Easy Handmade gifts for guys – Make a leather key chain in less than 15 minutes with this DIY tutorial. Not only is this a fast and easy project it is environmentally friendly. The leather I am using is from samples at a furniture store. They change the discontinued samples out once a year and usually pitch them unless someone asks for them. I have a good rapport with the store near me and they save the leather and fabric swatches for me. The first time they gave them to me was for a boy scout craft about 5 years ago and have saved them for me ever since. This is a great craft to make with older kids. It is super quick and easy. Honestly it took me longer to write the directions than it did to make the piece from start to finish.
Materials to make gifts for guys – a leather Key chain:
- Scrap leather
- Ruler
- Craft Knife
- sewing machine and thread or needle and thread
- key fob and key ring (Amazon Affiliate link – very small commission earned if purchased)
Instructions to make gifts for guys – a leather Key chain:
- Cut the leather into a one inch strip as long as your leather is. This piece is 1×11. I used a craft knife and ruler. You can use a rotary cutter or even scissors. Make sure the scissors are heavy-duty.
- Fold the piece of leather in half. Place the key fob and key ring on the strip and move to the back-end. Carefully and slowly run through the sewing machine. Use a heavy-duty needle and thread too. If you do not have a sewing machine you can do it by hand. If you are doing it by hand you might want to use an awl to poke holes in the leather. A hand needle will be difficult to push through the leather.
For illustration purposes I used white thread. I would recommend using a thread that coordinates with the color of the leather.
If you want more quick and easy handmade Father’s Day gift ideas, and gifts for guys in general be sure to check out our partners for Craft Lightning:
Great idea Niki!