Etsy very rarely sends me good notifications. If at all.
Most are just new items in peoples in shops I follow, Etsy pestering me to leave a review for a recent purchase or just a user favouriting an item. The only notifications I tend to enjoy seeing are if someone has just purchased a product of mine, a customer leaving a good review about a product, or if someone leaves a message.
The notification that I did receive on the 29th of October was a message. It was from a lady called Svetlana asking if I could make her a strap for a Hermès Picotin 18 bag in Ebene Novonappa.
Naturally I was quite excited to be asked to do this, however I was more so excited to create a strap for a bag of the brand I've been looking up to since I started working with Leather.
I hadn't made a strap for a Picotin bag, so I got to work and did some secondary research for this strap. The dimensions were quite simple to make sense of, once I had found a listing on Etsy which I used as a base template.
After completeing the first mock up with meticulous measurements and prepration, the pattern was complete. The last thing to do was to confirm with Svetlana that the measurements were exact and in proportion. I like to triple check so as to avoid mistakes.
Svetlana had sent me some Ebene that Haas had sent her, which was very kind of her. I had recently bought a whole hide of Zermatt for watch strap making and it would have been wise to ask Haas to send some scraps/panels of Novonappa they wouldn't be using.
Either way, this Leather is extremely nice in hand. Maybe the smoothest grain finish of Leather I've put my hand across. I'm currently wearing a strap made from this leather and it feels glorious on the wrist. Glorious.
Grain/Flesh Side of Novonappa.
Picotin Strap Attachment using a Sam Browne Snap.
Hand sewing the main body of the strap using Meisi Superfine Linen Thread in 'Coffee' colour. Compliments the colour of this leather very much so.
Hand skiving the keepers to avoid bulk when they overlap.
3mm Thread Spacing for the Keepers.
Stitching Detail of Picotin Strap.
I'm pretty happy with the overall outcome, as is Svetlana; who had many wonderful things to say about the strap!