Are you ready to get started making your leather tote bag? I know I am. (If you missed it earlier, here’s the link to the free pattern for the large tote bag so you can get caught up.) The first step is choosing the materials for the tote bag. This step is probably one of my favorite parts of the process, as I can spend hours online shopping and daydreaming about all of the gorgeous leather bags that I want to make. In today’s post, I’ll walk you through choosing all of the different materials that you will need, including the exterior material, lining, interfacing and hardware. My goal is to hopefully make it less intimidating to choose leather for your project, as I know I was a bit overwhelmed when I first started making bags with leather.
Exterior Material
The choice of material for the exterior of your bag is probably the most important design choice you will make, so don’t skimp on the quality of the materials here. Depending on your attitude towards animal products, you can either make your bag out of genuine leather, or use a leather look-a-like material like faux leather, pineapple leather or cork. Read on to learn more about each option.
Genuine Leather
For me, there is nothing like the luxurious feel of a leather handbag, so I recommend making this tote bag out of leather, so long as you don’t have any ethical concerns with that. (And yes, you can sew leather using a regular sewing machine! More on that in the construction post coming up.) The downside, of course, is that good leather is pricey, although the price varies depending on the thickness of the fabric and the size of your leather piece. This tote bag is slouchy and relatively unstructured, so you will need a thinner leather, something in the 2.5-3 oz range. (Leather thickness is measured in ounces, with one ounce being equivalent to 1/64”. You can see a handy chart showing the different thicknesses for different use cases here.) You will need about 5 square feet of leather for this tote bag. (By the way, a good rule of thumb when thinking about leather square footage is that one yard of 54-inch wide fabric equals roughly 18 square feet of leather, taking into account the wastage that occurs due to the irregular shape of the leather hide.)
My favorite online source for leather is Rocky Mountain Leather Supply. I find that the leather they sell is always of the highest quality, and although they are not the cheapest source out there, I am willing to pay a premium because I know that I will always get a great piece of leather from Rocky Mountain. (And no, I’m not being paid to push them – I am recommending them based purely on my personal experience having made several projects using leather from them.) They are a small operation, so sometimes their shipping times are not as fast as others, but personally I think that’s a small price to pay in exchange for being sure of receiving a high-quality product.
For this slouchy tote bag, I think a good choice from Rocky Mountain would be this 2.5 oz calfskin leather that comes in 12 colors. This one has a mostly smooth grain, but if you want a more rustic look, try this exotic textured sharkskin leather that comes in 5 colors (though it is pricey!). I also think this bag would look very good in suede, so another option is this lovely (but expensive!) classic Italian suede that also comes in a wide variety of colors.
There are other, larger online retailers like Tandy Leather and Weaver Leather Supply that have a wider selection of leather to choose from, but I have found those shops don’t always have the high-quality, luxurious leather that I need for handbags. I personally would only buy from them if I already knew the exact leather that I was looking for and/or I was able to visit a physical store location to examine a sample.
Faux Leather
If you’re uncomfortable using leather, either for ethical reasons or because genuine leather is simply too expensive, consider making the tote bag in a faux leather. Faux leather is made by applying a polyurethane (PU) or polyvinylchloride (PVC) finish to a base fabric of some kind. Many of you may have memories of the horrible faux leather (a.k.a. pleather) that was prevalent back in the 1980s, but don’t let that hold you back because the faux leather that is available nowadays is much, much better looking than the products that were available four decades ago. In fact, many high-quality faux leathers come quite close to mimicking the grain and look of genuine leather. Faux leather is also very budget-friendly, as even high-end faux leather typically runs only around $20-50 per yard.
I highly recommend the faux leathers from B&J Fabric, a high-end fabric store in the garment district in NYC. I have purchased their faux leathers on many occasions and always been impressed at how nice (and not plasticky!) the faux leather feels. The best option is to go their physical location in NYC, but if you can’t make it there, their website has a decent selection as well. I really like this so-called “Perfecto” faux leather that comes in 3 different colors (navy, red and white). It is 54” wide so you only need about a yard to make this tote bag.
Pineapple Leather
If you don’t like the look or feel of PU or PVC faux leather, there are other alternatives that you can use to make the tote bag. One option is to use Pinatex, a faux leather made from pineapple leaves. Despite its origins, this product looks and feels surprisingly close to rough-grained leather and can be a great choice for bags with a more rustic, distressed look (click here to see examples of products made from Pinatex). Here are some pics from the sample book:
Pineapple leather is also surprisingly versatile. The original version of Pinatex comes in 11 different colors, and there are a few metallic shades that are available as well. There is also a smooth version of Pinatex without the rough texture.
