How to make a leather bottle al á Viking (or whatever oldschool badass culture)

I was at a Viking market south of Odense, Denmark, and I saw a guy with an awesome bottle!

Next step was to try to make one, so I made some coffee - one to get me going, one to keep me going.

 Using my kindergarten scissors and trusted Leatherman I fashioned two pieces of leather (bought at said Viking market) into the shape of a bottle.

 Because I did not have an awl, I used hammer and nail to make evenly spaced holes in both pieces of leather. To hold them in place use pegs, clamps or similar.

 I stitched them together using something called saddle-stitch, it's strong! The thread is hemp with bees wax. When stitching use two pliers, as it's almost impossible to pull the needles through with your fingers.

 Adding water to the thing causes it to "ballon". This one took about a litre of water. As you can see it's far from waterproof at this stage. If your stitch is tight enough though, the only place it won't leak, is your stitches!

 Playing with hot wax. I used bees wax, it's natural and it smells great. Melt it and pour it into your ( now dried) bottle, swirl it around, and empty the excess back into your melting cup. Repeat this to make sure you have a good coat.

 I chose to wax mine on the outside to, it makes the bottle really hard (think Nalgene bottle), and means the outer is waterproof too.

 I made a wooden cork for mine, I'm sure you can find other ways of closing yours.
The wooden cork is made to fit by heating up the opening of the bottle, then inserting the cork and afterwards tying some string tight around the neck of the bottle.

My bottle now hold mead more often than water :)