Valise

I enjoyed a new challenge recently. A vintage brown leather portfolio came across my path! It has a very simple design, slim profile, and sturdy zipper. There are some surface scratches from regular use, but the leather is in excellent shape. Over time, though, the stitches have shown their age: in the area where they attach the zipper to the case itself, they had worn thin, frayed, and disappeared. This meant I got to try my hand at leather repair!

First I went looking for the right kind of thread. I found a great colour match with the leather:



and the existing stitch colour, too.



Ideally I wanted to use a strong quilting thread, but the shop was in short supply of colour selection in the thread I wanted, at the time. Instead, I used my usual silk finish cotton thread. I doubled it to get a closer match to the weight of the other stitches.

Then I set about carefully unpicking the remains of the stitches on the underside of the zipper.



Then I got to start making stitches! I backsititched my way through sections where no stitches remained, admiring my work along the way. It was pretty easy considering I did not have to make holes in leather, I just worked the needle through the path that was already broken. I found this "work" to be very satisfying.



It all went swimmingly! I think the hand made stitches look pretty comfy nestled into their places.