A big beautiful failure

I've spent the last few days designing & making this hnefatafl board only to learn that it's a big fat failure. I don't have a machine that burns designs on leather so I had to use vegtan so I could tool and stamp the board by hand. I used a designer suede for the base and stitched the final board in place. Everything worked perfectly until I tried to cinch everything up and turn it into its very own carry bag. The vegtan while thin at 2 oz just doesn't get supple enough to have a nice consistent bottom to the bag and doesn't want to fold up into a nice neat little package. I could certainly add a few more inches to the suede but then it would just be too absurd in diameter. I considered trimming the suede away and just having a nice board with a nice lining but that won't work also, as I didn't glue the suede to the back of the vegtan and it is now creating a bubble. Yesterday the entire process of this project went together beautifully until the very end when it crashed & burned and I was left dazed & confused asking "what the hell just happened"?😕 Today is a brand new day and I'm ready for round two🥊🥊Wish me luck!