

So here's how I made the cuff, just in case you have some scraps of leather around the house and feel inspired...

1. Fold the leather and cut out a half leaf shape with sharp scissors... just like cutting out hearts on the fold.
2. Overlap them rotating the smooth and suede side for texture and interest.
3. Insert leather needle into your sewing machine.
4. Feed each leaf through your machine slowly, adding one at a time. (I'm still mastering smooth joining of two pieces, but any roughness in my stitches doesn't bother me too much.)
5. Once you have a length of leaf links that will comfortably fit around your wrist, with one leaf overlapping the end, remove from your machine. Make sure to back stitch to lock threads.
6. Sew on a little button to the last leaf.
7. Cut a slit for a button hole on the first leaf.
8. Wear.

So soft and comfortable... with whispers of forest magic.