Unfortunately, there are not many places online where you can buy Pinatex leather. You can buy directly from the manufacturer, Ananas Anam, but the manufacturer is based in Spain so be prepared for long shipping times if you are based in the United States.
Cork
Made from the same stuff that is used in wine bottle corks, cork fabric can be another great choice for bags that have a more rustic, organic feel. Cork fabric is similar to faux leather in construction – the cork material is bonded to a fabric backing to increase the durability of the fabric. It also behaves and feel similar to faux leather (including because cork fabric does not fray), so you can use the same sewing and construction techniques with cork as you do with leather and faux leather. Best of all, cork fabric dyes well and is available in a lot of different colors, so you can choose either to go natural or make an eye-popping creation in a metallic sheen. You can also up the sophistication factor by making the main body of the bag in cork fabric, but making the handle and/or pocket out of genuine leather.
I love the sophisticated, metallic colorways available at B&J Fabrics but their selection is admittedly rather pricey (from $37 to over $100/yard). Fabric.com offers a more affordable selection of cork fabrics, including several in ‘natural’ colors that approximate the look of a brown leather bag.
Lining Material
It is not necessary to line this bag, but lining does give the interior of the bag a lovely finished look and it can prolong the life of your bag. As with the exterior of the bag, you can either go with genuine leather lining, or consider non-leather lining alternatives like microsuede or Ultrasuede. I go through each of these options below.
It is crucial when selecting lining to make sure that the lining works with the exterior material. I usually try holding the exterior material and lining material together, so I can see how thick the two materials are together and make sure that the two layers won’t be too bulky in the finished bag.
Pigskin
If you’re making your bag out of genuine leather and you’d like the lining to also be genuine leather, consider lining the bag with pigskin leather lining. You can find pigskin lining in most of the major leather online stores – for example, Tandy offers this pigskin lining leather in beige and black.
Microsuede/Ultrasuede
My personal preference for most leather bag projects is to use microsuede lining. Microsuede gives your interior a nice soft feel, and it can be easier to clean than pigskin lining. It is also typically more affordable than pigskin, although steer clear of the ultra-cheap (under $10) options you can find online – those types of microsuede tend to fray at the cut edges, making it inappropriate for making leather bags (you’ll understand why when we get to the post on finishing the edges of our leather bags).
One of my favorite microsuede linings is this Italian microsuede from Rocky Mountain Leather, which comes in beige and black. It feels really soft and smooth to the touch, and it is no surprise that this microsuede lining is used by famous luxury brands.
Another option if you want a really durable bag is to use Ultrasuede. Ultrasuede is a synthetic suede that is extremely durable and water resistant – so much so that it is often used in upholstering boats (and it was famously used by Halston to make chic trench coats). It comes in a huge variety of colors and it can be a great way to add a pop of color in the interior of your bag. The downside is it is quite pricey; for example Ultrasuede Soft runs around $60 per yard (though you can sometimes find remnants online for less than that). Personally, I think the product is worth the price and I try to keep the cost down by buying the absolute minimum I need for my project (for example, most bag projects can be completed with only half a yard).
You can find a large selection of colors of Ultrasuede Soft at B&J Fabrics. A selection of other (more expensive) types of Ultrasuede is available at fabric.com. I’ve also sometimes had luck searching for cheaper Ultrasuede remnants on eBay and Etsy (though beware of anything that is too cheap on those sites, as there’s a good chance that the product is not authentic Ultrasuede, or it’s just a small sample of Ultrasuede rather than a full cut of fabric).
Interfacing
Like in garment sewing, sometimes certain parts of bags need to be interfaced to give them more structure and heft. This specific tote bag is slouchy so not much interfacing is required, but you will need to interface the handles, which are subject to more wear and tear than the rest of the bag. I like to use Decovil Heavy, a heavyweight fusible non-woven interfacing that gives materials that it is fused with a leather-like feel.
There are lots of online stores that sell Decovil Heavy, but here in the United States the easiest place to buy Decovil Heavy in person is probably Joann’s Fabrics.
Closures
As originally designed, the top opening of the tote bag is not secured and it can fall open very easily. This has its perks, as it makes it very easy to slip items in and out of this bag when you’re on the go. However, if you prefer to have a bag that can be securely closed, you can easily add a magnetic closure at the top of the bag.
You can purchase magnetic closures in various sizes (10, 14 and 18 mm) and colors (nickel, gold, gunmetal and brass) at Botani Trim.
And that’s it – we’ve now gathered all of the materials for the leather tote bag! Next, let’s take a look at the equipment we need to make this bag…
