Craftsman Leather Billfold: Two Cardboard Patterns, Silk Lining and Saddle-Stitched Waxed Silk (Boy Mechanic, 1919)

"The making of a billfold is easily within the range of an amateur in leather work, who will observe the instructions carefully." Seal, morocco, pigskin and ooze sheep are all satisfactory.

Cut two patterns of stiff cardboard (Fig. 1). Body part No. 1: 13-1/4 by 4-1/4 in, with fold lines at 2-1/2, 2-5/8, 3, 2-5/8 and 2-1/2 in, and each end (A, B) cut in with 1/2 in radius arcs, set in 1/4 in. Body part No. 2: 8-3/16 by 4-1/4 in, with fold lines at 2-19/32, 3 and 2-19/32 in. Lay each pattern on the leather and trim the leather even with it, guiding the knife with a metal straightedge, on a close-grained hardwood board or a piece of sheet zinc.

Cut linings slightly larger than the patterns. Skiver is glued all over with a good, pliable leather glue that will not crack the leather; smooth it on gently without stretching, or the leather may buckle, and dry it under a light weight. Silk moire is glued with a thin stripe round the edges only, left to overhang, and trimmed off neatly when dry.

Fold part No. 1 to form the back and the two card pockets. Apply stripes of glue as shown in Fig. 3, drop part No. 2 (the money compartment) into place, and fold the ends of No. 1 over on the dotted lines. Weight the billfold and let the glue dry.

Draw a straight line with a blunt-point tool along the edges to be sewn, 3/16 in from them. Mark the stitch spacing for an inch on a strip of paper and transfer it along the line. Punch the holes on a pine board with a diamond-pointed awl held vertical (D); back the open ends with strips of cardboard while punching.

Sew with heavy waxed silk matching the leather, by hand or with the work clamped between two boards. Thread a needle on each end, start both from the right side (E), pass the needle from the first hole through the second (F) and, with the needles in position (G), continue this stitch. Tie the ends neatly. Trim the edges and tool them smooth with a suitable metal tool or rod, heated moderately, applying water with the fingertip.

From "A Craftsman Leather Billfold" by Livingston Haviland, in **The Boy Mechanic, Book 3**, Popular Mechanics, 1919 (Project Gutenberg 71856; checked on the archive.org scan boymechanic0003unse, pp. 446-447). He does not give the number of stitches to the inch or what waxes the silk (beeswax is ours). Pigskin is one of his four leathers. The tools and metric figures are ours.