Leather Tag Case
One of the best presents a child can give to his father, or a man friend, is a leather case full of tags. Things made of leather are so handsome and durable that you cannot do better, in buying material for your gift box, than to invest in a skin of heavy leather in the natural colour, red or green. Another useful thing for your gift work will be a punch with which to make round holes in leather or cardboard. You will then only need a pair of scissors, a pencil and a few beads in order to be equipped not only to make this tag case but several other charming gifts. Measure and mark with pencil on the leather two pieces, one six inches and one-quarter long by three inches and one-half wide, the other four and one-half inches long by three and one-half inches wide, and cut them out carefully. Also cut a number of strips of leather a quarter of an inch wide and as long as the skin will allow. On each corner of the smaller piece of leather mark a dot three-sixteenths of an inch in from the edge. Then make three more dots the same distance from the edge and about an inch apart on each side, and two near the bottom, the same distance from the edge and each other. Now with your punch make holes through these dots. Lay this piece of leather on the larger one, with the lower edges and sides together, and with a pencil mark through the holes on the piece below. Dots are also made three-sixteenths of an inch in from the edge at each of the upper corners of the larger piece of leather, two about an inch apart at the middle of the top edge, and one more on either side, half way between the dots at the upper corners and the upper ones of those already marked from the smaller piece of leather. All these dots have holes punched through them. Now lay the pieces together, the smaller one on top, with its lower edge and sides fitting exactly with the bottom and sides of the larger piece. Starting at the upper right-hand corner of the smaller piece, bring a bodkin threaded with a long strip of leather up through the holes in both pieces, then up through the next hole below in both pieces, lacing them together all the way around to the other side. Here the bodkin is slipped off and the end is knotted with another strip of leather. On this new strip the bodkin is threaded and brought up through each hole in succession along the left side, the top and down the right side of the large piece of leather. It stops where the lacing began, and the ends are there tied together. A large bead is slipped on each of these ends and one on each of the two ends on the opposite side, and a knot is made at the tip to keep the bead from falling off. To make a loop to hang it by, thread the bodkin with a short strip of leather, run it down through the left of the two middle holes at the top of the case and out again through the right one. Cut it the length you wish the loop to be and thread a bead on each end, making a knot at the tip to keep the bead on.
Beaded Leather Pen Wiper
| Materials Required: | Two circular pieces of leather about 3 ½ inches in diameter, |
| 3 circular pieces of natural-coloured chamois about | |
| 3 inches in diameter, | |
| A strip of leather ¼-inch wide and ¼ yard long, | |
| 1 skein of beads, No. 3-0, | |
| 1 skein of beads, No. 3-0, of another colour. |
Fig. 80
A pen wiper is such a usual present that you may think no one would care for it, but look around and you will surely find a big brother or sister, or perhaps a friend, who hasn't one. And this is such an interesting pen wiper to make. It is very simple, just two round pieces of leather and three of chamois. The top piece of leather has the design shown in Fig. 80 worked on it in beads of a colour that will look well with the leather you have chosen. Black and crystal beads will harmonise with red leather or dark-green crystal and opaque white. If the leather is not so bright a colour, the beads may be more gay. Work the design with the stitch described in the directions for making an Indian beaded shirt in Chapter V., bringing the strings of beads farther apart at the outer edge of the circle than on the inside. When the beadwork is done, put the pieces of leather together with the chamois ones between, mark two dots a quarter of an inch apart at the centre of the top, punch holes through the dots and then through the other pieces of chamois and leather. A bodkin threaded with a strip of leather is then run down through one hole, up through the other, and the ends are knotted together and cut quite short.