Here's a few of my leather projects...a travel bag for a good friend, a rifle sling for another friend, and a pair of mocassins for my daughter. These are all first efforts, and have been great learning experiences.
The travel bag design is my own, copied from pictures of what I liked. The bag is constructed of leather is oil tanned (Kodiak, I think), and saddle stitched with waxed linen thread.
The rifle sling was made from veg-tanned leather, and a 1" belt strap. The back of the shoulder pad and top were made from remnants that I had on-hand. The suede was from the scrap pile at a local Tandy store. I coated the leathers with mink, linseed. I was unable to get a good color match on the strap and shoulder pieces, so I ended up dyeing the pieces with a water-based dye. I was surprised the dye took considering how much oil that I had used. It was my first attempt at an inlay (not sure if this is proper nomenclature, but it is what I call it). The border of the inlay is machine sewn on a early 1900's Singer that belonged to my wife's mother. I used layers of neoprene type insulating tape as padding for the back of the shoulder strap, and covered it with the suede. I used the same tape for filler on either side of the belt strap.
The mocassins were made based on the Tandy Leather Plainsman pattern, but downsized to fit my daughter's tiny foot!
The sole and uppers are made from oil tanned leather and laced together with premium lace. The toe camp (vamp), tounge and inlay are hair-on calf hide. For the vamp, the calf hide was glued to the oil tanned leather before stitching. I did this as to not sacrifice the strenght of the vamp by using the thin calf hide. The rose inlay is at her request, and my design. Again, the border was sewn on the inlay using the centrury old Singer.
I am thoroughly enjoying this past time. Just one of the many aspects that I like about CAS!
BTW, I got an order for 6 more rifle straps from the guy that recieved the first one as a gift. I may make minimum wage after everything is said and done!