Leather iPhone Flip Wallet Tutorial
Leather iPhone Flip Wallet Tutorial
please select
Tools used:
Strap End Punch
Straight Edge Ruler
Scalpel
head knife
heavy mallet
stitching groover
overstitch wheel
wool dauber
edge slicker or bone folder
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You will need a total of 4 pieces of leather in 2 different thicknesses (these measurements fit iPhone
4 and iPhone 4S):The large outside piece: 285mm by 87mm at around 2.5-3mm thickness. The inside
piece that holds the phone: 130mm by 87mm at around 2.5-3mm thickness. The two credit card slots
made from thinner leather: 97mm by 87mm and 77mm by 87mm at around 1.5mm [Link] can
use a scalpel or a head knife for cutting. Make sure you use the sharpest tools for nice & clean cuts.
Cutout
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You need to cut out a part of the inside piece (the one that holds your phone in place) to allow you to
take out the phone easier. I used a Strap End Punch but you can also just trace a half-circle and cut it
out with a scalpel. This is what it looks like after punching out the top cutout.
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You can use gum tragacanth to make the flesh side of the leather smoother.
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Stamping
Once it’s almost dry you can place the stamp on the leather and give it a good whack with a heavy
mallet. If your leather is too wet, the impression won’t be as crisp. Generally it’s a good idea to wait
for the leather to almost return to its original colour before you stamp it.
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Use a scalpel to cut a rounded corner. I used a 1cm square as reference so that’s the corner radius.
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It’s a good idea to glue the parts in place before sewing. Proper alignment is very important if you
want the wallet to look good.
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Be careful! The other side won’t need a groove all the way along the edge. You can stop where the
bottom piece of leather ends on the other side.
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Use an overstitch wheel on one side as a guide for your stitches. I use them as guides when hand
sewing as well as machine sewing.
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Once you’re done sewing (if you need instructions, check out my tutorial on this site), use a lighter to
burn the ends of the thread to keep them from fraying.
Cleaning up
Cleaning up the stitches afterwards using the same overstitch wheel helps to give the stitches a good
& even appearance.
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I use a Belkin plastic iPhone case to stretch the leather into shape. I find that it works better than
using the phone because I don’t have to worry about ruining it with moisture and having it slightly
bigger than the phone also makes the shape more ideal (the phone will slide in and out a bit easier).
You could also use the phone itself or just stretch the leather into shape with your hands.
You want to have the edges align perfectly so cut or sand down the edges to make them as even as
possible
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Use a wool dauber and dark dye around the edges of the wallet
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Use a edge slicker or bone folder and move it back and forth along the edges to make them smooth.
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Use your leather finish of choice to seal and waterproof the leather. You can use an oil or one of the
other available finishing products.
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Inside: close-up
edges
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Hope this post will help some of you to make one of these wallets. If you tried it, please let me know
in the comments! If you want to show off your work, feel free to add a link to a photo, too.
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Related
How to start working with Making a tri-fold wallet from How to make a leather wallet
leather on the cheap! one piece of leather inspired by "The Secret Life
June 22, 2012 January 29, 2015 of Walter Mitty"
In "Tutorials" In "Patterns" February 1, 2014
In "Patterns"
Tutorial: Carving the original Apple logo into leather Hand Sewing Leather: How to thread your needles
Where do you buy your leather pieces at? It looks like you are starting with nice, clean-
cut thick leather strips, and I haven’t been able to find them. Could you please share
where you can purchase these sheets?
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Hi John,
You can get vegetable tanned tooling leather from places like
[Link]
To get the clean cuts you can use either a really sharp head knife (round
knife) or to make it even easier, you could use a Craftool Strap Cutter and set
it to the required width. Either way, you’ll have to cut the pieces yourself and
even with the Strap Cutter you’ll need to at least have one straight edge to
guide the cutter along.
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Gorgeous!
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Yikes! Thats $171.46 without tax just for the tools. Not to mention the leather and any
other additional tools you might need. I’m definitely interested in doing this because i’m
sure i would try my hand at other things, but it seems like a hefty investment to get
started.
Kind of a bummer ):
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Hey Brad,
Yes, that is a lot if you just want to make this and nothing else. But you could
do this with less tools and leave out some of the steps if you just want to try
to make this.
That’s why I posted another tutorial here where I used less tools and leather
from an old bag. That can get you going before you start spending a lot of
money on tools and materials….
At the end of the day, like most hobbies, it’s not easy to do it all for free unless
you inherit the tools from relatives or friends
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You can get leather off of eBay at very low cost, tools too. Also for starters
tools check the local hobby stores and the Boy Scout store. The scouts do
leather crafts. Should be one within driving distance or online. I make knife
sheaths for the knives I make and I don’t have $50 worth of tools and they
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work fine. With a little farm sense you can make some of your own tools to fit
your needs.
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BRAD yes it is, some money, but your friends will love what you make for
yourself and before you know it you will be making things for every body and
that will pay for all the tools you want . start with just what you can get by
with and then add as you go. wont be long you will have a nice little business
going.. most of the things you need to start you my have and don’t even no
you have.. utility knife, ruler , pencil , a sharpened nail to make holes ,
hammer , needles ,thread .. that is about all and a plain .. there you go !
