Make a Leather Dog Collar!

To begin you will need the following materials:

• Two 1x13" rectangular pieces of leather(choose your desired color)
• X-Acto knife
• A 4 pronged stitching punch
• Thread that matches the color of your leather or compliments it.
• Two strong needles
• Metal O and D-ring
• Double Bar Buckle

You can find these last three metal items here or a local craft store.

Start by lightly marking 1/8" away from the edge all around both strips of leather. Next, using the stitching punch, punch all around the perimeter of the strips of leather.

First, take one of the strips of leather and your metal O-ring. Slide the leather through the O-ring about 1". Now to begin sewing, line up your holes and start at the hole closest to the O-ring. Using a saddle stitch sew till your 3" from the opposite end. Now slide on your D-ring and double buckle and fold the remaining non-stitched leather in half(leaving a half inch between the D ring and the buckle) and stitch up the last 1.5". Repeat this same process on the parallel side.

Take the second strip and round one edge. I found a quarter helpful as a way of shaping the corner into a round shape. Next, punch 4 evenly spaced holes along this rounded edge. Now, slide 1" of the non-rounded side of the strip through the metal O-ring. Make sure this 1" will be on the inside of the collar(the same side that the other seams are on). Starting as close to the O-ring as possible, begin sewing around and down toward the rounded edge and come back up to the O-ring. To finish sewing, pull your thread all the way through and trim excess.

Now since you have got the majority of sewing done, take time to add some little details to the collar. First, take your thread and sew the 1" width at the edge of the seam 1" from the O-ring (see first picture). Also, sew up against the inside of the buckle and the outside of the D-ring(see second picture). To make the cut edges look a little fancier you can burnish them. If you're interested in burnishing the edges, you can look at this Instructable on how to make your own leather burnisher and this Instructable on how to burnish leather edges. Lastly, you can personalize the collar by burning the pet's name into the leather or adding a metal plate with address and name.

Congratulations! Now you can go for a walk in the neighborhood showing off your pet's fancy collar. Please feel free to leave constructive comments and ideas in the comment section.

Thank you to jessyratfink and PowellMade for their incredible work with leather burnishing! Be sure to check out their Instructables!

If you enjoyed this Instructable please consider voting for me in the Tandy Leather Contest! Thanks!