My wife was about to throw to the garbage an old ,worn, unusable pair of her leather boots.

As I always try to think how to recycle things before putting them in the garbage, I though it was a good occasion for experimenting leathercraft.

Step 1: Step 1: Recovering the Leather

I cut the upper part of the boots, getting two large panneled leather sheets.

I've undone all the inital sewing, and sprare the strap and buckle for another project (an axe sheath).

Step 2: Step 2 : Patterning and Cutting

I draw a Template for my Galaxy phone on cardboard (recycled from cereal box...) with belt slot allowing belt up to 50 mm wide.

I first draw the outline of my phone on the cardboard. Then I drew the sewing lines at 0.6 x the thichkness of the phone on both sides and on the bottom , to allow space for the phone to slide in.

On the top I shorten the outline by about 3 cm to be able to catch the phone and remove it from the holster.

Finally added the "ears" with slot for the belt, and draw sewing lines 0,5 cm inside the drawing.

Next step was to carefully cut the template.

Template was then reported twice on a piece of leather, flipping the Template for the second part to keep matching sides.

Leather is carefully cut to shape along the lines.

Step 3: Step 3 : Gluing

The two cut part are temporarly assembled, and sewing lines are marked using the Template as guide.

The face are then glued, using contact neoprene glue applied along the sewing lines and on all the surface supposed to stay in contact.

The glued holster is clamped and set to dry.

Step 4: Step 4 : Sewing

The day after, clamps are removed and I started sewing.

I used the classic saddle stitch along all the sewing line, starting with the phone compartment, to be able to test how its fit in before continue the sewing process..

Phone was fitting nice and snug !

Step 5: Step 5 : Finishing

Once sewing was fnished, I cleaned the leather, the to form the holster around the phone I steamed the leather and let the holster cool down with the phone Inside.

Edges were then polished.

Et voila !

I'm very happy to have transformed and old boot into a leather phone holster, and made my very first steps in leather crafting.