A Rus Pouch

Novgorod pouch shape

Embroidered Novgorod Leather

This is my first ever leather working projects.  My husband has dabbled in leather-working since he was young.  The first is a simple black leather pouch, the second came shortly after I found some online pictures of the Novgorod medieval exhibit.  And recently found the embroidered leather on a friends Pinterest post to back up "our theory" of how it worked.  While I haven't yet seen any embroidered leather pouches, my feelings are if it could have happened why not? - I know, I know historically awful.

Embroidered Leather

But these examples inspired me and my husband and I were in dire need of pouches.  So we put together our first (and farrrrr too big) pouch.  The size of the pouch itself was fine, but we put a 3 inch wide band to "thicken it."  We still had a daughter in diapers at that point and I wanted to be able to tuck an emergency pair of clothes and diaper/wipes in it.  But it ended up being over-kill and a bit on the floppy side when finished, though still functional, and probably coming out again this fall when our second beautiful baby is due to be born.

We did a two button clasp on the front of each we wrapped with leather, due to the snugness it actually functions really well.  The back - intended to be worn on a belt - is simply two loops with two copper-rivots to hold it together.  It's been beautifully sturdy and has lasted for three years with no maintenance what-so-ever.

We "sewed" the front to the back with the three inch strip in the first pouch, and a 1.5 inch strip on the second one.  The one and a half inch is plenty big enough, and really has been a lot more comfortable than the larger one.  We hole punched the sides and front and back together, and highly recommend doing the button embellishments and the rivoting on the belt loops first as it was a pain in the neck afterwards.  The same goes for the embroidery.

The designs for the embroidery I attempted to pull from the leather holes I saw in the Novgorod example.  I wish I would have chalked a space so the embroidery was on the front flap only and not on the bend that wrapped to the back.  It looks good still, but I would have liked it more if the two circles in the upper part of the pouch were lower.  The red jewels are rivots as well, which were purely decorative as Rus appeared to love embellishments of jewels, pearls, and embroidery.  

So there we go, our first attempts at leather working!