Something used, something borrowed, something new?
Anyone that has been following me for a bit, knows I tend to use new and fresh leather for all of my builds, only recycling the scrap from projects. The scrap I make into bracelets, snap keepers and other small things. It’s a great for me to use up all of those long thin strips of leather I end up with after cutting out a bag, wallet, or something else out of leather.
Well this build is a little different, a customer brought me an idea and 2 pairs of her old riding chaps. She wanted me give her old chaps a new life as new bags. To up cycle the leather into something new and useful that she could carry with her. After a bit of discussion back and forth over the style and shape. We settled on a tote style bag the same dimensions of her current favorite purse. Her only caveat was that I reuse as much of the old chaps as possible in the new bag. We decided to re-use all of the fringe along the bottom of the bag, the yoke with her name hand beaded into would turn into the top of a pocket.Heavy vegtan would form the long panels of the bag, her soft chap leather the gusset. With an outline, shape, and some rules to follow I got to work.
As I started building the bag I made some interesting discover. Attached to the inside of the bag, was a tag, the makers mark just barely visible after years and years of being worn. The mark read “Journeyman Saddles” on the front and on the back in the sharpy was a name and the date! The date was from November of 2001, meaning they were made and given to the customer way back in 2001! For being over 20 years old these chaps were in great shape, sure they were worn in and stretched out, but they weren’t drying our or falling apart like many other “ leather” goods you see from 20 years ago. These were very well made with a lot of time and effort put into them.
As the build went on I found some creative uses for hardware and various portions of the leather. The zipper pulls and hardware around the zippers I repurposed. They became decorative tassels one on each side of the bag, hanging over the folded handles again built from her chap leather The original makers tag, and bolt snap went inside the bag alongside my own makers tag. I like to think it helps preserve the history of the chaps used in the bag, while building on it with my own work. I reused all of the piping from the chaps as decorative applique on the panels to make the blue pop against the veg tan, and added fringe to decorate the reverse pocket. All of that added together to create a challenge and interesting build, that the customer absolutely adores.
