Camera Case Repair

Last weekend I spent a few hours re-stitching a case I had bought for my 1953 Zeiss Contessa. The Contessa is a beautiful little camera, and it takes good, contrasty pictures. Mine came with a dead light meter, which I repaired. There is a crack in the corner of the rangefinder glass, but it does not interfere with focusing; I find that it adds a little bit of wabi sabi to the camera. After all, it is ridiculous to expect a 60 year old camera to look new. "Operational" is already a high bar, and I am in awe of the solidity of Zeiss engineering.

To repair the case, I followed the instructions given here, and I am very grateful for them - I would have made a mess without them. Here are some pictures of the work in progress, and additional notes in case you want to try this are at the bottom of the page:

After stitching the first half of the bottom.

The larger hole on the right normally holds a special knob that for winding the film.

The smaller hole in the center is for viewing the frame counter.

Stitching completed. It is not perfectly regular as the original was.

After I took this picture, I darkened the thread with brown shoe polish.

 The camera in its repaired case.

Some additional suggestions if you want to do a similar job.

• Read the instructions at the link above first :-)
• After you thread the needles through the first two holes, make sure both ends of the thread are the same length, otherwise you will not be able to finish the project!
• Using thread that is too thick will make the job really hard, and potentially break the leather. For me, the right thickness turned out to be 1/3 of the thread I had originally picked; I separated one of the three strands that made up the thread.
• Most of the time, the needle should find its way through the existing holes very easily. If you have to push hard to get it through, it is not aimed correctly. However, it can still be hard to pull all the way through. I had a pair of small pliers on hand, and they really helped sometimes.