Pouch Tutorial
I have seen several people talk about pouches for their belt before and the frustration in finding something they like or could afford. After all of this I decided I would write up a tutorial on how to make your own pouches that you can customize in any way you desire. This may sound a little daunting at first, but with a little time and patience you can do it.
First let me say that I am by no means the foremost expert in leather crafts. I am sure others will chime in and change/modify my tutorial to make it better. This at least gets the topic going for those of you who want to try this. The nice part about making them yourself is that you can pick a design you like. You can make them have flush sides, inset sides, short flaps, long flaps etc.
Now comes the warning. I do not guarantee that everyone can follow this and create a picture perfect pouch. I will not refund the money you spent to do this if it doesn’t work out for you. With that said on to the fun.
First you will need to create a pattern. This one is just a basic pattern. It will create just a basic square pouch. This is by no means to any scale. I just did a rough drawing in paint to give you the idea.
Make this pattern out of thin cardboard like a cola box or something else that you can easily cut and bend. This is the point when you can play around with the design. Bend and fold the cardboard to make the pouch using tape to hold the joints together. This will let you see what the finished project will look like. Get it right here first because, you don’t want to be wasting good leather if you change your mind. As you can see you can change the pattern to get very different looks. Here is an example of a different pouch.
Once you have a design you like then you can lay it out on your leather and cut it out. You want to use thicker leather than what you would use for something like a coat, but you don’t want the leather so thick that you can’t work with it. I would recommend leather in between 6 and 9 ounces. You will need some good scissors to cut the leather out. You can use a razor, but your edges won’t be as smooth which will affect the final product. The place you get the leather from can guide you to a good pair of leather cutting scissors.
After you have it cut out you will need to place the bends in it in relation to your pattern. I like to take a v shaped groove out of the back of the leather at the folds to make the pouch have nice sharp corners, but it you want really round corners you could leave it alone. You could use a knife or razor or even dremmel to remove some leather at the bends, or there are various leather tools that are available for this step. Don’t go too deep or your pouch will be too weak in this area. Take off just enough to be able to fold the leather easily.
Now is the perfect time to do any carving in the surface of the leather that you would like to do. I have used what leather shops call a swivel knife to cut grooves in my belts etc. This type of work can really make your pouch unique and standout from just a plain one. Also, now is a good time to install the snaps or magnets you will use to hold the flap shut.
Next you get to put the pouch together. There are various ways to do this, but I will cover the two that I think are the easiest. The easiest by far is using glue to hold all of the sides together. Glue is strong, but I am always afraid of it coming apart. You could use it and reinforce it with stitches at certain key spots like the top and bottom of the sides. The strongest method of construction is stitching. You need to get waxed thread and needles available at leather stores. It comes in white, brown, and black, so you can get a color to blend in or stand out depending on what you like. I would recommend picking up a rotary punch at the leather store as well as a sewing tip to fit it. The rotary punch will make it much easier to punch the holes needed for stitching, and the sewing tip will make the holes the perfect size. You can use a small drill bit or awl to make the holes, but I can’t guarantee the results or you retaining all of your fingers. Make the holes you will need matching up the location for corresponding holes. In other words, you don’t want your holes misaligned when your pieces are matched up.
You can either finish the leather now, or wait until you are done sewing the pouch. If you finish it now then the dye will be able to get in the holes you have created. If you finish it later you may not be able to get it down in the holes. You can do either method. If you are concerned about ruining the finish while completing the pouch then wait till it is all sewn together.
Next we sew. I would recommend getting a variety pack of leather working needles at the leather store, but you could use a normal needle as long as it had a very big eye to accept the waxed thread. You can stitch however you like to do it. It depends on if you want a continuous looking stitch or one that is broken up. Make sure to tie a knot at your beginning and ending points. This is where the wax thread comes into play. Once you tie your knot you will cut off some of the excess thread but not all of it. The remaining portion you will burn with a flame to prevent it from coming undone.
You should now have a pouch made. As far as a way to attach it to your belt, there are multiple ways to accomplish this. You could cut out strips of leather and sew them onto the back of the pouch at the top and bottom of the strip. This would allow you to pass a belt through the open loop. You could also glue or sew on spring clips to the back of the pouch. Either way will work.
Now you can go have fun with your new pouch that you created. I would really have a good plan going into a project like this. You don’t want to get half way into it and realize you don’t want to continue or you don’t know what you are doing. If you have questions please ask them. I can’t guarantee I will know the answer, but I bet others can help out. I know that Jedi Loreen does some leather work, and I am sure she can help too. There are plenty of other ways to make a pouch. You can get into shaping the leather by wetting it and forming it around an object to obtain that shape. I haven’t covered all of the ways because, that would take pages and pages. I just covered the simplest way that I think there is to make a good looking pouch. Hopefully I will have more ideas to come.
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Originally Posted by Yoiaholic
I worked on that for quite a while, so I hope it helps. The problem I had was that I am not making any right now, so I wasn't able to include step by step pictures. 
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