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I was thinking after I commented earlier, and I definitely forgot to thank you for sharing!
I’m sure it’s taken a lot of time and effort to make these things and acquire the tools and
materials as well as the skill it takes to create things like this.
The quality of work here is actually very high given the kind of leather and the attention
to detail like the stitching. Comparing to a company like Ettinger, buying the tools and
materials almost seems worth it since you’ll be making something you’d be paying
almost double for anyway. I guess it makes you appreciate it more too.
BTW- I think it would be cool to make some videos. I’m not sure if it’s your thing, but i’d
really be interested to see your process. Thanks again!
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Great tutorial! Love seeing others process, the only thing I would have done differently
was sand the edges for a more uniform look instead of using the knife which leaves the
edges a bit jagged. Otherwise great product.
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Hey, what glue do you use to stick the leather together before you go ahead and stitch?
Thank You
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You can use regular PVA glue or pretty much anything that will hold the
pieces together for long enough. There are plenty of craft glues that can be
used for leather, too.
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Hi! Love the tutorial! I have been looking for something that has finishing edges like this!
I was wondering though, do you think this edging technique would possibly work on
vinyl?
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Thanks Katy,
I haven’t tried it with vinyl so I don’t know. The way it works with leather is
that the heat is creating the smoother edge. So I assume that it would work
but it would depend on whether you can get enough heat into the vinyl…
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This is so awesome! I’m very, very interested in leatherwork and couldn’t have asked for
a better resource of information to start! Thanks so much for such a comprehensive and
concise guide!
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Hi,
Name’s Eva and writing from Uganda. I recently enrolled for a course in leather work at a
local university back here, but I can’t find good tools on the local market. I see you have
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some pretty neat knives and stuff you’re using, and I’d like to know if they come as a kit,
and if so, what else does the kit contain, where can it be got and at how much?
Thx
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Hi Eva,
I haven’t tried any of the kits, I got each tool as I needed it. Most of the tools I
got from local leatherwork supply places here in Australia and some from
Japan:
Check out the tools and kits at Goods Japan
I don’t know what’s available in Uganda but some online stores do ship
internationally. [Link] is a good place to start if you
want to see what’s available. They have Starter Sets that include most things
you will need.
You can check out the tutorials on this site for the things I use. I try to always
add a list of tools for each project.
However, shipping costs might be too high to get these things sent to you
from overseas. I would recommend that you check with your University to see
if they know a local supplier (and maybe have student discounts?).
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Tandy leather has branches in the USA, Canada in mostly large cities, but
shipping to Uganda is too much from both countries. US shipping still min
25$ for small stuffs to 70$ for 6ibs, Shipping from Canada is the highest,
when it is more than 250gmm. They have branches in or dealers to
Australia(high shipping cost too), in UK(probably less shipping, but price
higher than US and Canada and also has dealer in spain too. check it from
[Link]
usd/home/locations/[Link]
BTW, Tandy leather import most of the stuffs from Taiwan. some from China,
India, Japan etc [Link]
as he said goods japan has high quality Japanese mostly, but from IVAN
taiwan too. Goods Japan has ebay store too.
[Link]
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I live not far from Tandy leather store in Canada and buy mostly from there,
but bought some stuffs from goods japan and other companies.
I do different hobby works and leather craft of them to pass time.
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Great job. I’ve just got into leather working. I love it. Made a few wallet kits, but want to
make a good wallet from scratch. Where would I get patterns for it. Wish you had a
tutorial on making a mans wallet.
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Thanks Charles. You could just cut the straight pieces with the
measurements I put at the beginning of this post and add the rounded
corners once you have cut the strips of leather. Should be easy without a
pattern. I’ll see if I have time to make a pattern file and upload it in the
coming days.
Check back again in a few days
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Hi Jake,
there’s no stitching to keep the back cards from sliding all the way down but
the tension of the stack of cards keeps them where you put them. So as long
as you don’t slide them all the way down, they’ll stay where they are.
I usually just put rarely used cards in the back and slide them out of the way
and only have the 2-3 cards I use most in the front pocket.
You could add stitching, too. But if you do, make sure that the thread isn’t too
thick, otherwise your front pocket will have a little “bump” where the cards
have to slide past. You could also add a stitching groove to prevent that from
happening (by lowering the thread into the leather).
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Nice Work. Large skiving machines are very expensive, but you could use a hand-held
skiving tool to thin the leather a bit, maybe 1mm thinner. This would allow the leather to
be more supple and less stiff, which would allow for easier utilization of the pockets. One
problem with thick and stiff credit card pockets is that there is a risk of the cards
cracking under pressure. When using a hand-held skiving tool, the resulting surface will
not be perfectly smooth, a problem that can be mitigated with a quick sanding.
Also, anyone who wants to try this project, without investing in a whole side of leather,
could easily buy suitable scrap leather from a local leather worker. If you are in the US,
you could contact someone on the [Link] forum, though the
forum is international.
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Thanks for the comment, Edward. Great information! I haven’t tried sanding
after hand-skiving, yet. Will do that before spending a few hundred on a
bigger skiving tool.
