I saw a couple really cool handmade leather pouches in a thread here a week or two ago. I said to myself, "There's no way I'm paying $150-200 for one of those," but I've kept thinking about them. Rather than buy one, I've begun the process of spending even more money to try to make my own. This will probably take a while, but I went to a leather shop this morning and picked up a beginners hand stitching set and some practice material.

I realized when I got home this afternoon that stitching is WAY harder than it looks, or rather keeping the holes perfectly straight is anyway. I needed a good way to hold my materials steady and at hand, so I built a stitching pony this afternoon out of wood scraps I had in the garage.



An hour or two and an $8 trip to Home Depot for the bolts and wingnuts later, and here we. The idea is you sit on this contraption, and the long vice arms hold your leather so you can punch holes with the awl and then do your stitching.



That's all for today. I tried it out and it works great, at least for holding a piece of cardboard while I wield the awl against it. More to come over the next few weeks. Maybe I'll get one or two put together and get a beta tester to try it out for me.