Handmade leather pipe pouch, the early years

[Cardinal]

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.

[Horseshoe]

Looks like it should work. Anticipating seeing the progression. Good luck.

[Emperor Zurg]

Wtf? We demand MS Paint drawings to go along with this story!!
MS PAINT DRAWINGS!!!1!one!!

[Cardinal]

Wtf? We demand MS Paint drawings to go along with this story!!
MS PAINT DRAWINGS!!!1!one!!

As the Emperor requests -



The dyeing is a little tougher than I expected. I tried using a sponge brush and got some awful streakiness, then used an old tshirt and seemed like a much more even application but the streaks are already set. Its actually not as bad in person as it looks in the photo, and I'm going to keep going on this piece just to see how the construction looks and feels.

And I used a piece of posterboard for my cutting template, previously utilized by my daughter for coloring

[Branzig]

As the Emperor requests -

Reminds me of Stickdeath

[Emperor Zurg]

As the Emperor requests -

Haha! I take it the project wasn't going all that well that day?

[Cardinal]

Haha! I take it the project wasn't going all that well that day?

I was upset about the streaked dye job at that point. It's worse than wood even, in the sense that once it was messed up with streaks or spots I couldn't fix it. Maybe there's a way, but I just kept making it worse.

At least that's what I thought at the time. It's growing on my, and I can definitely replicate it haha.


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[Tobias Lutz]

subscribed AND...

[Will46r]

Stitching pony.... very useful, did you set the jaws so they were chest height when sitting? Cover the jaws with leather. Strop your awl, the strop it more... when hou think it's perfectly polished, strop it again. I have a vise I set my stitching pony in. If you need advise feel free to ask here or pm me. Harbor freight usually has a set of leather working tools like a v groover, and adnustable stitching groover.

[Cardinal]

Stitching pony.... very useful, did you set the jaws so they were chest height when sitting? Cover the jaws with leather. Strop your awl, the strop it more... when hou think it's perfectly polished, strop it again. I have a vise I set my stitching pony in. If you need advise feel free to ask here or pm me. Harbor freight usually has a set of leather working tools like a v groover, and adnustable stitching groover.

I set them up around chest height, just where I felt like my hands were most comfortable for working. I'll cover them with leather tomorrow, and make sure the awl is sharp and shiny. I've read about using a little beeswax on it too, to help it slide through.

I picked up a groover and overstitch wheel too - Tandy Leather was having a sale on the kit and I couldn't help myself. Came with 3 spools of waxed thread and needles too. If I run into trouble or have any questions I'll be sure to ask, thanks for offering.