How I made (and you can make) Leather Headcovers.

I'd been wanting a leather headcover for awhile now...So, after poking around for awhile, my DIY bug came and bit me. So, as I tend to do, I set about putting forth much more effort and cost into making something myself, instead of just buying it!

Important Link: Patterns have been uploaded to Etsy, thank you so much for the support!

https://grumpypandaedc.etsy.com

I've made them with layers. To see/print just the panel, or just the outline, click the layers button (on the left hand toolbar in Adobe Reader) and toggle the appropriate layers. You'll have to play with printing as a poster, and taping the pages together before cutting your stencil out. Good luck! Let me know if you have any questions!

Materials:

Search Partial Leather Hides on ebay, and you will have many options.

$14 for orange leather: Picture was after taking out the driver headcover, probably enough for 2 or 3 more after my hybrid and fairway, depending on size. I believe it was about 7 sq ft to begin with.

$20 for ivory leather: Much bigger than I needed, but smallest partial hide they had in that color. couple of surface imperfections made it cheaper too. Could make several with this as the main color...might do that for christmas for a couple buddies...

~$10 for the microfleece

~$4 for elastic

~$10 for 4 spools of thread

$5 for Scor-Tape (the 1/8" double-sided tape)

~$10 for random other things I didn't have or ran out of

Equipment:

Singer 4423 Sewing Machine

Heavy Duty Denim needles. Leather needles aren't needed for the softer leather. Those may leave a bigger hole.

Started with a couple hides of my chosen color, and a bit of polar fleece. And a shih-tzu. Very important.

After a bit of testing, and a trial run with vinyl, i determined the size that I wanted. So, I printed out some stencils, and used them to cut these. A rotary cutter for the big cuts, and an exacto for the radiation symbol (I work at a nuke plant).

Then I top-stiched the cream panel onto the front panel. I used a zig-zag because the cream was much thicker than I had thought it would be (a little over 2mm, vs 1mm for the orange), and it blended the two together well. Used basting tape (1/8" wide double sided tape) through out to hold pieces together. This kept things from stretching or bunching as it fed through the sewing machine.

The top and bottom didn't really matter, since they got stitched into the the hems. Also, I pulled the threads through to the back for finishing.

Next, I sewed the elastic onto the back panel. I found it annoying to sew with the back bunched up, so I made a couple jigs out of some scrap aluminum and alligator clips to hold them stretched out. That way, I could do the basting and sewing with it perfectly flat.

Then, using the basting tape, I stuck the fleece to the leather, and then the two leather together. The following picture is of one side of leather with the tape (backing still on) before attaching the fleece, on the hybrid cover. A quick stitch around the perimeter and I was almost done. I kept a seam allowance of about 3/8" from the edge.

BUT! When I folded the bottom hem over, the top panel ended up being too thick for my machine to handle well. It was also too tight to feed well on its own, so I had to hand crank the machine, and make sure it fed each stitch the right distance. It ended up being too thick on the front panel, and I wasn't reliably picking up the bottom thread. I was sewing through four layers of leather (two of each color) and a layer of fleece...

In my later covers, I figured out that because the leather was thick, and not feeding fully, it would deflect the needle towards me, and keep it from picking up the thread. So I had to gently pull the cover through as the feed dogs were feeding, to make sure the needle was vertical all the way down. Be careful though, pulling too far/hard will affect how the stitching looks as well.

After two failed attempts at a straight stitch all the way around (it wasn't very straight on the cream part...), I flipped it and did a zig zag along the cream section. Two reasons..It was easier to keep straight (or atleast appear that way), and it compressed the leather enough that it hides the holes from the straight stitch well.

I do wish it ended up being a hair longer, as my 9 iron is just barely short enough to be able to hit the shaft...ohh well! I'll let the 3-wood run D for it 😉

Here's the finished set! I was able to use a straight stitch on the top stitching for the fwy and hybrid covers because I shaved the back of the leather and made it much thinner (lookup leather skiving). I used a standard utility knife razor bolted to a wooden handle for this..

