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Many customers wonder why some leather hides have a large hole near the neck. This is completely normal and simply reflects how different tanneries trim their hides. Some cut straight across the shoulders, while others cut around the neck opening, leaving more of the shoulder area attached. Although the larger opening may look like less leather, it often means you're actually getting more usable leather overall. At Leather Lady NC, where many hides are sold by the hide rather than by the square foot, these larger hides typically provide better value by giving you more leather for the same price. Don't judge a hide by the hole—it may be one of the best deals you'll find.

Need to figure out how many leather hides you need for your project?  Use our free leather calculator.

First time working with lambskin? It's soft, drapey, and beautiful — and it will punish a heavy needle. Everything you need to know before you cut into that first hide.

Leather Remnants (scraps) that you can pick your colors and sizes.  We'll even send a picture before it ships.

Making Wallets is one of the first things many people who are getting into leather working start with.  Picking the right leather is important.  This guide will help you decide which leather to pick.

Guide to buying the right kind of leather for your craft projects and the best places to buy.  Advantages and drawbacks of each.  Learn more.

Most bags don’t look homemade because of bad leather.

They look homemade because of small, repeated decisions that add up. None of them are dramatic. All of them are avoidable once you know what to look for.

Professional leather bags aren’t defined by perfection. They’re defined by control—of materials, edges, structure, and wear over time.  Read more

This question usually comes after someone tries a familiar technique and gets an unfamiliar result:

• The stamp looks shallow.

• The tooling won’t hold.

• The engraving looks darker, flatter, or fuzzy instead of crisp.

That’s not operator error. It’s the material talking back.

Upholstery leather can be engraved, stamped, and marked—but it will never behave like vegetable-tanned leather. Understanding why lets you choose the right method instead of forcing the wrong one.  Read more

If a bag fails, it rarely fails in the middle.

It fails at the corners.
It fails at the straps.
It fails where weight, motion, and gravity meet.

Upholstery leather makes this more likely because it’s designed to flex and recover. That softness feels great—but without reinforcement, it slowly gives way. Stretch doesn’t happen all at once. It happens quietly, over months of use, until the bag no longer carries itself the way it should.

This post covers how to stop that before it starts. - Read more

What types of leather are best for making wallets?  Lots of choices:  Full or top grain or genuine leather?  Vegetable Tanned or Chrome?  We break it down quickly.  Read more.

At some point, nearly everyone working with upholstery leather asks the same frustrated question:

“Why won’t my edges burnish like real leather?”

They sand.
They wet the edge.
They rub harder.
They try gum tragacanth, beeswax, even spit.

Nothing works.

The problem isn’t your technique. The problem is what upholstery leather actually is—and what burnishing requires.

Handmade leather items are trending and we have put together the top 10 leather items on Etsy for spring 2026.  If you are selling the items you make, this might just be what you need to spark your own creativity!  Read on.