Tracked down an old torn leather couch from the curbside, killed and skinned it. Made some of the hide into these bags. The topmost rectangular bag that isn't filled yet is an earlier bag made from a 50 cent yard sale nail pouch purchase.
I also sewed these longer welding sleeves. I am 6'3, my son and nephew both weld in my shop at times and they are both 3-4 inches taller than I am. All the commercially made welding sleeves, both cheap and expensive, are pretty short for some reason. The sleeves I made from the old couch are the longer ones in this photo, you can see how short the commercial sleeves are:
If curb hunting isn't in season, Goodwill stores around here (Chicago-Milwaukee) get rid of leather couches and chairs that are well-worn and have rips or tears in them typically for less than $10 for a chair and $20 for a couch. For an upholstery project I have coming up I scored an
Italian made black leather couch along with a matching chair for under $30 for the pair, re-harvested all the leather. I realize the charity-run second hand store market varies greatly around the country, I couldn't believe how high prices were for clothing and furniture when my son moved to San Diego last summer. But curb hunting is always free, and churches deal heavily on the last day of their sales.
If you are trading any cash for it, beware of cheap leather furniture, the sides and backs are often imitation leather. On a full leather couch the least-worn leather is on the sides and back. The split is also very thin on cheaper leather furniture, or is sometimes thinner on sides and back.