First Holster and other "and such"

[Horsewright]

Sit down with a piece of paper and draw it out. Then add where necessary and take away where necessary. Develop your own style. Chris' are distinctly different then mine. He has developed a distinct style. That really does start on paper.

 

[ANovinc]

Sit down with a piece of paper and draw it out. Then add where necessary and take away where necessary. Develop your own style. Chris' are distinctly different then mine. He has developed a distinct style. That really does start on paper.

Thanks, Dave. Not unlike designing a sheath, eh? In my mind it just seems more complicated than it sounds like it is.

 

[Salolan]

Thanks fellas!
From the comments, I'm glad I added on to the old post to revive some of the discussion.

Thanks for sharing, Chris. Your work looks great. I really like the dog collars. I've also enjoyed the conversation on this thread--some nice tips being shared on here that is very helpful (thanks everyone). I'm really looking forward to spreading my wings on some other projects in the future---particularly holsters. What's the best way to find or design patterns? I have no idea where to start. You really knocked it out of the park with your first try.

I have a pretty good friend that I would say is considerably better at leather work than I am, if he has a pattern. He has never taught himself to make a pattern and essentially has himself convinced he can't. This limits him to only doing things that someone else has already done.
As Dave said, just sit down and draw out your patterns. If you find your patterns look off or that they don't seem to "flow" properly, get a set of French Curves and you can use them to help things be more eye pleasing. They work well for knife designs too!
I guarantee Dave and Paul are better at it, but I'll go through how I design my pancake holster patters.
Start with tracing your firearm just as you would a knife. I then work on my inner stitch lines, which would follow really close to what the inside of the welt would be on a sheath. I'm sure there is a simpler formula but I offset the stitch line (1/2 the thickness of the object + the total thickness of leather + 1/8"). This means the stitch line will follow closer around the trigger guard than it would along the top of the slide. Then I lightly draw a horizontal line across the pattern where I want the holster to ride and also to set the cant. I use that reference to establish the tabs making sure to keep the tabs parallel to each other. I then draw the top lines of the front panel, being sure to stay clear of the mag release yet covering the trigger. Leaving only to finish the back panel, which I have follow the front panel until it clears the mag release where it then jumps up to cover the rest of the slide. You'll just have to play with it a bit to find what works for you. I use old cereal boxes for my patterns. With 2 little ones in the house, we always have cereal boxes.

Chris

 

[ANovinc]

Thanks a lot for the pointers--I definitely do not want to be held back by an inability to design my own patterns, so this helps take some of the mystery out of where to start. I'll be sure to post pictures (good or bad) after my first try at it, unless it's so bad that it ends up like some of my recent sheaths, which was in the trash bin

 

[WhiteKnuckle]

Thanks a lot for the pointers--I definitely do not want to be held back by an inability to design my own patterns, so this helps take some of the mystery out of where to start. I'll be sure to post pictures (good or bad) after my first try at it, unless it's so bad that it ends up like some of my recent sheaths, which was in the trash bin

While I do use paper to make patterns, one thing that's really helped me is making patterns out of craft foam.

You can get it in sheets from any craft store, usually in the kid's craft section. One layer is about equal to 4/5oz leather, and you can glue multiple layers together to simulate thicker leather.

You can't wet mold it unfortunately, but aside from that it pretty accurately simulates leather. You can glue it, skive it, I've even run a line of stitching through it. It's really useful to get an idea of how much leather you'll need to fit around a 3d object.

 

[Horsewright]

Thats an excellent idea.

 

[WhiteKnuckle]

Thanks Dave, but I can't claim credit for the idea. Pretty sure I got it from Ian Atkinson's youtube channel way back when I was making my first sheath.

I think I still have it, so I'll take some pics of the complete foam mockup I made. Pretty funny to have a big machete sheath made out of baby-blue craft foam