An 18th century sodbuster walks into a shoemaker shop with a chicken in one hand and some string beans in the other. He wants a trade for a small, belt bag. He’s the Captain of his Militia Company so a crude, home-made job won’t do for appearance. This is one of the villages away from the city and just short of the wilderness so the shoemaker, with a scarcity of business, says OK. Done. Good Trade. Now, then, what are you going to do with this bag and what are you going to use it for?
That’s the all important first step…plan for use before you start cutting up leather. In this case, we’ll discuss patterning, button position and welting. Next post will work with finishing, wet forming, and appearance including dying it.
Like that Militia Captain this bag is going to be simple… but adapted for my own use;
• Made out of some scrap pieces of cow, around 6-7 ounce. Shoemakers were known for making their own stuff out of scraps lying around.
• This goes on trail walks because I am too old and feeble to jump into a trek or snowshoe trip. Even my horn is small, holding 18 rounds of FFG and hanging from my weskit pocket just above the paunch. The flap will be minimal for ease of access.
• I’ll welt and wet form it but don’t need a divider in it. One internal pocket, maybe, because I am too lazy to make a flint and tool wallet.
• Hand stitched in a traditional way except where I can get away with using my patcher on unseen seams.
• It’s only going to hold 2 loading blocks, a combined small flint screw driving tool, a flint, some patches/jag and maybe my priming horn. A knife sheath will be attached. Discreetly, like Nessmucks ditty bag drawing in his first book. Not one of them big bowies like in the movies. Learned a long time ago to carry small, compact knives.
Here’s the pattern, with some notes. If you search on the “Everyman A Cobbler” set of posts, the second post details making patterns.
I use manila folders and making use of the natural fold at the spine so it is even and tracing is more reliable. Red ink because this bad boy will be Oiled and dyed brown. Note that there’s only one piece.
When you draw it out, fold over the flap of the bag, leave about a half inch between the fold in the back part of the pouch and the top of the height of the front part of the pouch. The red line shows where the flap folds over the front face. The Black sections show that gap. The V-neck shows the top of the front face of the bag. This will allow for any flap shortfall in use so you won’t have to fight to close it. When the pattern is folded and positioned, use a small punch to go through the flap and the front face of the bag in one shot. Keep it south of that V-neck.
ON the flap, this hole represents the bottom of the slot. On the pouch-front, punch two small holes in the leather when you lay out the pattern at the edge of this circle. This is where the button will be spaced and sewn on the front face of the bag.
After you cut this stuff out, take the time to use one large punch on a thick piece of scrap to punch out a munchkin. Then take a smaller punch and center a small hole in it. This bad boy is going to become your spacer between the button and the face of the bag. It makes the flap open and close so much easier this way.
Some guys will follow historical examples and stitch the loops into the back of the bag. Some hang the bag off the belt by stitching the loops at the top of the back of the bag. I like it hanging for flexibility because the days of the svelte, fine-figger-of-a-man, fit ex-Marine ( ooh rah) are over. I am also going to add a small fender so that the loops become one piece at the top of the bag. This will accommodate the sheath.
Gluing the welt in position on both parts of the bag is easier because the welt is shaped. Refer to the “ Everyman A Cobbler” Posts about tapering thread and waxing it up. If a tapered thread end allows smaller holes, then frequently waxing the thread whilst sewing AND pounding the seam flat will force the wax into the leather rim of each hole. It becomes a stouter seam that resists the elements a little more. That’s why 18th century artisans did so, but that level of detail that may not be worth it. There are plenty of well made bags where the stitching done with off the shelf commercial materials is well done in its own right.
Next time we will wet form and finish the bag as well as add the loops. There’s a lot of expertise on this forum for working with leather, and hopefully these guys will add some comments
Oh, yeah…that is one ugly button hole. That’ll be the mistake we address later
Tight Stitches,
Capgun
