Thanks for the compliments, I live in Michigan...
I play the bagpipes in the only band in the US which dresses and plays 18th century style instruments and music, so I needed to make these as part of the uniform for the other band members; so I don't make these to sell. I only used very sharp awl, doing each hole one at a time. It gets pretty quick to sew once you have done a few of them, and since parts are sewn in reverse and turned, it is much easier to make the curves nice and smooth by sewing along punching each hole. I used a stitching spacer to get the stitches more or less correct. To make it easier I used a stitching groover to make a groove for the thread to lie down in, decreasing the wear on the thread, also making just a bit less leather to have to sew through. I used an Osborne diamond shaped awl, and after some sharpening, it slides through quite easily. I made some plywood forms held with spring clamps which is then bolted and wingnutted to a 2x4 (makes it easy to adjust) which acts as a stitching pony to make this easier to do.
I also figured out it would be much less time consuming to teach others how to make these than for me to make them all myself, so everyone in the band has learned how to sew these, except for those with arthritis. We also have made each of us pairs of ghillies for when we are at living history events.
Mark