And here are some more random pictures...

Just Hybrids

When I top stitched the orange thread, I did it with my stencil still stuck to the panel. I had cut slits along the lines, and sewed in the cut, which kept them very straight.

Just Fairway

Long term use tip: make sure, if you use double sided tape, that it stays inside the stitches/seam. If its on the other side, over time, and with trunk/sun heat, the residue got on my driver head, which got fleece fuzz on my driver head...

If you can find some way to do it without the double sided tape, that might work better.

Great Job

They look super nice. Unfortunately my sewing skills are maxed out replacing a missing button.

You should consider starting a side business.

Very well done!

you could go work for stitch

I've been waiting on this thread ever since you mentioned the project in another thread. Thanks for sharing. You make it sound a lot easier than it looks.

two things:

1. some dudes are so freaking handy

2. you need a new putter cover

You had me laughing that the dog was important

Color me impressed!

LoPan,

I dreamt about your head covers a few nights ago.

I think it may be time for a WRX vacation.

They look fantastic! Better than many on the market.

thanks for all the compliments!

I couldn't do that in a million years. You are very, very talented. Those covers are gorgeous, and it must be a blast to be able to have 1 off, completely custom work setting on your golf equipment. Very well done, and thank you for taking the time to share both your work, and the pictures of the finished product. Cheers!!!

Awesome! Very nice work!

[quote name='kevcarter' timestamp='1448124650' post='12628042']
You are very, very talented.
[/quote]
Ha! Thank you, but, no. No no, like in golf, I'm just a hacker. Just enough skill to get by and make an effort. I know a quilter who has actual talent...I can't even compare! I'm a prime example of jack of all trades

Maybe that's why I get so many Three Jacks on the green

So...I tried to make an alignment stick headcover. I didn't take pictures going through, as I wasn't sure what would work, and I ended up trying a couple different things. This one won't be permanent, so if I do make a version 2.0, I'll get pictures.

Material:

4.5" by 13" leather piece

4.5" by 12.25" fleece

bits for decoration on top.

1. Found centerline, and top-stiched argyle design onto panel. The diamonds were double side taped on, and I did the two long cross stitches first. Then stiched the border of the diamonds down. I did this hoping that the stitches would act as a more solid tac-weld, holding it in place and aligned better than just the tape could.

2. Then I taped the fleece to the back of the panel, with horizontal pieces spaced an inch apart. I knew I'd be moving the whole thing around alot before it would be stiched, so I didn't want it shifting all over. I cut it shorter than the leather, because I didn't want a double layer of fleece underneather the bottom hem.

3. I folded over the bottom hem, and stitched that down.

Here's where I had to play around. Two larger companies have approached this in two different ways. Due to the diameter of the cover sleeve, sewing the seam all the way down, and then inverting it like a sock, is very difficult. Infact, I'm sure that if I had made it smaller, to fit the sticks more snugly, it would have been impossible. That's why one comapny sews the top seam, and then only a couple inches down the back, inside out. Then its flipped right-side out, and the rest of the back seam is sewn with the raw edges out.

Another company starts out the same, but then sews the two edges flat, through the front of the panel, and calls it a feature! Very clever! Each stick gets its own slot!

Option 1; I didn't like much, because it's an exposed raw edge. I'd have to trim it very carefully after sewing to make it look good.

Option 2; I tried, and I didn't have it lined up perfectly, so the exposed stitches on the front panel weren't straight up and down. I had to sew with the front down, so that I could make sure to get the whole edge. In retrospect, I could have overlapped the two edges, and sewed with the front up, and then trimmed the back clean. Dang hindsight.

So, Step 4. Fold the cover, fleece out, so that both long edges meet in the middle. Leave some sticking up, so it looks like a T from the end. The long raw edges will meet be like a tab, jutting from the otherwise flattened cover. I used tape again, on the top-most seam, and along a few inches of the back seam.

