Head Case - Molded Leather Experiment

Ever since I carved the wood hood forms a few months ago, one thing I have been wanting to try is making a hood out of a very heavy vegetable-tanned leather - stretching and shaping it over the form. Instead of being a "glove" for the head, this would make more of a stiff leather "case".

This is a completely different type of project than the garment and upholstery-type aniline-dyed leather sewing I usually do - it's more along the lines of making a holster, or one of those old-school, molded-leather camera cases.
I'm starting with a piece of 7-8 oz vegetable-tanned leather.
It's probably a little heavier than I want for a hood, but this will be a good experiment anyway. If I can make it work with this, the lighter-weight leather should be a breeze.
With my digital caliper this piece measured around 2.65 mm in thickness.
I'm curious to see if I can use my normal hood pattern on this, or if I am going to need to make a special pattern for the heavier material - a question I hope to answer with this test. I start by rough-cutting after tracing out my pattern shapes.
For the finished cut, I'm using my x-acto knife, leaving around 3/8" for the seam allowance.
A really sharp blade helps you get a clean cut.
The off-cuts are funny-thick - more like a pile of mini scrap lumber!
Now I have my component parts: 2 fronts, 2 backs. No tongue on this one, as the parts would be too thick and ungainly all layered together. Plus, this is just an experiment to see what I can do with the material anyway...
I start off clipping the front and rear panels together, as I would with a typical assembly.
In this case, I try to use my cylinder-bed machine, but have no luck getting through the 2-layers of thick leather. I break a few needles before giving up, and just using the machine to punch holes I can use to hand-stitch through.
Hand-stitching is slow and tedious work, and really makes you appreciate what (and how fast) your machine can (usually) do.
Some time later, the hand-stitching is done...
Now for the fun part. I submerge the leather in a bucket of warm water for about 5 minutes.
The transformation is noticeable right away. I can actually start to stretch and mold the (now rubbery, softened) leather over the wood head form. It takes some time and muscle, and I keep dunking the leather to help it take the shape.
After working it for some time, I turn up the edge of the front panels where it comes to meet the rear panels - it's almost like working with clay. To really get some leverage, I need to pull this tight to the form by lacing it on, but first I need to sew the front to the back.
Because the leather has been softened by the water, I'm now able to run this through my flat-bed machine - most of the way, at least - the top is a problem because of the thickness of those 4 seams (and 8 pieces) coming together.
At this point, I realize that I want to have the smooth leather on the outside, so I rip out all the stitches, and re-sew with the smooth side out. Remember, this is just an experiment, so I don't have to worry about all the holes I already put in along the seams.
At this point, after another dunking, more molding and hammering, It is really starting to take on the shape of the head form.
Now I can put those laces in and get a great amount of pressure on the wet leather.
The contour along the nose and chin are definitely the hardest part. But amazingly - this 7-8 oz leather is taking the shape of the head form.
This is where I left it last night.
And 24 hours later, I have this hardened, dry shell:
As you can see the water has mostly evaporated out, so the color is much lighter.
When I manage to ease the hood off of the form, it holds its shape extremely well. It's very stiff. And the best news: it fits the model. Perfectly!!
I need to work out a good way to stitch this type of piece, but for now I consider the experiment a success... There are a lot of ways I can finish this leather - from an oil-coat brown to shiny black or even paint with colors. I could even do tooling or stamped designs...
The seam allowances on this hood would definitely be part of the look, although I plan on shaving them down and finishing the edges a lot more than they are now. I may even continue to wet and stretch to see how far I can go. I need to try this with some 4-5 oz leather as well...
For now, I'm putting her back on the form to finish drying out completely...