JulioR

Wow, thank you so much guys for the help and advice. I think Im going to try the process DoubleC talked about. My philosophy in my little company is for everything to be handmade. If that doesnt work Ill do the Teslin method Dwight is speaking of. If all else fails, Ill go with the bicast products which is a great idea. The experts solved my problem, thanks again! -J

Thats so disfortunate.. How do you think the jean companies do it? I'm guessing it must be some good looking pleather?

**I must add that I am looking to use the highest quality leather which might explain why I am using high quality nubuck for my project

I am looking for the leather gods on this forum for some help. I am starting a small t shirt line as a side job for some extra money. The process in which I want to stitch the leather onto the tshirts has already been figured out, tested, and approved. The problem comes in when I test wash the garment in the washing machine. First Problem: The leather tightens up and temporarily shrinks as a result of the washing / drying process. Second Problem: The leather stains the test garment (I use white tshirts to test to see how much staining occurs). Now come the variables. I bought a square foot of chestnut tanned nubuck leather and used cut out pieces to stitch onto the tshirt. I understand that the tanning of the leather is what stains the t shirt. I went to the local family owned leather/ tanning store in my area where the employees as well as the owner are very knowledgeable and experienced in what they do. They told me that what I could do to stop the staining and shrinking would be to add beeswax to “waterproof” the leather. However, the beeswax would was away after a couple of washes and probably ruin the garment once the customer of my t shirt washes it a couple times. Their other professional opinion was to use un-tanned leather for my work. However, the un-tanned leather doesn’t match the color I would like to use. My questions for the experts on this forum are: 1) Are there un-tanned leathers I could purchase, ready to stitch to garment, that match or come close to the color of chesnut (Orange brown)? 2) Is there a process I could put my tanned nubuck through that could “lock” the tan so it doesn’t wash, fade, or stain? My biggest reason for my frustration is that I know some jean companies use leather on their jeans with their logo on it. Now maybe I am naïve and they use some realistic looking vinyl or pleather on their jeans, but I assume that the process of using leather for washable garments has been done before without staining the garments they are stitched on. If the leather experts are reading this I appreciate any help you can provide me with, even if you can point me to the right direction. I must add that I am pretty good “googling” my problems away but I’ve come up with nothing during my searches and realized that the only way to find a solution to my problems would be to seek help from the people who do this for a living. Thank you in advance, -J