Keychain made of wide leather strap cut by yourself
Leather scraps are especially good for smaller projects. Our suggestion are keychains with wide leather loop.

The material:
All kinds of leather scraps are suitable as basic material. The leather should have a length of at least 20 cm and a width of at least 2 cm to achieve a nice result.

The tools:
To cut leather strap yourself you need a good rolling knife, a metal ruler and a pencil. To cut the end cap on the key ring you need a pair of flat-nose pliers.

Keychain made from wide leather strap cut by yourself

Step 1
The first step is to cut the leather strap. The width of the ribbon depends somewhat on the end cap you want to use. In our store you can find blanks with end caps in a width between 21 and 32.5 mm. The tape should ideally be the same width as the end cap. 1.
1. mark the width on the leather piece. Use the bottom of the leather piece to mark and cut.
Place the ruler on the marks. 3.
Cut the leather strip with the rolling knife. 4.
Check the length of the leather strip and shorten it if necessary.

Keychain made from wide leather strap cut by yourself

Step 2
In the next step, you attach the ribbon clip to the leather strap. A flat nose pliers is very suitable for this. You can find flat nose pliers in our store in different versions. It is important that you use pliers with a large contact surface. This makes it easier for you to squeeze. The band clamps have small teeth on the inside. These drill into the leather strap and verleihem the keychain more grip.
1. loop the ribbon and put the two double ends of the ribbon into the end cap. 2.
Press the end cap tightly with the help of flat nose pliers. You will probably need to squeeze the tape clamp several times in different places.
Check that the end cap is properly closed by pulling on the leather strap.

Keychain made from wide leather strap cut by yourself

Step 3
Now your keychain is ready and can be used.
We have only cut and processed the leather in this tutorial. So you can see both the inside and the outside of the leather. If you want to work with thin leather scraps you can of course sew two leather straps together back to back. With a special leather needle in the sewing machine this works without any problems.
We also recommend our mixed bags of colored leather scraps. They are a great starting material for these keychains.

Keychain made of wide self embossed leather strap.
Hallmarks are very popular for stamping metal pendants and jewelry blanks. But these stamps from ImpressArt are not only suitable for metal. You can also stamp leather strap yourself. Not every leather strap is suitable for this. But in our store you will find a wide selection.

The material:
For these key rings you need leather strap for punching and matching blanks with strap clamp.

The tool:
To emboss leather strap, you first need suitable stamps. You can find them in our store in a large selection of different motifs and fonts. Furthermore, you need a hammer and a steel stamp base.

Keychain from wide self embossed leather strap

Step 1
First of all you have to emboss the leather strap. In this example we have chosen three different motif stamps.
Find a suitable leather strap and cut it with scissors to the desired length2
. Place the ribbon on the stamp block and take the first motif stamp. 3.
Place the stamp on the leather strap and stamp the motif into the strap with a firm stroke. 4.
Repeat this as often as necessary until the ribbon is completely stamped.

Keychain from wide self embossed leather strap

Step 2
Once the leather strap is designed, you just need to attach the end cap to the leather strap. In the first tutorial, we used flat nose pliers for this. However, you can also use a hammer to squeeze the ribbon clip.
1. double the embossed ribbon so that both ends of the ribbon are on top of each other. 2.
Push both ends of the band into the band clamp. 3.
Place the band clamp on the stamp base. 4.
Press the band clamp together with careful hammer blows.

Keychain from wide self embossed leather strap

Step 3
Now your individual keychain is already made!
In this example we have chosen a graphic pattern. You can also personalize the keychain with a test or your name.
A great tip is also leather color. With it you can also give your keychain a few colorful accents. In our store you will also find a large selection of leather colors from the company Angelus.

Upcycling keychain self sewn from a shopping bag
You know this for sure: hoarding shopping bags. Of the beautiful colorful practical shopping bags from supermarkets and drugstores are certainly a few more copies than actually used at home in the drawer. These treasures are much too good to throw away. How about a second life as a keychain or lanyard for you and your loved ones?

The material:
You need a nice colorful shopping bag, matching sewing thread and of course blank emit end caps for the keychain.

The tools:
For this keychain you will need fabric scissors and/or pinking shears, a sewing machine and flat nose pliers.

Upcycling keychain homemade sewn from a shopping bag

Step 1
First of all, you need to cut yourself some material for the lanyard from the shopping bag. The width of the finished lanyard again depends on the end cap you want to use.
There are two ways to sew the lanyard:

Option 1Cut
two strips of the same width


from the shopping bag.


The strips should be no wider than the width of the ribbon clip. Place both strips back to back on top of each other. The printed sides face outwards. To make the ribbon more stable, you can also place one of the cut handles from the shopping bag between the two layers of fabric. Sew the strips together with a 1 cm seam allowance. Then trim the outer edges with pinking shears.

Variation
2Sew both fabric strips together with the printed sides facing inward
.
For this, the strips must be about 1 cm wider than the tape clamp on both sides. Sew the long sides together. The short sides remain open. Turn the resulting tube, so the beautiful side comes to the outside. Topstitch the two long sides once.

Upcycling keychain homemade sewn from a shopping bag

Step 2
Again, the lanyard blank must be attached to the self-sewn ribbon. The lanyard is again placed double in the end cap and pressed together with flat nose pliers.

Our special tip:
Here we have another tip for you for processing ribbon clips. Pliers or a hammer can leave ugly scratch marks on the end cap. You can prevent this if you wrap the end cap with something soft but resistant when pressing it together. A small piece of leather is very suitable for this. You can also use a sturdy piece of cloth or a thin piece of felt.

Upcycling keychain homemade sewn from a shopping bag

Step 3
Now your self-sewn keychain is ready and your shopping bag has got a nice new purpose. Since such a bag is quite large, you can immediately make a few more beautiful keychains and lanyards themselves. They are suitable as a nice gift or souvenir. With additional tags you can give the keychain another personal touch!
Our advice would be in any case equal to order a few end caps in stock.

We wish you a lot of fun with our upcycling tips for self-sewn and embossed keychains!