Make your own saddle – in pictures

I met Emma Skinmore on Saturday at a bespoke saddle-making workshop. She made a fantastic-looking gold and turquoise leather saddle with blue and red stitching, while I cobbled together a plain blue one that erred on the side of rustic Photograph: Frederika Whitehead

First of all we dismantled our saddles. This isn’t tricky – it just means unscrewing a couple of screws on the bottom so that the skin on the seat can be accessed Photograph: Frederika Whitehead

The next stage is to rip the old skin off. If you are going for a slimline racing saddle, or if you want a two-tone saddle with a different colour around the edge, you might want to keep it to make a template, but if you just want to make something padded and upholstered you don’t need to. I went for padded and upholstered. It’s the easier option – less precision is needed Photograph: Frederika Whitehead

Make a template for the leather Photograph: Frederika Whitehead

Cut a series of pieces of foam Photograph: Frederika Whitehead

Glue the foam to your seat using spray glue Photograph: Frederika Whitehead

... and then trim then to the desired shape Photograph: Frederika Whitehead

Cut the leather. This is either done by making a template from the skin you removed earlier, or by placing the seat upside down on the hide and pulling it up around the seat edges, marking the points it needs to reach. You need enough to cover the seat and reach around to be glued inside the rim Photograph: Frederika Whitehead

Work from the centre outwards gluing the leather a small piece at a time. Each time you glue, pull the leather taut and run your hand over it to smooth it out Photograph: Frederika Whitehead

When you get to the edge, flip the seat over and start tucking the leather in Photograph: Frederika Whitehead

Cut thin triangles out of the leather where it would bunch up otherwise Photograph: Frederika Whitehead

The finished yellow saddle Photograph: Frederika Whitehead

The blue and gold saddle Photograph: Frederika Whitehead

The finished brown saddle Photograph: Frederika Whitehead

And the finished pink saddle Photograph: Frederika Whitehead