How to: Make a Custom Leather Roll to Organize Your Hand Tools

There’s no better way to introduce this blog post than to say: I think it’s a really, really good idea. The look is classic, and it helps protect your tools edges and handles by encasing them in soft, sturdy material, and it helps protect your hands by keeping the business ends covered. And, since you’re making it from scratch, you can create custom slots and pockets to hold exactly what you want, and keep things where they need to be. And did we mention it looks great? Yes? Okay, great. Let’s make one.    This project comes from Elmars, a maker in Latvia who is getting into leather crafting. This project emerged as a great way to practice his skills, and get his growing tool collection organized.

He began by laying things out to get the ideal placement, then just used additional tabs and some Scotch tape to determine the pockets and brackets. I love the “making things to fit” way of thinking, rather than “this tab should be 1/2″ and this one X measurement,” etc… This leather was soft enough to use a standard sewing machine, which made quick work of the stitches, though you could easily hand sew the seams if you’d like. 

The whole thing rolls up into a tight bundle, nestling a surprising amount of tools in a neat little package. Can’t beat that.

Watch the full process unfold at Instructables.com: Leather Tool Roll