leathercraft

So I've had quite a long hiatus from any significant projects (nothing serious but I cut my thumb and found it uncomfortable to sew then life got in the way) but a friend's birthday was coming up and I wanted to get him a present...

He is very much into his lego but buying a lego set is tricky - he either already has it or doesn't want it. So I instead thought about making something that is lego-adjacent... Then this idea came into my head and I couldn't shake it, a proper little leather tool pouch to hold the brick separator! It seemed like such an absurd little project but a lot of fun and wouldn't take too much effort.

So I started off by measuring the tool and drafting it in paper to check for dimensions etc. before moving onto an initial simple proof-of-concept version. This came out so well that I felt encouraged to continue (this is the red one in the below pictures).

I'm aware that there are far more "efficient" ways of constructing this but I'm utterly obsessed with that X stitch, it features prominently in nearly everything I make, so I just had to get it front and centre on this one.

For the next (and final) iteration I added a few features - the belt loop of course, which is riveted on, and I extended the top "tab" and added cutouts to fit a split ring.

I gave it to him today and he is really very pleased with it and is planning to have it on him at the big Lego con in Denmark later this year. I've actually had feedback from a couple of people now all saying that it is actually fairly practical for those really into lego, a far cry from the kind of "pointless" vibe I was going for. Apparently he literally has these things stashed everywhere around the house so actually having something like this isn't actually as silly as it seems!