The piece of leather I used in the pic to show how to do the top edge just happened to be black to help show contrast as will the white leather below. I will use either another piece of lavender or white and paint it along with painting / weathering the whole thing.
Step one: cover the entire guard with a piece of leather (lavender in the pic) cut even with top edge. It will form to all the details on the bottom edge and can be glued. These pics are just set up as an example. The real deal will be trimmed and fit the entire guard.
Step two: cut a piece of leather approx 1 1/2" wide that is the length of the entire top of guard (including going down the backside overlap).
Step three: Sew the leather to the plastic guard with stitching approx. 3/16 from the edge and fold over (glue as well). Glue it to itself and to the inside of the guard.
Step four: The edge is complete. Paint / weather the entire thing. Two pieces of leather.
