Handstitching Project ... Leather?

I do LOVE a challenge!  As someone who loves customized things and hates to pay hard earned money for custom things, I've learned to do many things myself. 

One of my recent projects involved leather. Blue leather.  It all started with this pretty sparkly browband for my dressage bridle. what girl doesn't like a little bling every once in a while?!

It got me to thinking. A very dangerous activity, I know but it happens - a lot! If only I could find a blue leather lined noseband to balance out the browband.  I guarantee you that a blue noseband is NOT a stock item.  What to do, what to do...

Hunt the tack sales, that's what!  And I did, finding a barely used padded bridle, which yielded the noseband below.

Thinking I could have a master saddlery do the customizing, off I went to a local tack shop to get a quote.  What I got was some good advice and help instead. Even better!!

It would be cheaper for me to pick out (unsewing!!) the stitches holding the white padding to the noseband. 

See those 2 rows of tiny, tiny stitches?!

Once that was done, Bob the Master Saddler and I determined that if he tried to do the restitching by machine it would end in disaster.  His machine would not be able to exactly line up with the stitching holes and would end up shredding the noseband. Not going to work.  We decided the best thing would be for me to tackle it myself, by hand.

Okay. Why not? I had little to lose at this point.  Bob helped by giving me some of his thread, needles and a plan of attack.

Some patience, two pairs of needle nose pliers, a few extra machine leather needles to act as a leather punch, a touch of contact cement and I was ready to give it a shot!  As for the blue leather, I had picked up some thin blue leather scraps at the Renaissance Faire late last summer.  I didn't have the browband with me to match it but they turned out to be a very, very close match. A few hours later, I had the new bridle almost done.

Still some stitching to finish at this point

It was a test of my hand stitching skills and it was so very worth it.  

I've been using this new bridle at horse shows this summer, including the one coming up this weekend.

Hope the weather cooperates!