Honestly, making leather coffee sleeves was one of the main reasons I wanted a GlowForge. There are a couple of local coffee shops that sell locally made items on consignment, and I know leather items sell well here in Texas Hill Country! I decided on two pieces sewn together so that it would easily fold up and tuck away into a purse or whatever without bending the leather itself. It was made with Medium Proofgrade Leather.
I’m sorry I didn’t have a proper to-go coffee cup at the ready to model this thing. I also can’t seem to find my scissors to trim the thread. But it’s basically finished!
Creating the template for this was a little tricky for me. I searched online for coffee sleeve .SVG’s, but none of them were exactly how I wanted them. I had a Starbucks sleeve still laying around from when I attempted leather working by hand (which did not go well, but I’m notoriously impatient when learning new things). I traced it onto paper, put that paper into the GF and used the trace feature. It was a little wonky so I used it as a guideline while drawing new straight and curved lines in AI. I also added some holes to make the lacing easier. I realized only after it started engraving that I missed a step in AI with the text (which is why it has little light spots in the letters) but I kind of like the looks of it like that.
This was also my first time staining and finishing leather, so go easy on me! I know it will get easier with practice.
FYI, I still have the half-sleeve template (without the text or designs) as an SVG file, that I may upload to the Free Laser Designs section if anyone is interested.
Really nice and I’d love the file! Very kind of you to offer. I love the choice of lace and your staining looks great, I’d never know it was your first go with it. I bought some leather dye but haven’t been brave enough to try yet.
Very nice! When I was trying it I measured the upper diameter(y) and the lower diameter(x) and the distance between them(w). Drawn out I extend the lines to an isosceles triangle, And I have a fourth distance (z)
( Pi x/piz*2)/360 is the angle sweep and z distance and z+w should give you the shape to cut out…
Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I had a chance to try it on a to-go coffee cup this morning and it was a little small. It went on all right, but didn’t even go halfway up on a 20 oz. cup. I think my mistake was not taking into account that the leather is slightly thicker than the disposable cardboard ones. I’m going to make some adjustments before sharing the file in the Free Laser Designs section.
That’s funny. I was thinking of using some kind of elastic cording for the laces so it would fit a variety of cup sizes. Either that or leave tails on the end and make it so the laces could be adjusted. That seems more cumbersome though. Now I’m going to look for the elastic lacing for sure.
I made one years ago pre GF and discovering that it was a bit small I got it wet and stretched it over the plastic cup where it dried to the cup nicely
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