hey everyone! i'm jessica from jewelrytutorialhq.comand bespangled beads on etsy. welcome back to my studio. in today's videoi'm going to show you how to cut up an old leather bag or purse to salvage the leather to use for makingjewelry. now i've got a ton of fun projects plannedwith this leather - i want to make some bracelets and i will show you how to do that in anothervideo, but today we are just going to focus on cutting up this bag and getting as muchleather as we can from it. all you need for this project is the bag thatyou want to cut up, a craft knife with a new sharp blade or a stitch ripper, a work surfacethat's safe for cutting on, and (optional) a metal ruler i'm going to start by just choosing a seamand using my craft knife to insert the blade
between the two pieces of leather where thestitches are and just cut carefully the stitches between the pieces of leather to separatethem. and you'll notice the angle of my knife - i'mmoving the blade along the leather horizontally, not perpendicular to it because i don't actuallywant to cut the leather at this point. i'm just going to continue ripping the seam- you can also use a stitch or seam ripper for this - and then i'm going to cut the flapaway from the rest of the bag. and that will be my first piece of leather. now you should be able to pull the threadeasily from around the edges. i'm going to move on to the next piece wherethe handle is held onto the bag. now it looks
like this piece is made of vinyl so that'sjust going to pull apart easily and we don't need to keep that - it's trash. i'm going to continue on the other side ofthe bag and separate it from the lining, disconnect that flap from where the handleattaches on the other side and discard that piece of vinyl. then continue separating this large pieceof leather. so now i've got two nice sides of leather, and we're going to take apartthis bottom part of the bag. using the same technique, just ripping thestitches gently between the two pieces of leather.
and obviously, every bag is different butthe technique is going to be pretty much the same for any stitched leather bag. this is the rib at the bottom of the middleof the bag - i'm just going to separate that - it's probably made of vinyl so that's trashtoo. continue on separating all the elements whereyou find a seam until you're satisfied with the leather that you have. i'm going to cut off the handle, and i thinki'm going to leave this piece of leather stitched intact and i'm going to save these interesting leatherrings and set those aside - those might be
fun to use in a project somehow. some bags might have more exciting hardwarethan this one so you might want to save buckles and anything you think you might be able touse later. now that we're finished separating all the elements, we're left with severalnice scraps of soft, supple leather that can be cut using a ruler with your craft knifeto make nice straight-edged pieces that you can use for making bracelets or anything elsethat you can imagine. in my next video, i'll show you how to makethis cool 'magic braided' leather bracelet using the leather that we just salvaged fromthat bag. i'll link to that project here when it's ready,or you can always subscribe to my channel
so you don't miss any future videos! thank you so much for watching - i reallyhope you enjoyed this project and i hope you might take a minute and visit me over at jewelrytutorialhq.com(if you're not already watching this video there, of course :) . you'll find tons offun, free jewelry tutorials and resources, and if you'd like to visit my shop you canfind it at bespangledbeads.etsy.com. i'll see you next time!
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