Leather Shoe Key Chain

Colorful, leather shoe key chain is made out of leather scraps and few tools that I am going to explain and demonstrate. This is not a professional project, more home-hand made, hobby job, every one can do with a few needle stiches and some tools.

Supplies:

Leather scraps

Synthetic thread

One metal ring

Tools :

Cardboard models for cutting parts

hole puncher

needle for leather or some big needle

a pair of scissors

scalpel knife

glue gun and silicone for it

kitchen paper towel

Some old newspapers for protection

I am using my old paper models for tracing on the cardboard , but you can print and use JPG - file - of this photos to make cutting parts for your project.
Dimensions can be variable, so you can adjust / scale as you like.
Bottom part is 6,5 m x 4 cm -. 0,4 X 1,6 inches , and that is the most optimally for drilling holes and sewing.
Trace the paper models on cardboard and mark holes with a pen. I am using cardboard parts because of their durability, they will not tear up during the work. Cut the pieces with scissors and drill the holes with the tool,

If you do not have this kind of tool, you can use some big needle for punching holes, but be careful - that needle could end in your finger , because leather is quite difficult to work with, but also more long lasting, when done.

In the fourth picture - there is a model for the back upper part and it has holes for sewing. If you have a glue gun, you do not have to sew the key holder to the back upper part - you can just glue it together.

When you pick the colors, and you need four, you can trace sewing parts from cardboard models to the leather parts. Use contrasting colors like - light and dark , pink and blue, green and pink, yellow and red etc .. You need a colorful glow :) :) :)

I am using some thicker leather for the bottom part and regular thickness leather for the other parts. But if you do not have thicker leather you can use two layers for the bottom part.

Cut the parts in leather using sharp scissors and then punch holes with the tool. Mark the holes with the pen - before punching, It is important to mark the same numbers of holes on the bottom and upper parts because of sewing, and in that way you will not have any holes left and not sewed.

There are two bottom parts and two upper parts - front and the back.

Upper back - green part has holes for sewing and 8 holes for a shoe lace , that are bigger. Also green part has one horizontal cut , as marked - made by scalpel knife - for the key ring support made of white leather part. You can make this cut with scissors, also , but be careful in any case.
Parts should be identical as the model parts.

Leather is a thick material, and it is difficult to sew through with just a needle. That is why you need to make holes in advance , by using this tool, or much bigger needle.
Make holes over the spots marked with pen, or through the cardboard model. That is - why the model should be resistant to damage.

In the last photo - there are the holes for the shoelace , and they are much bigger.

You need holes drilled before sewing, because you can not do it with the needle alone, or it will be to hard to do it. -

So, have your hole puncher near, to use when needed to make some hole bigger if needed.
I am using synthetic tread and special leather needle.

Start by joining bottom part with the upper back part of the shoe. There are some special methods of sewing leather, but this way , just going up and down with the needle, will do fine.

It will not be the object for some use , but just for show :) and the synthetic tread is strong and it will hold the parts together.

Join together bottom and upper back part and start to sew from the middle of the back. In that way you will finish at the back of the shoe, and some mistakes - if you make them, will not be so visible - as in front of the shoe, and you will not do the sewing twice. Mistakes are very possible to appear :) :) :)

Make sure that you pull out the string all the way out of the leather part, and tight it nicely when the stiches are over. Check that often. All the stiches should be tighten up evenly.

When the green part is half finished , pink part is added , and you should join them in three layers at the joining point. That mean that you should put the needle through all three layers of leather parts. ( as noted below the photo)

Bottom part is sewed to the upper green and pink part , all around.

Green upper part is partially sewed to the pink part at the side , by the marked holes - as in the model parts. as is described in the next step.

That will hold the shoe shape. When you finish , cut the tread and make a new knot for the rest of sewing.

Bigger holes in the green part are for shoe lace :) do not sew them :)

It looks complicated , but it is not , there are only four joining sewing paths to do.

In this phase it does not look like shoe at all, and you could lose hope, but DO NOT ! :) :) :)
Just a few more stiches and it is going to be done :) :) :)

All the stiches should be tighten up nicely end evenly.

Green upper part is partially sewed to the pink part , by the marked holes - as in the model parts.
When finished , cut the cord and make a new knot for the rest of the sewing.

Then you continue to sew the pink part to the bottom. When finished with the bottom, you should join the upper parts as previous. In the end of this step your shoe should look like this in the last photo :)

I made two heel bottom parts , for getting better shape of the heel. Than I made some fake sewing to the yellow part in order to glue them later.

Cut the leather strip for inserting in the back part of the shoe.

Dimensions should be approximately twice as the height of the shoe.

Make the cut in the back upper part as marked by the cutting part. It can be done with a scalpel knife or with the scissors. Stripe will be glued to the back of the shoe with a glue gun, later .

I am using the same tread for shoelace .

Put the tread through the holes as usual :)

Tie them evenly, but not before the next step. ( stuffing the shoe with the kitchen paper)

Finally - IT LOOKS LIKE A SHOE :) :) :)

Use some kitchen towels to stuff the shoe and get the full shape.

Using hot silicone glue is dirty process, so you need to protect your work area. Old newspapers will do the job.

I am new to glue gun usage, and dripping of the hot glue could be annoying. I find out that I can stop this with part of barbeque stick, not fully , but enough not to waste silicone, and make a mess all over the place.

Bottom parts are from a ticker leather, and so it is so hard to sew through them, and I decided to glue them with silicone hot glue. I made two heel parts, to make it more like a real shoe.

I glue them together, and then glued the heel part to the bottom.

Pull out some kitchen paper form the shoe to free the area to attach the ring.

Strip for the ring should be look like this, and there is no paper model for it, because it is a simple stripe shape.

Putt the ring on and fold the strip in half to make the loop.

Glue it with the hot silicone and hold for a moment , so the silicone can harden.

Insert the stripe in to the hole on the back of the shoe, and pull through. Then glue the bottom side of the stripe and glue it to the back of the green part , like it is shown on the photo. Hold the glued parts to harden the glue.

In the original model parts - there are holes for sewing key holder and back upper part together, but I have used the silicone glue instead :)

Clean up the silicone fiber mess, clean up tools , and put back leather scraps in place , for the next project.

Tidy work place is more relaxing and inspiring for creative process then dirty and mixed up environment.

Enjoy the Instuctable :) and try to make one shoe on your own.

If you do not have leather scraps, you can use foam plates, textile or crocheted parts.

Happy crafting :)