I travel a lot for work and take my tools with me to give me something to do at night instead of drinking and staring at the walls too much. This really is where the hobby has come into its own.
The Nikons came with a case, but it was haphazard at best. I watched a YouTube video and thought I could do it better. The leather is the same pull up bison I made the wine tote from that I posted last week and this project taught me how to do box and butt stitching. Not bad for a few quiet nights in a Hilton.
That's funny that you naturally came up with the same overall design. It makes sense though as making it horizontal would require forming material.
Edit: if you're also a wood worker you could make one look really fancy that way but man, that'd be a lot of work.
Being fair, after deciding I could do better than the factory case, I got the initial build plan idea from an ASMR video reel on YT. It taught me a lot of technique for making a 3D objects. Things like the double laying, box and butt stitching, and how to balance the weight so it sits nicely on a strap looped on your shoulder.
I'm a little bit of an autodidact and a visual context learner. If I can see it, I can figure it out. Reels will tell you a lot, but they don't give you the nuance, feel, or properties of the materials you're dealing with. For me, that's the real allure. After seeing the case in my office, I got to see how my mind took something similar and translated and interpreted it with my own flair.
Hey that's cool. I wish I had the patience for that. ADHD says I would start something, mess up a stitch or something and never touch it again. Lol