Getting A Close Stitchline. A Tutorial.

[Denster]

This subject came up on another forum and I offered to do a tutorial on the subject as it seems to be a problem area for a lot of makers. I thought it might be useful to post it over here also as the question seems to come up frequently.

Right off the bat let me say! This is not the only way to do it but it is the way I do it. It is simple and works every time.

Getting a close stitchline in a holster is important as it is mostly responsible for it's long term retention ability.

I'm doing this with a lot of photos because drawing mental pictures with words is not one of my strong suits.

Let's get to it.

Photo one: First I establish a base line with a 90 degree verticle line on a piece of posterboard.

Photo two: Next I lay the pistol or revolver, in this case a P7PSP, with the top of the slide right on the verticle line and the muzzle flush with the baseline. Then carefully outline the triggerguard to the muzzle.

Photo three: Now just above the baseline 1/8 inch I draw in another line parallel to the base line. The purpose of this is that with some holster designs I want the muzzle flush with the end of the holster and I will use this higher baseline to register on the bottom of the holster. On other designs I want the muzzle recessed 1/8 from the end of the holster and use the original baseline to register.

Photo four: Getting a little ahead of myself I use my stitchline pattern to lay out my glue lines on the inside of the panels once I have established the measurements to follow. I'm kind of fussy about gluing as much of the panels as possible. One of my pet peeves with holsters is seeing a separation of the panels in the belt slots.

Photo five: Here I've glued up the two panels and stitched the outer one. Then I insert the gun and push it as far up against the slide stitchline as I can and place a spring clamp as close as I can get it to the triggerguard.

Photo six: Now since the leather isn't wet I can't get as close to the slide stitchline as I want so I measure the gap between the top of the slide and the stitchine. That is where I am pointing with my stylus. In this case it was 1/4 inch. I take half of that measurement, in this case 1/8 inch and mark that much ahead of the lips of the spring clamp in the perifereal stitch groove.

Photo seven: Now I do the same to the bottom again marking in the perifereal stitch groove.

Photo eight: Now I remove the gun and flatten the panels out. I measure top and bottom from the slide stitchline to the dots. In this case it is 3&1/4 and 2&1/8 inch. I write these measurments on the stitchline pattern.

Photo nine: Now I use the pattern registered on the bottom of the holster to connect the dots.

Photo ten: Now stitch up the triggerguard panel.

Photo eleven: Did it work? Sure looks like it. I can now use this stitchline pattern on future holsters by just measuring over from the slide stitchline top and bottom and connecting the dots with the pattern.

Photo twelve: This method as described requires the bottom of the holster to be 90 degrees to the slide stitchine. This is a normal method of design layout. It will also work for those designs that are not 90 degrees by adjusting the baseline.

This method will also work with envelope style holsters, such as avenger, but since there is no slide stitchline to register from you will need to insert the gun in the holster each time and mark the top and bottom then connect the dots with the stitchine.

I hope all of this was clearer than mudd.

Two final photos.

[PHIPPS CRAFTED LEATHER]

Great job

[Viking]

This is great. I never thought of doing it this way.

Can one of the admins/mods pin this please?

Edited December 2, 2011 by Viking

[Denster]

Thanks for the positive replies guys. Hope it helps someone with their work.

[Guapo]

Thanks Denster,

I'm going to try it.

-Guapo