5. Sewed down the back center seam. I went far enough to clear my design on the front (or so I thought). Then I trimmed off most of the seam allowance

6. Sewed the top seam, and then turned the whole thing right-side out.

7. I tried to sew down the middle, like in option two. But it ended up crooked on the front, and I pulled it. I tried again with a zig zag...and failed again. Now I had two sets of holes (picture link) in the front of the cover...I know they're hard to see in the photo, but they're there, and they look awful to me, because I know they are there. Which is why this probably won't stay.

8. Because the double pocket design needed more width, I started out with a wide cover. I gave up ater the second try, and went with a single sleeve. I cut off enough of the long edges (maybe a 1/4" from each side). Since I still didn't like the concept of Option 1, and sewed it all the way down. It was a struggle to turn it right-side out afterwards, but I managed, because it ended up being a little too wide for the purpose, so I had enough room to do the flip.

Lessons learned:

1. I only had the fleece to use as a liner material. This made it larger than if I had a very thin liner. Sticks don't need fleece, obviously. But its what I had. Perhaps I'll line version 2 with regular cotton or something, whatever I have lying around.

2. Sew with what will be the Show-side visible for Option 2, and trim the back. Or line up and tape it. Or something. I totally screwed it up. Will find a better way.

3. Why is this even a thing? The only reason I keep the sticks in the bag, when playing, is to have a place to stick other headcovers when I'm using the club and a second players towel if I decide to bring one! The idea of a headcover, for my headcover holder, is mildly amusing though.

I wonder if there's anything else I could use this fancy leather sleeve for...any ideas?

Wow!

Those are some nice finished covers. Look very professionally done. Good job !

First attempt at some covers , No elastic sewn in so they are pretty much reversible.[attachment=3053998:CAM00789cover.jpg][attachment=3054000:CAM00788cov2.jpg]

Picked the leather up on ebay.Thanks to your great write up things went relativly smooth.
I am working on another set now with a couple small changes,hoping to be even nicer.
Doubling the fleece at the seam to cover up raw edges along the insde of the covers.
Thanks Lopan

A set of murdered covers for the sinister look.
[attachment=3057884:CAM00795blbl.jpg]

Those are excellent! Well done!

Man those look great! Look a lot better than what I see for sale most of the time.

These are fantastic. Now I need to learn to use my wife's machine to make some of my own...

[quote name='brianhorne8' timestamp='1449970693' post='12713128']
These are fantastic. Now I need to learn to use my wife's machine to make some of my own...
[/quote]
It's not hard! Practice a bunch on scrap materials until you are comfortable. And let your wife help with tweaking the machine's settings.

[quote name='LoPan12' timestamp='1450001199' post='12714064']
[quote name='brianhorne8' timestamp='1449970693' post='12713128']
These are fantastic. Now I need to learn to use my wife's machine to make some of my own...
[/quote]
It's not hard! Practice a bunch on scrap materials until you are comfortable. And let your wife help with tweaking the machine's settings.
[/quote]

Can you do this with a relatively low-cost machine? Our's isn't the most industrial quality one, but I'd rather not break it if it isn't suited for stitching through all that leather. [url="http://www.amazon.com/Brother-Everyday-stitches-including-Buttonhole/dp/B000EOX28E/ref=sr_1_5?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1450022102&sr=1-5&keywords=sewing+machine"]This is the one we've got.[/url]

If you get soft leather, and the right needle, it would probably work. When it gets thicker, you might have to hand crank it and work the needle through the leather.
What machine did you use negolfking?

[quote name='negolfking' timestamp='1449523656' post='12691878']
A set of murdered covers for the sinister look.
[attachment=3057884:CAM00795blbl.jpg]
[/quote]

Those are fantastic. I'm not an all black kind of guy, but the stitching makes it. Did you do the numbers by hand or find a stencil? Love the shape.

I picked up a Singer 4423 machine,And like you said with the right neddle it works fine.
As far as the numbers go I just free handed them on a piece of paper and traced them on the material.

Yea, those all look great! Nice job.