Need to DIY some easy yet decent-looking leather goods? Here is one of our popular free leather patterns, a card sleeve, that you can make in bulk. It is a great handmade gift option, presentable and easy to make.

The finished size of this slim leather card sleeve is approximately 2 3/4″ (W) x 3 3/4″ (H). Perfect size to use as a business card holder, loyalty card holder, entrance access cardholder, or as a slim wallet to keep some credit cards and notes for an evening.

This Leather Card Sleeve is the fourth of our free leather patterns. If you have missed out on the previous 3 patterns, here they are No-Sew Leather Pouch, No-Sew Leather Key Pouch, and Leather Coin Purse.

They are all made from genuine leather and here is where you can buy some leather scraps to make. However, you can always replace the leather with thick felt, faux leather, PVC leather, and other equivalent materials you can think of.

Leather Card Sleeve

scroll ⬇️ to get the details on the How-To tutorial and pattern

This slim card holder requires some leather stitching work to be done. A full detail on how to make this beginner leather pattern is available below.

Instead of using a leather chisel tool to punch the stitch hole for the leather, I have tried another method which is using Wing Needle and sawing machine. Both methods gave a similar result in creating the stitching holes, you will see more detail in the how-to section below.

I gave the leather edges a coat of paint, and it instantly gave it a very professional look, just like one of the store-bought leather goods.

WHAT’S NEXT:

Start making and share your completed handmade on Facebook and/or Instagram. Remember to tag us, @craftpassion, so that we are able to see them.
Pin it to Pinterest for a future To-Make List.
Share with your craft groups for a craft-along event.
Browse more free craft ideas to make, particularly the leather crafts and the purse/bag patterns.

How To Make Card Sleeve With Leather

Yield: 2 3/4″(W) x 3 3/4″(H) Card Sleeve

Active Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour

Difficulty: Intermediate /Advance Level

Estimated Cost: $2 - $5

Download and print separately SEWING PATTERN for drawing the leather.

Materials

Leather scrap (pigment coated finished leather), 4″ x 4″ (1 pc.), 2 1/2″ x 4″ (2 pcs.)
Embellishment (optional). I have some nice charms that you might want to consider, choose them here.
Leather Card Sleeve Template

Tools

Leather Chisel tool (I used Diamond chisel with 4 prongs of 4mm pitch), or, wing needle for sewing machine
Hammer
Ball-pen
Scissors that are able to cut thick fabric, and/or, roller cutter and mat
Nylon thread and a tapestry needle
Clips
Tragacanth Leather Burnishing gum and tools (optional)
Edge Coat Paint and applicator (optional)
Printer and cardstock (or paper)

Instructions

Gather all the materials and tools needed to make this leather card sleeve.
Download the Leather Card Sleeve Template and print it out on cardstock. Cut the template out.
Trace the paper template on the flesh side of the leather with ball pen. You need 1 piece of A template and 2 pieces of B template (1 in reverse order).
Carefully cut out the leather piece with a pair of strong scissors. If you have a roller cutter, you may use it to cut the straight lines. Cut inside the lines so that the pen marks are not visible on the edge of the pouch.
If you need to embellish the sleeve with charm, you may do it now. Doing it after the sewing-up is still possible but will be more difficult.
1. Optional. Apply a small amount of the burnishing gum to the flesh side or edge of your leather spread evenly then firmly work into the leather with a smooth wooden dowel or piece of plastic scrapper. I found that using fingers to apply the gum works too. Leather the edges with burnishing gum as well.
2. Apply right edge with a fine PVA glueline.
3. Align the right side of template B to template A, flesh side facing each other. Clamp the edge with clips.
4. Repeat the same the left edge. Set aside for about 1/2 hour to let the glue dry with a good bond.
1. After the bonding is secured, position the chisel at 1/8″ from the edge of the sleeve. Work from the bottom right corner and going upward. Hammer the chisel to cut through the leather. Make sure you do it on the cutting mat. Position the first prong to the last prong of the previous cut, repeat to cut more stitch holes.
2. Make sure the prong goes through all layers of the leather.
OR
3. If you do not have a leather chisel tool, you may use a wing needle and sewing machine. In order to prevent the needle from breaking, you will need to do it very slowly by using your hand to control the handwheel. Set the stitch length to 4.5mm
4. This is the holes created from the wing needle.
Both chisel and wing needle do the same job and gave the similar stitch holes pattern.
We are going to stitch up the leather card sleeve with nylon thread or thread for leather.
This is how I thread the nylon sewing thread. This method will help to prevent the short tail coming off from the eye of the needle. It is optional and you may do the normal way of threading.
1. Insert the nylon thread through the eye of the tapestry needle. Leaving a tail of 3″ – 4″. You may put a little glue to the end of the nylon thread if it splits and frays badly.
2. Sew through both threads, about 2″ from the eye.
3. Pull the needle through both threads.
4. The thread is now locked at the eye of the needle.
1. Insert the needle to the second hole from the top of the card sleeve.
2. Pull the needle until the thread is about half the length.
3. Hold the end tail side of the thread and align it with the stitch holes. Insert the needle to the first hole, as shown in the picture. Pull the thread through.
4. Insert the needle back to the same hole but this time across the end tail thread.
1. Pull the thread through until it brings the end tail thread into the hole. It is similar to the stitches created by sewing machine, the tension has to be right to keep the thread “crossed” inside the leather so that no lumps will show on either side of the leather.
2. Repeat the stitching back to the second hole.
Repeat the same stitching method until you have completed the line throughout the whole card sleeve.
Work a few back stitches before ending the sewing.
Cut off the extra thread. Apply some PVA glue to stop the thread from fraying and getting out the hole.
Trim the edges slightly with roller cutter if they appeared to be uneven.
I also trimmed the bottom corners to round and sand the side to smooth out the edges.
You may coat the raw edge with the leather edge coat paint. This will give a nice and smooth leather edge that looks professionally done. Some extra steps are needed for the coating, you may watch this Leather Edge Coating video from Youtube which I find it very useful.

Now the cards have a great place to keep in.

Notes

I used CMC (Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose) clear leather burnishing agent. Tragacanth Leather Burnishing gum and tools are optional but your leather product will look professionally done if you have it treated.
Please watch the Leather Edge Coating video if you wish to coat the raw edge of the coin pouch.

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Leather Card Sleeve Pattern