so after reading this tutorial, I decided that I wanted to build a holster.
Of course, I've never sewed anything in my life so I decided that, rather than waste a good piece of leather, I'd start with a bag of scraps I got from hobby lobby for 3 bucks. Not the best leather in the world, but I'm sure I'll screw this up, so no big deal.
package looked like this. Whole bunch of crap you can't use for a holster, but I'll find somewhere for it on other projects.
what it looked like. The white is thicker and would probably be better, but it's not wide enough for a holster.
Laid out where my belt should be and how thick it is.
Playing around with different shapes and belt hole locations and such.
shape/cant I ended up going with. I've never actually had a leather holster, so I was pretty much winging it there.
template number two. Left about a half an inch all the way around it so there'd be room for the pistol.
Cutting the templates out using my handy dandy smith and wesson emt shears.
Cut out the belt loop holes with an xacto.
the front and back pieces. One's brown and one's black, but, like I said, it's from scraps.
Clamped the two pieces together and drilled all the holes on my drill press.
used an awl made for stitching canvas sails and such. worked great with the waxed thread.
working my way around. There's a huuuuge learning curve here for me, but once I got the technique down it's smooth sailing.
one side down. You'll notice I got a little drill press happy on the other side because I just wasn't paying attention. Good thing the leather was cheap.
Getting there. Still needs belt loop slots and some molding.
The sides weren't EXACTLY the same, and most people use a sanding drum on a dremel to fix that. Well I'm fresh out of sanding drums, but an 80 grit flapper on a die grinder works great.
I dont own a leather punch to do the belt slots, but I did pick this thing up at a salvation army for a dollar or so. It's an industrial single hole leather punch.
How it works. Won't do much in the depth department, but it'll do for now. I have other methods for my next one.
Holes done. Had to make one longer because the belt wouldn't fit in it. Lol
Slots cut out. Need something better than an xacto for the next one.
All done for now. Still need to line the edges with something. It's still wet, hence the bag around the gun, but you get the idea. Seems to fit great. I don't carry my 1911. I just picked up a 3913NL for that. I just wanted something to hold it when walking around friend's properties to shoot. All in all I'm pretty excited about it for a first one. Next time I'll swing by Tandy Leather, but it's an hour away from me, so I couldn't justify the expense for something I was probably going to screw up. Lol.
Of course, I've never sewed anything in my life so I decided that, rather than waste a good piece of leather, I'd start with a bag of scraps I got from hobby lobby for 3 bucks. Not the best leather in the world, but I'm sure I'll screw this up, so no big deal.
package looked like this. Whole bunch of crap you can't use for a holster, but I'll find somewhere for it on other projects.
what it looked like. The white is thicker and would probably be better, but it's not wide enough for a holster.
Laid out where my belt should be and how thick it is.
Playing around with different shapes and belt hole locations and such.
shape/cant I ended up going with. I've never actually had a leather holster, so I was pretty much winging it there.
template number two. Left about a half an inch all the way around it so there'd be room for the pistol.
Cutting the templates out using my handy dandy smith and wesson emt shears.
Cut out the belt loop holes with an xacto.
the front and back pieces. One's brown and one's black, but, like I said, it's from scraps.
Clamped the two pieces together and drilled all the holes on my drill press.
used an awl made for stitching canvas sails and such. worked great with the waxed thread.
working my way around. There's a huuuuge learning curve here for me, but once I got the technique down it's smooth sailing.
one side down. You'll notice I got a little drill press happy on the other side because I just wasn't paying attention. Good thing the leather was cheap.
Getting there. Still needs belt loop slots and some molding.
The sides weren't EXACTLY the same, and most people use a sanding drum on a dremel to fix that. Well I'm fresh out of sanding drums, but an 80 grit flapper on a die grinder works great.
I dont own a leather punch to do the belt slots, but I did pick this thing up at a salvation army for a dollar or so. It's an industrial single hole leather punch.
How it works. Won't do much in the depth department, but it'll do for now. I have other methods for my next one.
Holes done. Had to make one longer because the belt wouldn't fit in it. Lol
Slots cut out. Need something better than an xacto for the next one.
All done for now. Still need to line the edges with something. It's still wet, hence the bag around the gun, but you get the idea. Seems to fit great. I don't carry my 1911. I just picked up a 3913NL for that. I just wanted something to hold it when walking around friend's properties to shoot. All in all I'm pretty excited about it for a first one. Next time I'll swing by Tandy Leather, but it's an hour away from me, so I couldn't justify the expense for something I was probably going to screw up. Lol.
