Little bits of leather

It’s a long, long time since I finished high school, but as I can never throw anything out, scraps of leather from my final VCE Art project are still sitting in my DIY stash. A few months ago I planned to rejuvenate some opshop shoes so dug the leather out from its resting place and put it in a prominent spot* so I wouldn’t forget my brilliant idea. Needless to say, the leather is still sitting there and my shoes remain untouched. Aggh. My DIY mojo is at a bit of a low point, it seems. However, I did come up with a very quick and easy project to perk up a ponytail – and all you’ll need is a small scrap of leather, a stanley knife, strong elastic and a needle and thread.

The leather can be any shape you like, just about, but I made mine square. All you need to do is make parallel slashes in the leather about 1cm from the outer edges. Make sure the slashes are about the width of the elastic you are using so you can thread it through (in this case, it’s about 1.5cm).

Cut a piece of elastic long enough to stretch around your ponytail, adding about 2cm for overlap. (My hair is annoyingly fine so I don’t need much elastic, but if you have thick hair obviously you will need a longer piece!). Thread elastic through slashes in the leather. This picture shows the “right” side (ie outward facing side) of the leather.

Lap edges of elastic over each other by about 2cm and sew together (this is the “wrong” side of the leather).

Finished! Now just tie your hair back and put your new accessory on over the top.

Of course you can get quite different looks depending on the colour of the leather and how it contrasts with your hair and with the elastic – there are so many finishes on leather these days that you can find everything from gold “snakeskin” to black patent to neutrals and everything in between. And by substituting ribbon or even a silk scarf for the elastic (tied in a bow over the leather) you would get even more variety from this simple project. Quite a good way to reduce your scrap stash, don’t you think?

 

*aka the floor right next to my bed. There are a LOT of “must-do DIY project” materials in this prominent spot. My tidying up mojo is at about the same level as my DIY mojo.