Reproduced by Kind Permission Of Mike Horrill Aldebaran
Pouch Making Guide.
The Box Pouch.
One of the most useful and relatively easy pouches to make is the Box pouch.
This is threaded onto a belt and can be enlarged to make it deeper or wider
with ease. The pattern produces a pouch that is 31/2" X 4" x 11/2", and
can be put on a belt that is 2" wide. The pouch works best when using heavy
weight/rigid leather, and enhanced with patterns which can be carved, tooled,
etched, burnt or painted/drawn on. The pattern is shown below.
The pouch is made up from 5 pieces: one large rectangle that forms the
main part of the pouch, 2 side pieces and two belt loop straps. Cut these
to fit your belt size plus an inch. The main piece needs to have the stitch/punch
holes marked out (space them out at quarter of an inch intervals) and produced
down each edge as indicated, and then be folded in on itself along the
lines shown. Next mark out and produce the stitch/punch holes on the two
side pieces using the same spacing and number of holes as those on the
main piece. Make the holes in the two belt loop straps and the main piece
(make the distance between the two sets of holes for a strap a quarter
of an inch smaller than that on the actual strap). Now you will need to
punch two small holes in the front piece and the same in the flap piece
for the lace closure tie.
Having punched all the necessary holes, sew the pieces together using
a thick linen thread or leather lace. Place the main piece and the side
piece together at right angles so that they form an L shape and start threading
together from one end of the holes. The difficult bit is once you get round
the second corner of the item, if lacing it you will find it near impossiblewithout
a thonging needle! After having formed the box, connect the belt loop straps
in the same way.
The pouch closure method is down to you. A good method is to use the
lace tie method for these box pouches. You will need about 12 inches of
leather lace. Push each end of it from the inside of the pouch through
the two holes in the front part of the pouch, pull tight so that the two
pieces of lace are equal in length on either side and tie a reef knot (right
over left and under, left over right and under) tight to the front of the
pouch. Then push the ends of the lace through seperate holes in the flap
and tie knots in the very end of each lace to stop them being pulled back
through the flap. Thats about it except to tie a simple single bow shoe
lace type of knot.
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