Leather Pocket DIY

 

 You might remember this popular sweater-to-cardigan DIY I did several months ago. Well, I finally got around to making pockets for it. One of my goals this year was to learn to work with leather. My parents got me a bag of leather scraps for my birthday, a book about working with leather, and some basic tools. Turns out there are a bunch of different kinds of leather. Who knew? The scraps I have are garment weight so I was able to use my regular sewing machine, but you can't use pins when working with leather because they leave holes. To keep my leather pieces in place while I was sewing I used a bit of krazy glue because that's what I had on hand. Rubber cement seems to be recommended as an adhesive, but I think that's for heavier weight leathers.

1. Make a paper template that suits the size of your sweater. I settled on a 5"x4.5" rectangle.
2. Select and arrange your leather scraps making sure you provide enough surface area for your template.
3. Use a little glue to keep your leather pieces in place and sew the arrangement.
4. Place your paper template on top of your sewn together pieces and cut out your pocket. I found it was easiest to use my rotary cutter and mat for this process.
5. Determine where you want the pockets to be located on your sweater, then sew them in place.
6. Flaunt your leather pockets and DIY skills!

Sweater to Cardigan DIY

I promise. This will be the last sweater DIY project for a while. Probably. I can't help it! Our weather has been all over the place. What is a girl to do when one week its 95 degrees and sunny and then 60 degrees and rainy the next? It is unbelievable the difference a few months makes. Had it been 60 degrees in, oh say, April or May, I would have been throwin on shorts and a sleeveless top, ready to go! But now that I'm in summer mode and I got used to 80+ temps, 60 feels wicked cold. Either way, this sweater will be your best friend year round. Good for both those cool summer nights when you need something cute to wear at a deck party or during the winter when you're a bundle of unrecognizable layers.

This project is super easy. You can do it in less than 20 minutes. No joke. I thrifted this sweater. I loved the cable knit on the front and I have an affection for over-sized sweaters. As I already have quite a collection of large sweaters I like to wear over leggings, I decided to turn this one into a cardigan. Slightly more versatile and it looks a lot nicer over an outfit than a hoody. I didn't want to disrupt the lovely cable knit so I decided to cut directly up the middle of the back of the sweater. The label had already been conveniently removed, but if you need to remove a label just carefully use a seam ripper. After I cut up the middle, I folded each side over about an inch and pinned it. Then I just sewed up each side with a zigzag stitch. That's it. Super easy and inexpensive project with really great results. If I can find the right fabric, I may even add pockets one day. I know, I know. You're probably praying for cold weather now, right?

Update: I did get around to adding pockets! Leather pockets at that. We fancy. Check it out here!