Making straps

Straps are cut, edges skived (this means that they are beveled to a fine edge, so that when folded there's not a huge ridge showing through) with my extra sharp knife, and my fold line is marked.

I always like to draw in my fold line, instead of doing it by eye. Eyes can be deceiving, and there's nothing worse than having glued and folded an edge, only to realise that it's wonky and has to be done again.

Straps have been glued, and I'm folding the edges to the line with my lovely little rounded awl. It's one of my favourite tools.

Once the edges have been folded over I hammer them down with this weird looking little hammer.

Fitting the teensy buckles onto the straps. I then line them and stitch the edges.

Aforementioned strap stitching on my beloved leather machine.
Obviously the line has to be perfectly straight. I used to look at the stitches, but now I watch the gap between the edge of the wheel and the edge of the work, and I know that if I keep that distance even then the stitches will be too.

After stitching I trim the lining off, and give the straps another hammer so that the stitches sit flat.