suggestions for making a sporran on a budget?

[Rawlinson]

My goal: make at least two sporrans--one for me, and one for a friend--though one can never go wrong with too many sporrans, and I know at least one other person off the top of my head who needs one

My resources: the leatherworking skills aforementioned friend has, starving college student ingenuity, and very little to no money

Suggestions (beyond don't use a pigeon...)?

[auld argonian]

One question is whether you have the necessary tools on hand.

That's one of the things that made me just give up on the idea and stick to just buying sporrans. I realized that I'd probably have to spend so much on tools that it wouldn't be cost effective.

A source of leather that I kicked around was raiding thrift stores for old, beat up leather jackets and "harvesting" the leather from them.

Best

AA

[Tobus]

A decent sporran can be made without a lot of special tools. All you really need is an Xacto knife to cut the leather, something sharp and pointy to poke your stitching holes, and two glover's needles. Other tools would make the job easier, but you could get by with just those. Material for the sporran could be as simple as a couple of square feet of leather and some waxed thread. You can cut your own strips of leather for the braiding/lacing/fringe/tassels/whatever.

[Rawlinson]

Sounds doable. Know of any good tutorials?

[Hothir Ethelnor]

Leather would be helpful. I get a bunch of really nice stuff from a local upholstery shop that reupholsters furniture and they get alot of leather jobs. Couches make for nice large scraps of thinner leather that makes a nice Rob Roy type sporran and can be machine sewed with a heavy needle.

[Tobus]

Sounds doable. Know of any good tutorials?

Hmm, I don't know of any DIY-on-a-budget sporran tutorials. But I made mine from a pattern I found online: http://www.nwta.com/patterns/pdfs/291sporr.pdf

You'll have to figure some of it out on your own, as the pattern doesn't give you everything exactly. But I started by taking some poster board and drawing out the pattern with a straight-edge and a compass (use a pencil and a piece of string if you don't have one). Then I cut out the pattern with scissors and traced it onto the leather. I used the Xacto knife to cut out the leather.

Then I used the compass (well, actually I used a divider) to lightly scribe a 1/8" offset from the edge of the leather where my stitch line would go. This gave me a line to follow when laying out my stitches. I then used a ruler and the tip of a stylus to lightly indent in the leather where my stitch holes would go. I laid them out on 3/16" centers, starting at the bottom center of the sporran edge and working up to the top. This laid out the stitches for the front of the sporran, where the gusset would be stitched on. I did the same for the back piece and both sides of the gusset itself. It's a lot of holes. Then I punched all the holes with the needle from a stitching awl (you can use anything that will pierce leather and give you a hole large enough for your thread to pass through).

Once all your stitch holes are punched, you're ready to stitch the front and back to the gusset. I use the double-needle method where you have a long piece of waxed thread and use a needle on both ends, passing each end of the thread through the holes in opposite directions. It's described here. It helps to have a pair of pliers to pull the needle through the leather once you get the tip through the hole.

Anyway, once the front and back are stitched to the gusset, all that's left is stitching on the belt at the rear (I actually stitched on a leather tab with a D-ring so my sporran belt could be separate). Then I braided all the decorations, made the belt, put a simple button on the front, and called it a sporran.

The most time-consuming part is the hand-stitching. I won't lie: it takes a long time and it's the kind of work that you have to focus on. You'll want a good strong light to work under.

But in the end it looks like this. My total cost for this sporran was virtually zero, since I was using leather I already had. But even if you bought the leather, waxed thread, needles, and a couple of other odd and ends, I couldn't see it costing more than $20 or $25.

[kiltedwolfman]

I've been tinkering around making sporrans out of whatever I could get my hands on lately. And now that I've somewhat honed the technique down a bit I've been able to make about 11 sporrans for 25 buck (CDN lol ).
this one cost me zip to make
[IMG][/IMG]
and these ones cost about 4 dollars together. I've since remade the black one using leather.
[IMG][/IMG]
Here's the leather ( well fake leather ) version
[IMG][/IMG]

[Squeaky McMurdo]

I made a nifty sporran in a pinch with the main body made out of a black binder (the kind made out of cardboard covered in faux leather) some black fabric scraps for the gussets, some electrical tape to hide the edges, and some brads for decoration. I had all this laying around my house, but it probably would have cost under $10. And if you use a needle and thread to straight-stitch the tape down, it can carry quite a bit.

My daughter packed off my camera again but I'll post pictures of it when I find it if you'de like.

Walmart currently has some black faux pebble grain leather in their fabric sections that you could use to make either the above mentioned sporran with cardboard or something stiff to give it shape, or a Rob Roy style one. It's $3 a yard I think. That could make a lot of sporrans!

--Chelsea McMurdo--

[lethearen]

How about hitting up a local thrift / goodwill / salvation army type store and look for a purse that could be converted?

[BEEDEE]

This one cost me $1.50 at Goodwill:





And yes, I do wear it!



Brian