My first leather cover turned into a disaster halfway through

I was working late in my garage last night, trying to finish a custom journal for a friend. I had just cut the leather for the cover, a nice piece of veg tan I got from a shop in Austin. When I went to mark the spine line, I realized I'd measured the text block wrong and the cover was a full inch too short. My heart just sank. I sat there for ten minutes thinking I'd ruined a $40 piece of leather. Then I remembered a video where someone used a leather skiver to thin the edges and create a hinge. I carefully thinned the leather along the spine area and managed to stretch it just enough to fit by re-wetting it. It's not perfect, but it closed. Has anyone else saved a project with a weird fix like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

nelson.finley2d agoMost Upvoted

Honestly, the whole "disaster" thing is a bit much. It's a piece of leather, not a car engine. You figured out a workaround and it closed, so mission accomplished. People get way too attached to materials being perfect on the first try. The real win is learning you can fix a mistake without starting over. That's way more valuable than the leather.

ryan_hayes22d ago

Ruined a $40 piece of leather" seems a bit dramatic lol. It's just leather, you can always cut it down for a smaller project or use the pieces. The fix sounds clever though, making it work is what matters.