The first leathercraft project of this brand new year is a small round purse. Something for coins or perhaps -if you’re like me- collecting rocks or other found treasures :-).

With this prototype, I wanted to practice pricking and hand-stitching curves which can be challenging with a small pricking iron, and finishing edges.

While I do have a few small experiments in mind, mostly to practice hand-stitching, finishing, and pattern making, I also feel ready to take on a bigger project like a handbag. It’s curious how with practice and making lots of mistakes along the way, a bigger project that used to look overwhelmingly difficult suddenly starts to look doable.

When I see a project with a million steps and details- much like a math exercise (*panic*)- my brain just shuts down and I can’t make sense of any of it. That was, for example, also the case with learning something like granny squares which I put of for years because I couldn’t make sense of the code. All it took was someone to take 15minutes to talk me through the process and by now I almost finished a pillow. Yeah, I’m rocking that inner granny!
So if you’re curious about learning something, it’s totally normal to be overwhelmed in the beginning and the key is finding a learning style or approach that suits you. And then practice, practice, practice 🙂