western leather vest - custom leather braiding
All of the features about how this vest was to be built were decided by the buyer ...and confirmed to assure I did it right. It was built with my black and mahogany moccasin cowhide leathers. The seams, edges, front and back yokes, pockets, etc. were all braided with 1/4" wide laces cut from the same leather that the parts of the vest were cut from.
The vest also has (what I call) a draft flap - a 3" extension of the back/bottom. I've built these draft flaps with several different curves across the bottom. You can see others ways on other vests on the site.
And, all of the pockets have matching inside pockets (see pictures).
Over the last 40 years, I've custom built hundreds of vests - you can see over 50 of them on my vest's home page. While they are all braided, that's pretty much where their similarities end. After seeing the many features I can offer, folks contact me with their own ideas/designs and we discuss how I should build one for them. Each vest ends up truly being a unique, handmade, long lasting, one of a kind piece.