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Vivaldi

Beginner Needs Help With Sewing Machine

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Please help!

I am trying to sew 2-3 ounce chrome tan leather with my wife's Singer Merritt 4530 sewing machine, and the machine makes holes in the leather just fine but does not make any stitiches into the leather. I purchased the universal leather needles and upholstry thread from Handcock Fabrics, and the machine makes perfect stitches with the same needles and thread on regular fabrics. But when I try to sew the leather, the needle goes through the leather just fine but does not make any stitiches. Is it that this machine cannot handle the leather, or is it something about a wrong needle or thread, or something to do with tension? Any ideas are greatly welcomed? I am very new to leatherworking and know very little about sewing machines.

Thanks,

Vivaldi

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If the needle and thread in it stitches perfectly on cloth, but not on your chrome tanned leather, it could be related to the pressor foot tension, being too light. Leather is tougher than most fabrics and tends to pull up as the needle rises from the hole. If this happens you will have skipped stitches. Increase the pressor foot tension and try again.

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....trying to sew 2-3 ounce chrome tan leather with my wife's Singer Merritt 4530 sewing machine, and the machine makes holes in the leather just fine but does not make any stitiches into the leather. I purchased the universal leather needles and upholstry thread from censored2.gif , and the machine makes perfect stitches with the same needles and thread on regular fabrics. But when I try to sew the leather, the needle goes through the leather just fine but does not make any stitiches. Is it that this machine cannot handle the leather, or is it something about a wrong needle or thread, or something to do with tension? Any ideas are greatly welcomed? I am very new to leatherworking and know very little about sewing machines.

Thanks,

Vivaldi

My wife and I have an independent fabric store, and do alterations and repairs to a variety of fabrics and materials that come in the door. We've experienced some problems that you're describing, mostly on "man-made" materials, but your leather may be acting similar.

First of all, most of our repairs involve clothing, so our main go-to machine is a household Singer 401A which is similar to your machine. We tried leather needles and upholstery thread, but didn't have good results on anything. All we got was broken needles and skipped stitches. If a strong thread is required, we go to V92 thread on one of our industrial machines (Consew 225, Singer 20U33, or Singer 29K70). But on seams that don't require great strength or sunlight resistance, we use regular Coats Dual Duty+ thread in a size 11 or 14 needle in the 401A, even on "leathery" or vinyl things. We use the smallest needle possible for the thread that we're using, on all of our machines. We sometimes get items made of a material that seems to be kind of "sticky", and when the needle goes through the fabric, the lower loop stays too tight for the hook to catch it. Your leather may be doing the same thing to you.

We found a product called "Sewers Aid" that seems to help with sticky materials. It's a lubricant designed to be used on threads or needles, but we avoid using it on our thread to make sure that we don't make a mess in our tension assemblies. We just use it on our needle, by dunking the needle in the little bottle before we start a seam, and then put some on a tissue to swab some more on the needle as we go along. It doesn't seem to stain anything, but we use it sparingly anyway.

We're only making short repair seams, so I don't know if the stuff would be useful in a production setting. The cost would probably be prohibitive, not to mention the hassle of application. It works for us on those rare occasions when we get a sticky seam that starts causing skipped stitches.

CD in Oklahoma

thayerrags.com

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are you using size 69 thread? if not try that size.

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Please help!

I am trying to sew 2-3 ounce chrome tan leather with my wife's Singer Merritt 4530 sewing machine, and the machine makes holes in the leather just fine but does not make any stitiches into the leather. I purchased the universal leather needles and upholstry thread from Handcock Fabrics, and the machine makes perfect stitches with the same needles and thread on regular fabrics. But when I try to sew the leather, the needle goes through the leather just fine but does not make any stitiches. Is it that this machine cannot handle the leather, or is it something about a wrong needle or thread, or something to do with tension? Any ideas are greatly welcomed? I am very new to leatherworking and know very little about sewing machines.

Thanks,

Vivaldi

Try a different size needle. The material you're sewing through has to sort of 'grip' the thread one one side of the needle as the needle rises out of the material in order to form the loop of thread which the shuttle hook grabs. If the needle hole is too large, the thread can pull back up through the needle hole in the material and not be grabbed by the shuttle hook. Then it won't get wrapped around the bobbin and tied to the bobbin thread.

Doug

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