I haven’t had an issue with my cards breaking/cracking but that might be a
problem for some people.
Thanks again
Attila
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Hi, Im interested in getting started and love your tutorial. One thing is not clear to me.
Your sewing looks perfect. Is it a machine? If by hand do you have to punch holes first?
Ferb
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Hey Ferb,
thanks! The sewing is done by hand. I put together a guide that shows you
how to get the sewing done:
[Link]
You can pre-punch the holes with a stitching chisel if you don’t want to use an
awl. Those things can be found in leathercraft stores like
[Link] or even on amazon.
Doing the stitching by hand has a few advantages… It looks nice and it will
last longer
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With a little burnishing you’d have an extremely professional looking product!! I’ve found
it’s always the little finishing details that let down the final product… Give it a go, you’ll be
amazed at the difference!
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Thanks Jaye! What do you recommend for burnishing? Plain water? Saddle
soap? Beeswax? Something else?
I haven’t tried all of them yet and I haven’t found my favourite way of
burnishing either. My results have been a bit inconsistent
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Just melt the beeswax and add the neatsfoot oil while the wax is
still warm.
I store the mixture in an old cat food tin.
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Great finished product! The only thing I had a question about is how you got the leather
moulded to fit the iphone case. Did you wet the leather and use a bone folder, or just your
fingers to get it to keep shape? Or was there another technique used?
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Thanks Zayne, I didn’t really mould it to the phone. I just pushed it into shape.
You could add a little moisture so that it keeps its shape when the phone is
not inside the case. That’s personal preference. If you decide to wet mould it,
you might want to make sure that you don’t add moisture in the part that
folds over. You don’t want that part to get too stiff.
You could also wet-mould only the top part before sewing the wallet together.
Almost a mix of something like this: [Link]
the-4iphone4-leather-case/ and the flip wallet.
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Hi Ruth, it doesn’t have to be, but vegetable tanned leather has a nice
stiffness to it and it ages really nicely. You could make this with a softer
leather but when you fold that open, it’ll flop around much more (sideways
and in all sorts of directions). The stiffer veg-tan makes that a straight flip-
open motion
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Hi Atilla.. I am a beginner to leather craft and I find that the 3mm veg tan leather is to
thick and stiff to fold. I wonder if is there some stuff to make it a little bit smoother. Or
what an ideal thickness of the veg tan for mobile phone pouch and wallet?
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I find 3mm a bit thick sometimes. I’d recommend you try and get the thinnest
veg tan you can find. Around 1.2-1.6mm works well. If you can find it,
kangaroo leather is another good option
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Thank you so much for taking the time to put this template together for us!!!!
You are awesome!!!!!
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Great tutorial! Would lambskin leather work as well as the veg-tan? I just got some
itailan lambskin leather and was wondering if I could make the case out of it.
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As long as it’s stiff enough to make sliding the phone in and out easy enough,
it should work with all kinds of leathers.
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Hello! Me again (: I would like to pay for the pattern I would like to download, but I don’t
usually use paypal and honestly find it a little confusing. Is there any other way?
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Between, I tried to get the pattern for free, but nothing showed up in my inbox
on my email…
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Hey Mette, I have just sent you an email with the files. Hope that
helps!
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Hello! So I got your pattern for the Leather iPhone flip wallet. But I have problems with
printing it in the right size. But I would be able to make the right size if you answer this
question: If I place my iPhone in the middle of the pattern, where it should be, how many
centimeters is there from the “edge” of the iphone to the edge of the pattern? Ps. Sorry
for the tricky way of explaining but I hope you understand^^”
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Hi Mette,
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The two credit card slots made from thinner leather: 97mm by 87mm and
77mm by 87mm
So that leaves 0.75cm left and right and about 0.72 top and bottom (plus extra
for the area that folds in the middle). Hope that helps, but I’d use the
dimensions above as a starting point if you want to adapt it for a different
phone for example.
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I have just got a question, I wonder how do you determine how many space you leave on
the side from the edge of the phone to the edge of the leather and the extra space for the
middle folding area? Cause I want to make a similar phone wallet but it’s not an iPhone
4, wonder how should I adjust the dimension for different phone. Thank you again!
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Hi Bowie,
Thanks for the comment! The space I leave is a bit of trial and error and
depends on the thickness of the phone as well. With this one, I made a few
versions before settling on the width. Most newer phones will be much wider
so it doesn’t happen to match the width of a credit card anymore. Here’s a
version I made for the iPhone 6 (the smaller one):
[Link]
The middle folding area can be a pretty big range and still work well. Just
make sure you leave around 0.5-1cm at least so it’s not too tightly wrapped
around the top of the phone.
Hope that helps a bit. Sorry I can’t be more specific. It was mainly trial &
error
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love the work that you do! simple yet elegant. keep it going!
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Hi Attila,
Thank your for the pattern download, When I get paid I am going to order some leather
and make a case for my new phone, it is not a Iphone but I printed out the first page at
85% of size from the pdf and my phone fits very nicely on that print out. When I get it
finished I will send a photo of it.
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