Leather watch strap keeper

My watch was missing the strap keeper, so I had to make one.

To be honest, I did not put my soul into this project, I had an urge to fix it while the food was getting ready in the oven.

Anyway, here is my steps to make one.

The steps

Cut out a leather strap. My final size was about 14mm wide.

Bevel the edges:

The leather I was using was about 4oz, that is too thick, so thin it out:

Cut it to the right length. Also thin out the ends so that the overlapping becomes smooth:

Paint it black:

Mark where to stamp the holes:

Stamp the holes:

Add leather edge color and burn the edges:

Apply shene to make the finish look good:

Hand stitch and glue the keeper together. The stitches is both for cosmetic and functional. It prevents the leather from stretching.

I'm actually pretty happy with the result. It took approx 1 hour and that was what I had.

I should probably have used the sewing machine though, I think it would look better with finer stitches and thinner thread.