Acquiring Leather
In order to use leather as a material for creating items, you will first need to gather it. The only use for leather in ̶0;Minecraft̶1; as of late 2011 is crafting a basic leather armor set, which requires a total of 24 leather pieces. To collect leather, simply find a cow wandering around the game's world and kill it with your weapon of choice. Every cow you kill has a chance of dropping up to two pieces of leather, meaning you will need to kill a minimum of 12 cows to gather the necessary supplies.
The Leather Armor Set
Leather is the sole ingredient in the leather armor set. You do not need to gather any materials beyond the initial 24 pieces of leather in order to craft this suit. While leather armor is the weakest armor available to players, it is an excellent choice for new players, as it is very easy to make and requires relatively few materials when compared to some of the more powerful armor sets. Unlike iron, gold or diamond armor, leather armor is made from an infinitely renewable resource.
Crafting the Cap and Tunic
The top half of your leather armor set requires a total of 13 leather pieces. You will need five for the headpiece and eight for the chest piece. Open your crafting grid and place five pieces of leather onto the grid. You will need one piece in each bottom corner and one piece in each block of the center row, forming an upside-down ̶0;U.̶1; This creates the hat. Next, place eight pieces of leather in the input grid, filling the bottom and middle rows as well as the top two corners. You will receive the tunic from this pattern.
Crafting the Pants and Shoes
The bottom half of the leather armor set requires 11 leather pieces. Open your crafting grid and fill the top row in with leather. Fill the left and right columns to create a pair of leather pants. To create leather shoes, place one leather piece in the bottom-left corner and one in the bottom-right. Add one piece just above each of them, and you will have successfully completed the pattern for shoes. Once you have completed the full set, you can equip it to help yourself survive your first few days in the wild.