Leather Quiver

Hello!
This is my first instructable and I hope you will enjoy it.

Somewhere around last winter i decided to start with leathercrafting at home. I was not new to the subject beacause I have tried it at school. At first I only did small things, like wallets or bracelets. But with spring just around the corner and a bow that wanted to be used I decided to make my first "big" leather project, a quiver.

(English is not my native language so spelling and grammar errors will probably occur)

For this Instructable you'll need:

Leather: I used around 4sq feet, 5 ounce, but the size depends on how big the quiver is going to be

Leather dye: I used brown, but you can use any colour you want

Linen thread: I used black and brown

Scarf thread (is it called that in English?): I used black

Needles: Both for the seams and for scarfing

Leather glue

Leather knife

Punching tool: Recommended to use one with only one "tooth"

Rubber mallet

Carabiner

Clothespins

Patience

The first thing you need to do is to know what design you are going to use. I drawed mine myself, but I needed to widen it quite a bit when I drew it onto the leather. The top piece (the pointy one facing downwards) is 40cm wide (16in) and 25cm (10in) high. Some of the top part is 10cm (4in) above the edge of the main body. The bottom part (the crown) is 40cm (16in) wide and 10cm (4in) high. The bottom is a circle with a (approximately) 35cm (14in) circumference
Remember to only draw on the BACKSIDE of the leather, the rough and dark side. Otherwise you will end up with a piece that could have your drawings all over it.
The main body is just part of 40cm (16in) by 35cm (14in) leather. I didn't make my shoulder-strap out of leather, I used one from an old bag in my garage, so if you want to make it out of leather you might need more than 4sq feet. When cutting the leather it is much easier to do it when the leather is wet.

When you are dyeing the leather I would recommend to use some old and worn clothes. Some dyes can not be washed away and will ruin your clothes.
For the main body I poured some dye in some hot water (sadly I do not have any pictures) and let the leather sit for a while (my dye is alcohol-based, do not do this with water-based dyes). For the smaller parts I applied the dye directly onto the leather, this will make it darker than the water diluted part.

Let the dyed leather dry for 1 hour before continuing. If you want you can wait longer, but you will need to wet the leather again and it could ruin the colour. It is also easier to do the next step if the leather is somewhat wet.

Now comes the fun part! To punch every hole that will be needed for the seams.

Start off by placing the bottom (or top part, depends on what you start with) over the main body. When you have it in the right place secure it with clothespins so it doesn't move. This will make sure that the holes align with each other.

Now you can start puching the holes. You need to puch through two layers of leather, so you will make some sound. If you live in an apartment you can play some loud music so you don't disturb your neighbors (atleast they won't hear the loud slams). When you are done with the top and bottom part you can start with the seam that will connect the sides with each other.
These holes should be 1cm (0.4in) from the edge so you can overlap them later.

After my dye had dried a little I saw some spots that was way to obvoius to miss. So I re-dyed the bottom and top half. This will only make the leather slightly darker but you will get rid of the spots. If you didn't get any spots you can skip this step.

The first part you want to sew on is the flaps that will hold the bottom in place. This is beacause the seams of the flaps will be covered by the bottom part (the pictures is taken after everything has been sewed on). You won't need to glue these pieces beacause they are so small. Make sure to tripple check that the flaps align with the holes on the bottom. But don't sew the bottom just yet. You should also mark the first set of holes with the first flap.

Next up is the top and bottom parts (not THE bottom but the bottom decoration). First apply the glue to the back of the leather, but not to near the edges the glue might smear onto the main body, and secure the leather with clothespins. I will not try to explain the sewing technique, you can find a lot of guides on how to sew seams in leather. But basically I went two forward (on the backside) and one backwards (on the frontside). Maybe you can see the patterns on the pictures.

Now you can sew the holder for the shoulder-strap in place. It should be where you will later connect the sides with each other.

Time to start making this piece of leather into a quiver. I connected the small part just above the bottom (under the bottom shoulder-strap holder) first (dont use any glue for this part), and after that sew the bottom in place.

When the bottom is in place you can start to seal the sides. I started at the top and continued downwards, big misstake. You probably want to go from the bottom up to make things easier for you. Also make sure the scarf thread (or whatever it's called) is facing the right direction when sewing, coloured side up. Also don't use any glue for the scarf seams.