Modern life has enough annoyances without adding tangled earphones to the mix. That’s what I realized when I was detangling mine for the thousandth time the other day. So I made myself a earbud holder/cord organizer/headphone organizer. Whatever you call it, I call it a problem-solver. There’s no reason you can’t use them for any cord, so go ahead and make a whole set to keep your cords tangle-free when you travel.
I have a woodburner that I wanted to try out on leather, so I embellished mine with that, but you could also use paint, dye, or metal stamps (like these, which I last used for making liquor bottle labels) for labels or decoration. Or keep it simple, and just leave it plain.
DIY Leather Earbud Holder/Cord Organizer
Materials
Leather
Button stud – I bought mine at Michaels, but these are similar.
Tools
Ruler
Pencil
X-acto knife
Leather punch, or drill
Flathead hand screwdriver (optional)
Wood burner (optional)
Steps
1. Cut out a piece of leather about 1 3/4″ by 5 1/2″ (4.5 cm by 14 cm).
2. If you want to decorate your leather, now’s a good time to do it. I measured out where I wanted to add my design, marked it with a pencil, then used a plus-sign tip for my woodburner to burn the design. (If you’re going this route and you’ve never burned leather before, practice on scraps first!)
3. Fold the leather in half, and punch holes about 1/4″ from the ends.
4. Screw the button stud onto one of the holes you just punched on the end of the leather.
5. With the X-acto knife, cut a tiny slit to slightly enlarge the other hole. Try to fit the button stud through the hole. If necessary, enlarge the slit slightly more until the stud fits. Cut as little as possible, because the hole will stretch out slightly with use.
