First off, thanks for all the advice I received in my previous thread asking for leather work advice. I know that I said I'd post progress, but I was in a hurry to finish by today and I didn't take any photos. I also don't think I have anything to add to Thunderbolt's instructions or to Computergeek's photos. They can both be found in this thread.

Here's a photo:


I used a two square foot piece of leather from ebay sold as "dark brown upholstery leather" and a one square foot piece of 10-12 oz veg tanned tooling hide. I had just enough of the upholstery leather to make one sporran and I had enough tooling leather left over to use as a punching base.

Since I didn't post progress, I'll post what I've learned.

1. While you can use 10-12 oz tooling leather, it is really thick and next time I'll use 6-7 oz as is recommended.

2. My MVT (most valuable tool) was the 4-hole punch recommended by Turpin in Computergeek's thread. It ensured my stitch length and spacing were consistent and saved me having to use a sewing awl or a sailmaker's palm.

3. My runner-up MVT was the punching gauge I made to ensure my holes were equidistant from the edge of the leather. (Although I didn't make it until I already had a line of less than straight stitches.) Here's a pic:


4. Next time I'll use artificial sinew. I used brown thread and I had to double it several times so it didn't look too thin.

It's not perfect, but I'm really happy with how well it turned out. It will make its debut tonight when I escort my lovely bride to our local production of The Nutcracker. I'll post pics in the appropriate forum.

David