Gold & Silver Forum - Making Leather IWB holster-help

I want to take a whack at making an IWB holster. I am an 'amature' leather crafter from my days as a medieval armor smith(thats a mouthfull!).

But unlike armor, I've never made a holster of any type before. Ive got some veg tan leather here. Ranging from 4 oz up to 10.

Does anybody have an advice or personal experience? I cant stitch the leather as I dont have a stitching machine. I could do it by hand, but its a real pain in the butt ( and hands when you have arthritis!). I guess if it comes down to it, Ill stitch by hand, but htat would limit me to a lighter weigh leather.

Heres my thoughts so far. A veg tan leather backing with a thicker, 8 oz or so leather and using a lighter 3-4 oz veg tan peice to mold to the shape of the gun and the harden slightly and stitch that into the 8 oz backing.

The cons I can think of here htough is that if the backing is too think, it wont breath as well and will become hot and uncomfortable in the florida summer heat. If I go too thin though, it might not retain the weapon as well, since its a big heavy hunk of steel, but then the tension and pressure from being IWB might aid in retention.