Making a Shell Leather Handbag with Zippers

Thank you for clicking the video! This is a video tutorial for Handbag 13-Size B. If you would like to hear more about the story behind the project, please screw down to the end.

1. The preparation of a reusable template set.

Video Tutorial:    • Preparation of a reusable template  
Printable PDF booklet: https://www.leatherdiystudio.com/reus...

2. Link to the pattern:

Etsy: https://creatoriq.cc/3RDFght
https://www.leatherdiystudio.com/prod...


Size A:    • Making a structural leather HandBag N...  


3. Here is a list of materials you need to make the bag.

Overall: 5.5oz (around 2.2 mm) Firm temper veg tan leather
0.6mm waxed thread
#5 two-way closed end metal Zipper (Length varies for different sizes)


4. If you have any questions/inquiries, I can be reached at [email protected]


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Handbag 13 is one of my old projects back in 2022. (Tutorial link of Handbag 13: )

I was supposed to make two sizes for the project. The small size (I will refer it as Size B in the following text) was never released. I modeled Size B on the 3D software and it looked all fine; unfortunately, when I start building it in reality, there were couple things did go the way I intended.

One thing was that I noticed that the smaller size has relatively gentle curves; the darts are much smaller than the large version, which made some lines of the design unnecessary. I was caught in a dilemma; one side of me wish to keep the original curves, so the smaller size looks very much alike to the larger one; however, the other side of me wants to simplify it and make every line serves certain structural purpose.

The other thing is that with the smaller size, the detail of the joints stand out more. If I keep all the originals curves, it becomes troublesome to deal with the joints; It was already a complex project to make and I hesitated to make it even more challenging.

Due to the frustration, I decided to put it aside and not releasing it until I feel comfortable with. Time goes by; I received couple requests from you guys on making size B, then I was finally getting ready to do it. This time, I have done things little bit (a lot) differently; not only the design got simplified, the method of pattern making was different. I got the inspiration from cloth drape where you can envision a garments on a real scale dress form. The great thing about drape is that it gives me a sense of scale in reality, so I am more confident with the result. Plus, it was fun to work with hands and I didn’t need to sit in front of the computer all day long; the only downside was that the project became quite time consuming with all the steps, such as making the mold, drafting, adjustments, video taping and making a new video on it. Anyway! I have already worked on it for a while and got very excited to see the outcome. :)

If this one turns out well, I also consider making a video sharing little technique/tricks used for pattern making. It is quite fun! Stay tuned :)