Learning to sew

Finally had a slower day at work today, so I ran out and picked up some goat skin, about 7g(3mm thick). and after some thinking and browsing the web, I decided that I would try and tackle the sewing of the leather. Mind you I haven't successfully used a sewing machine since middle school(required class). for some reason any time after that class every sewing machine I  touched would break within seconds, and then work again if anyone else started to use it. So tonight, with that in mind, I cracked some beers one for me, one for the machine. starting off on a good foot.

Anyway, looking at what I have again. Its been so long I almost forgot where I was and what I have done.

Not sure where all my trace paper went ... so paper towels it is. Just a nice fat marker along the bend in the seat and look at that, we have a plan.

Looks like I forgot to take a photo here. But I have a layer of muslin, foam, and leather. I then put a small stitch in all four corners so that shit would move around on me. (one stitch shown below)

Layers stuck together. Muslin, Foam, Leather.

Flipping it over, and jumping right in to it. I cut out my pattern, and then traced it with a chalk pen on the leather. This shows where my initial stitch will be.

See, follow the powder line.

A complete circle...ish. Starting to look like a seat of sorts.

Now to bust out that chalk pen again. 

After sewing.

Flip the piece over, and cut off the extra muslin and foam. We don need that shit.

After I removed the extra foam, I realized that I wouldn't actually be able to attach this to the seat pan. I don't have clearance because of the mounting bolts on the pan. So ill have to wait, hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to drop it off at my shoe guy and he will be able to rock it out. 

So I made a new wallet with some left over leather scraps. no big deal.

Things I would do differently if I go about this again;

I would get a thicker leather (though if I did that I doubt my ladies sewing machine would be able to handle it.) and it would probably be of the deer, elk, or cow variety. It would get a lighter leather(untreated), so I could dye it. 

The thread would be a different color than the leather, just for some pop. 

I would use a different type of foam for the ribs. The type I got wasn't very dense at all, and bunched up awkwardly in the middle. I bought 1in low density, I would go .5in high density next time.

Thats if next time I do it myself.

But if I didn't try it, I wouldn't know if could do it or not.