S$60 Kallang Leather Crafting Workshop: Hides and Thread

Hides and Thread runs its leather crafting workshop from a fifth-floor studio at 11 Kallang Place #05-06, Singapore 339155, and the cheapest seat is the S$60 Basic 101 class, where you stitch a cardholder pouch, a coin pouch and a cable organiser. Sessions usually start at 1pm on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and the studio is by appointment only.

The brand story is unusually specific about where it began. Hides and Thread started in 2016 as a mini atelier squeezed into a corner of an HDB apartment, taking bespoke orders through word of mouth and cutting every piece at a single small desk. Nobody taught the founders formally. They describe learning the craft by trial, error and a lot of wasted hide before the business could pay for itself.

The two founders are Jonathan and Gary, who met through a mutual friend in 2016. Jonathan trained as an engineer at NUS and worked in finance, and his first project was a simple cardholder after watching a friend make a wallet. Gary is the creative head, and in 2017 his TRIBUTE bags took runner-up in the Emerging Designer category at the Singapore Fashion Awards.

That history explains why a class here feels less like a hobby café and more like a small factory floor. The Kallang unit doubles as a design house and a small-scale production line for corporate gifts, so the room you learn in is the same room where branded cardholders and on-site personalisation orders are made. Expect industrial machines along the walls rather than scented candles.

The menu of projects is long, and every one is listed as a separate product with a fixed SGD price that the shop marks as tax included. Basic 101 costs S$60 and covers three small pieces. The Cardholder and the Lanyard are S$75 each. The Sunglasses Case, Passport Sleeve and Air Tag Sleeve sit at S$95, the Long Clutch at S$120, and the Basic Watch Strap at S$150.

Further up the list, the Bifold Wallet, the Weaved Cardholder and the PRO Watch Strap each cost S$380, the A5 Notebook Sleeve is S$180, and the Satchel Bag tops the range at S$580. The Cardholder page is the most detailed. It promises a three-hour class, the traditional hand-stitching method, premium vegetable-tanned leather, and room to stamp your initials or name on the finished piece.

Basic 101 works differently from the single-item classes. Instead of one polished object you leave with a cardholder pouch, a coin pouch and a cable organiser, which means three rounds of cutting, punching and saddle-stitching on small panels. For anyone unsure whether they enjoy stitching at all, three short projects teach more than one long seam, and a mistake on a cable organiser costs very little leather.

Every class bundles three parts, according to the workshop pages. The first is a leather showcase, where the artisans pass around different hides, including exotic skins such as crocodile and lizard, and explain how to tell good leather from poor. Then comes the hands-on project with step-by-step guidance. The session ends with a studio tour that walks you past the machinery a working leather shop actually uses.

The showcase is the part most other studios in Singapore skip. Handling a crocodile panel next to a vegetable-tanned cowhide makes the price gap between a mall wallet and a bespoke one easy to understand, and the team also shares practical care tips. Ask questions here, because this is the one part of the afternoon where nobody is holding a needle.

The brand says it serves both corporate clients and hobbyists, and the table reflects that mix. Weekday classes suit hobbyists with flexible schedules, while companies book the space for team workshops and branded gifts. The room comfortably fits 20 people, and groups above 10 can take the whole studio, which is otherwise available for exclusive use at an additional fee.

Each workshop is listed in the online shop with an Add to cart button, and the store data shows every class variant as available, including Basic 101 and the Cardholder. Some pages also display a small sold-out label from the shop theme, which looks alarming but sits beside a working cart. The Cardholder page adds that there is no minimum number of participants, so a solo booking still runs.

Dates are the part you arrange directly. The pages say workshops are typically held every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 1pm, and that other dates or times can be requested by contacting the team. In practice that means paying online and then sending a WhatsApp message with your preferred day, or emailing craft@hidesandthread.com first if you want a Saturday slot or a group rate.

Special rates are offered for larger classes, which matters if you are organising a birthday or a team outing. Because the studio is by appointment only, there is no walk-in counter to fall back on. Settle the date in writing before you travel, so the artisan has your leather and tools laid out when you arrive at the fifth floor.

First-timers should choose between Basic 101 and the Cardholder. Pick Basic 101 if you want variety and the lowest price, and the Cardholder if you want one neat piece to carry every day with your initials on it. The Long Clutch at S$120 is a sensible second visit, once your stitch spacing is even and you can hold a straight edge.

Skip the S$580 Satchel Bag and the S$380 Bifold Wallet on a first visit. Both involve far more stitching than a beginner can keep tidy, and a wallet with uneven pockets is an expensive souvenir of a learning curve. The Weaved Cardholder at the same S$380 is similar, since the weaving pattern punishes small cutting errors. Come back for these after two or three smaller classes.

If no weekday afternoon suits you, Crafune on Haji Lane is the obvious fallback. It runs leather classes from its Kampong Glam shopfront and also has studios at Funan and New Bahru, which gives you three locations to choose from. You lose the exotic-leather showcase and the factory feel of Kallang, but it is the more practical choice for a Saturday with friends.

Kallang Place is a light-industrial street in the Kallang and Bendemeer area, lined with warehouse and workshop units rather than shops. The nearest station is Bendemeer on the Downtown Line, coded DT23. Boon Keng on the North East Line is a fallback if you are coming from Punggol or Serangoon, though the walk from there is longer.

With a 1pm start, lunch at Bendemeer Market and Food Centre works well beforehand, since the hawker centre sits in the HDB estate near the station and offers far more choice than the industrial street itself. Eat lightly. Three hours of bending over a stitching clamp is easier without a heavy bowl of noodles, and the studio is not a place to bring food to the table.

After class, walk down to the Kallang River and follow the park connector that runs along its banks. It is flat and easy, and after three hours on a stool your back will welcome it. Heading south brings you toward the Kallang Basin and the dome of the National Stadium, a useful landmark if you want a longer stroll before catching a train home.

Hides and Thread, 11 Kallang Place #05-06, Singapore 339155. The studio lists its contact hours as Tue–Fri 1pm–7pm and Sat 12pm–5pm, by appointment only. Workshops usually begin at 1pm on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. All tools and materials are provided and no prior skills are needed, so you only need to bring yourself.

Prices from the shop are Basic 101 at S$60, the Cardholder at S$75 for three hours, and larger projects up to the S$580 Satchel Bag. Bring a list of initials if you want personalisation, and leave bulky bags at home because table space goes to tools. For a lunch spot, a riverside walk and other studios near Bendemeer, ask Karpo in the Karpo APP and plan the whole afternoon around your class.