DIY Embroidered Leather Wrist Watch

 First of all I just want to say a thanks for the kind comments on yesterday's post. I was a bit nervous to publish it, because, well, doing your money laundry in public is kind of scary, but I really feel it's a topic that should be discussed more. I truly appreciate your support!

Today is a new day and I have an epic DIY to share. It's one of those projects where I made something as gift, and it came out so awesome I knew I needed to turn it into a tutorial. But then it took me like a year to get it done. It's ok, though, because there's never too late share a DIY. 

I made the first version of this watch for my friend Petra. I was in love with that watch! I'm going to share pictures of it tomorrow, so you can all admire it in all it's glory (so, please don't break my heart if you don't think it's as awesome as I do). 

Making handmade wrist watches is actually not as hard as I thought at first, and it's even easier, if you make it out of an old watch that comes with all the metal parts, which are the hardest to source. Which is why I chose to make this one from a pre-made wrist watch. This way you have all the necessary parts, and a quick template for the wrist-band as well. 

This tutorial has about a million steps, but don't feel discouraged. It's actually not that hard. I could show you in 5 minutes in person, but since I can't do that, I have to rely on pictures to make it easy for you. So, I've laid out all the steps to make the process as clear as possible.

 You will need:

• Thick (about 2mm) (faux) leather scraps (some fabric stores sell industry left-over leather scraps, which is where I got mine)
• Wrist watch (c/o Pandahall)
• Embroidery thread
• Embroidery needle
• Crop-a-dile/ hole punch/ awl
• Rotary cutter/ carpentry knife (optional)
• Scissors
• Paper
• Ruler and pencil
• Colored pencils
• E6000 glue

1. Lay the watch down on paper and trace it with a pencil. 

2. Draw a rectangle around the watch according to the markings on the picture above. make sure that the watch template line is in the center of the rectangle both vertically and horizontally. Also, mark a line 1cm from the sides of the rectangle. That's where the cutting line for the wrist band will be.

3. Cut out the rectangle, and round the corners with a coin.

4. Dot the template with dots that are 1cm apart on the long side, and 0.5cm apart on the short side. Add additional dots to the center (one dot on each side of the watch head), and four dots at the end on each side (2 on each side of the wrist band).

5. Punch holes through all the dots with the smallest end of the hole punch/crop-a-dile, or an awl.

6. & 7. Use coloring pencils to draw your design to the template. This will make embroidery so much easier later on, and let's you get a clearer vision of what it's going to look like.

8. Use the template to cut out a corresponding piece of leather. Set that aside for now.

If you like the wrist band of your watch as it is, not need to make a new one, just skip this part.

9. Take the old watch and cut off the wrist band as close to the head as possible. Also, cut off the buckle.

10. Use the long side of the old wrist band to cut out a new one. Make sure to add extra length for the fold.

11. Mark the holes onto the new wrist band through the old one, and use the hole punch to punch new holes.

12. Cut the end you're going to attach to the watch head slightly narrower, and feed it through the slit of the watch head.

13. Add a tab of glue to the end and glue the fold shut.

14. Cut the other side of the wrist band, making sure to add length to both ends for folding.

15. Make a hole in the center of the band about 2cm from one end of the new band. Cut the tip a bitt narrower. 

16. Feed it through the buckle, and put the needle through the hole. Glue the end to the backside of the band. Attach this side of the wrist band to the watch head the same way you did with the other side.

Now you have yourself a new watch base. Looks much better already, right?

17. Take the piece of leather you cut earlier and place the template on top of it.

18. Cut lines the width of the wrist band right beside the watch head, and at the 1cm line you drew on the sides. (those are the straight pencil lines that go across the wrist band in the first picture). 

Punch through all the template holes. Once you've got the markings in, you can take off the template, and finish the job. It took me quite a while of stabbing to get through all the holes.

19. Start embroidering! Finally, right? I suggest going by color. So take one color thread, and do all the embroidery in that color. then switch. 

to secure the start of the thread, make a not to the backside after the first stitch. End with another not around the last stitch.

20. -23. Add layer after layer of thread. if you like the result at any point, you can also stop. No shame in changing your design half way through. Or, you could go with just one color. That would look awesome, too.

24. Finally, feed the wrist band of the watch through the slits. Tadaa! Almost done.... 

To keep the long end of the wrist band tangling, cut a narrow strip of leather, wrap it around the buckle side of the wrist band, cut to size (leaving room to feed the other end of the wrist band through), and close up with a bit of thread. Now your done.

Whew! That was a lot of steps, right. Honestly, it took me about three times as long to write this tutorial, as it took me to make the watch. I don't think I've ever had a tutorial with sooooo many pictures. But, I hope it was worth it.

 

Do you like it? I love it!

As my next B-school payment is coming up, I'm putting this beauty up for adoption. So, If you'd like to get yourself this watch, you can participate in the auction I'm having right here. Click and make your bid.The bidding starts at 25$ (not including shipping). The auction ends on Thursday, 5th of March, at 9pm Central European Time.

That's a wrap for today!

xo. Hanna

The watch used for this tutorila was provided to me by PandaHall. All ideas and awesomeness are my own.