Airport Outfit Check

 

- Preferred apparel for short trips to the US/in Canada.

- I use thicker layers for long haul. 

Wet-molding leather for the first time: Phone cover for Pixel 10

 - I have always wanted to try wet-molding leather to make stuff and a phone cover was one of the things I wanted to try. 

- Having a dummy phone is essential though and a couple of youtube videos I saw long ago appeared to use aluminium blocks of the phone model. 

- It struck me recently to use a 3d printed model instead and I was lucky to find an STL file for my model (Google Pixel 10) online.

- I printed it with a 20% infill for more strength (to be able to withstand hammering)

- Soaked a natural veg tan leather piece I bought from Lonsdale leather (Vancouver) last year and used zip ties to stretch the leather over the mold.

- Used zip ties over the camera area which was a mistake. They left permanent imprints on the leather.

- Corners were tricky and this is where the amateur work is obvious. 

- Waited for the leather to dry for 24 hours before removing the zip ties and cutting the front bits.

- Was very shoddy with the corners and edges and almost put the whole thing in the garbage before realizing I don't need perfection this project. Flaws are fine.

- Used edge coat to cover up the bad cuts and also used some tokonole on the inside surfaces hoping to add some rigidity to the cover. Didn't help much but oh well.

- End result looks great from the back but is okay (for me) from the front.

 

Second Holder for Sunglasses

- The sunglass holder I made last year has been doing great but I realized the 5 holder capacity is not enough for my current collection that has grown to over 10

- Since I don't have the measurements or templates for it, I took rough measurements using a ruler, made a paper template and recreated it using leather scraps from my collection 

- Had to go with different rivets because I ran out of the bronze ones

- Project done in about 3 hours from start to finish

- No precision cuts, beveling, or burnishing

Simple Cable Organizer

Made this simple cable Organizer for my extra long phone charging using scrap pieces of leather. The last one was good but the all-leather closure mechanism was quite cumbersome to get working. The snap closure on this one (picked up a whole pack of these from a thrift store three years ago) works like a charm.

Winter Outfit Check : 06 december 2025