My friend Laura and I took a leather tambourine bag class!

I was so excited for this class because I wanted to learn to sew leather on a machine (my last leather class involved hand sewing) and how to sew circles. I was also eager to review adding a lining and working with zippers.

I found most of my supplies at Discount Fabrics – sheep leather, velvet ribbon, D rings, and leather sewing needles. For the lining I dug through my stash for some options and purchased zippers and thread at Joann.

Our instructor Sienna DaFonseca provided the pattern for the class and guided us through the process.

First, we cut our fabric.

We finished the ends of the strip inner lining to avoid fraying.

Then sewed the inner lining and leather with a basting stitch to keep the pieces together as we constructed the bag.

We added the zipper on a curve. Then sewed on the second circle.

After all the pieces were attached, we trimmed the excess fabric.

Then the moment of truth: flipping the pouch! We sewed on D-rings for the strap and tucked in the flaps.

And lastly, sewed on the strap. Here are our bags! Laura even made a pocket!

I brought one of my tambourines to see if it would fit. It’s the perfect size, but the zipper was too short to insert the tambourine. Oh well. I’m still super proud of this project and I’m looking forward to working more with leather.

Have you made leather projects? Share below!