Dealing with leather stretch

[GregS]

So my first actual project was a pock organizer to hole my Leatherman, flashlight and pen.  It turned out ok, but a couple of days after use, the leather has stretched and doesn't hold the flashlight tight.  When I made it, I pulled the leather around each item fairly tightly before stitching.  But it was not difficult to put the flashlight into the pouch so obviously I didn't make it tight enough.

So how do you estimate how much the leather will stretch?  What do I do different next time so I don't end up with the stretch?

I don't really know what kind of leather I used, it was in a bag of Tandy "premium" remnants.

[LatigoAmigo]

1 hour ago, GregS said:

So how do you estimate how much the leather will stretch?  What do I do different next time so I don't end up with the stretch?

Different parts of the hide host different amounts of stretch. The shoulders and back tend not to stretch as much as the belly. Other considerations include the type of hide, the way the hide is tanned (veg-tan vs chrome-tan), and its weight (thickness). Maybe pre-stretching the piece before cutting would help.

[GregS]

Yeah, I figured the answer would be that it comes with experience.

[LatigoAmigo]

1 hour ago, GregS said:

Yeah, I figured the answer would be that it comes with experience.

That and a little dumb luck, but don't let it slow you down.

[battlemunky]

Pics may help us tell you what leather it was too.

[GregS]

I'm not stopping.  I'll get a shot of the leather.

Here's a shot of the organizer, no idea if there's a way to tell the kind of leather from this or not.

It's from a bag that Tandy calls Premium Remnants.

https://www.tandyleather.com/en/product/premium-remnants-12-oz

 

[Tugadude]

Different ways to approach the problem.  In addition to the advice above I would add wet forming.  Would not work with all leather but certainly would with vegetable tanned.  By moulding the wet leather around the flashlight it should make for a literal glove-tight fit.  

What I would do to " fix" your pouch is simply add another row of stitching.  That would remove some of the slack.  Add it between the light and pen or whatever that is.  Won't hurt the appearance at all, IMHO.

[kiwican]

That's a great fix !

[GregS]

I will be adding another row of stitching  between the flashlight and pen.  That's the short term.  In long term, I'm going to make another organizer.  It doesn't work out quite as well as I'd like.  It doesn't lay in my pocket the way I want it.

[fredk]

Problem with bags of 'scrap', you just don't know what you are getting. With larger pieces bought specially, belly leather stretches the most, with back and shoulder stretching the least, ususually none at all. But you need to know what you've bought. With 'scraps', take a piece, cut a long thin piece [5mm x 100mm minimum length] off a bit and pull it in your hands, you'll soon see how much belly will stretch

The 'fix' mentioned above is a good one. You can sitll do a 'wet mould' on it. Either with the items for it, wrapped in ceran food wrap, or wood blocks. Soak in warm, but not hot, water and dry quickly using a warm air flow, like from a hair dryer. The leather will shrink a bit and tighten up. But this is risky and should only be done with experience or as a desperate measure.

I tighted up the holder on this knife sheath doing the warm water method. It tightened it up so tight that the sheath could not be removed from it, which was required.

[raffy]

blue painter tape at the

raw side my first step.