DIY Leather Feather Earrings

Hellooo everyone! After some server errors (sorry about that!), I’m back. Upgrading plug-ins can be annoying if they decide to break your website!

Hope you had a great week so far! London couldn’t decide between pouring rain and bright sunlight, so luckily my conscience didn’t make me feel guilty about playing stay-at-home in order to prepare this tutorial and update my FAQ page.

A little while back I recycled two leather coats into a bag for my little sister. From this project I had tons of leather scraps left and made a pair of black and silver feather earrings. I gave them to my sister (who loved them) after which my mum also wanted her own pair.

I made three more pairs and will share a little tutorial for making these DIY cuties. Mother’s Day is this weekend and these adorable earrings make a lovely last-minute handmade gift! 

These are the earrings I made for my sister, here modelled by a friend of mine:

Ok, let’s get cracking! Here’s how to make your own pair of DIY leather feather earrings:

• Leather scraps,
• scissors,
• thread,
• earring hooks and jump rings,
• textile paint (I chose metallic silver),
• a paint brush
• and leather needles (either for machine or handsewing).

OPTIONAL: Silver jewelry wire, tape, tailor’s chalk.

1. Cut out two symmetrical feather shaped pieces from the leather scraps. You can mark the shapes with chalk on the left side of the leather if you you’re not sure about freehand-cutting.

2. Stitch down the middle of your leather pieces (about 2/3 down), either with machine or by hand. This will stabilise the shape of the feather and look like the shaft. Alternatively, you can use jewelry wire instead of thread:

Puncture the leather with a needle, making it easier to thread the wire through it.
3.  Now it’s time to apply any textil paint. To create chevrons or other shapes with clear lines, you can mask the leather with tape. Wait until the paint is completely dry before you remove the paint.

4. Cut into the leather diagonally. Be careful not to cut into the thread/wire.

This pair I decoreated with dots to look like guinea fowl feathers.

5. In the next and last step you will apply the jump rings and earrings hooks. Having pliers helps, but if you’re very careful, scissors will do the job, too.

Use a larger needle to punch a little hole into the top of your earring. Bend the jump ring up and push it through. This is a bit fiddly. Holding the ring with a pair of pliers helps!

Slide on the earring hook and use your pliers or scissors to squeeze the ends of the jump ring together again.

Make sure you mirror the earring hooks. Using this technique, the earrings will hang sideways (see picture above). If you don’t like that, you can either use two jump rings or omit them altogether.

Well, and that’s it!

It’s a really fun and quick project which also makes a great handmade gift!

Have fun making your own feather earrings! xx

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Happy weekend!
♥

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