Upcycled Leather Boho Vase and Giant Paper Flowers

A couple of months ago whilst walking the dog, I came across a rather beat up leather sofa waiting to be taken to the dump. (It was beyond repair). The poor dog had a shorter walk that day as I quickly hurried home to deposit him and to collect a Stanley (Xacto) knife. I managed to get back to the sofa in time and with the knife I removed the best bits of leather from the cushions. This rescued leather has been sitting in my craft room since, I do have plans for it. However, in the mean time I thought I’d start with a simple small project and make a Boho leather vase with some of the stash.

As you can see there was no rescuing this sofa but the old leather had a nice patina.

For this upcycle as well as piece of the rescued leather. I used some soft natural twine, an large empty soda bottle and a hole punch.

First thing I did was cut the top off the soda bottle and then cut the leather. The leather was cut 4cm wider than the circumference of the bottle and a couple of cm taller.

Next on both the outside edges of the leather I marked a spot every cm all the way to the top.

Then using the hole puncher, I punched a hole for every marked spot.

Using the twine I then stitched both ends of the leather together to form a tube.

The plastic bottle then was placed in the leather tube.

To give the leather vase more of a Boho look I made a tassel for it using twine, wooden beads and embroidery threads. Details of how to do this are on the blog link at the end.

Or if you would like to keep with the upcycled theme and make a fabulous tassel out of a scrap piece of denim I have a tutorial here.

No vase is complete without flowers. As there is a plastic bottle inner to this vase its very easy to add real flowers in water. However, I wanted something more dramatic for my vase so I made some giant crepe paper flowers (free pattern on the blog post).

I loved working with the leather it was so easy to craft with. Since making the vase I’ve also used the leather to make some wonderful hanging planters (no-sewing), which you can see here.

I’ve still got plently left, and I’m thinking about making a lampshade with it next.