Monogrammed Leather Dopp Kit Tutorial, the Polka Dot Chair

For Christmas this year I felt like I made a MILLION zip pouches, in actuality it was obviously not that many, but I felt like it! I kept going back to the store to buy more zippers. I shared one of the projects with you here, today I’m going to share with you how I made these Monogrammed Leather Dopp Kits.

I’ve had loads of fun sewing with leather this year. It’s been a bit of trial and error for sure (the all leather handbag I tried was a giant FAIL) but I’ve had success using it as trim on smaller projects, like in the laptop case tutorial found here.

This year I challenged myself to make something for the Mom’s and Dad’s in the family…. duh duh duuuhhh… (that’s supposed to be spooky organ music, incase you were wondering). Yes, I sewed for grown men. I hope they didn’t mind. After my husband stole the necktie zip pouches I made, I was encouraged and thought I’d give sewing for guys another try.

I got my leather at my local Tandy leather, they have a “scrap” pile and I go and sort though it for pieces that I can use. A blogger friend of mine also sells leather in her shop. She’s reliable and has some great leather to sell for home sewers. Her shop is LR Stitched.

Okay, so on to the tutorial!

You’re going to need:

3 pieces of leather 9” x 4” plus 2 1” x 1” scraps. (The best way to cut leather with a dedicated rotary cutter so that it won’t dull your good scissors)

2 pieces of canvas 9” x 12”

1 9” metal zipper

2 pieces of fabric for the lining 9” x 12”

Freezer Paper

exacto knife or ecutting machine

black fabric paint

Leather needle

Heavy Duty Thread

Teflon Foot for sewing machine

Walking Foot for sewing machine

Zipper Foot for sewing machine

To begin, using a fabric safe pen, mark the centers of one of your canvas pieces.

Cut out a monogram (less than 4” wide) out of freezer paper using an exacto knife or an electronic cutting device like a silhouette or cricut. You could also use a metal die cut alphabet like the ones from Lifestyle Crafts, if you don’t want to invest in an electronic cutting machine.

Center the monogram on the canvas piece and iron onto the canvas with the shiny side of the freezer paper facing down.

Use black fabric paint to fill in the monogram. Let it dry all the way and don’t get too much paint on the fabric or your monogram might bleed.

Peel off the paper from the monogram. Using binding clips, clip 2 of the leather pieces to the two edges of the canvas. With a leather needle in your machine and a teflon foot, Stitch using a stitch length of 4 down the edges of the leather. If your leather slides around too much you can use a glue stick to hold it in place.

Repeat for the 2nd canvas piece, the back of the pouch. Make sure when the front and back pieces are lined up that the leather is not overlapping. You don’t want to stitch through more than one layer of leather when you are assembling the dopp kit.