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Hey all, I’m in the leather repair niche — mostly work on furniture, auto, and commercial seating — so I don’t typically deal with jackets, but this caught my interest. I showed the photos and details of how I would fix it to my AI assistant and asked how we might repair this jacket, and it gave some solid advice that lines up exactly with how I’d approach it. Here’s what it suggested: AI’s Recommendation: 1. Remove the Damaged Panel: Carefully unstitch the torn synthetic leather piece, using it as a template. 2. Replace with Genuine Leather: Cut a replacement patch from 2–3 oz genuine leather (not too thick, but durable). This will hold up better than the original material which looks like thin vinyl or bonded leather. 3. Reinforce from the Back: Use a strong woven backing or thin nylon webbing glued behind the leather to add strength and prevent future tearing. 4. Recut and Reinforce Buttonholes: Recreate the slits and stitch around them tightly, or even use grommets if appropriate. If possible, roll the leather edges or saddle stitch for extra strength. 5. Stitch Panel Back in Place: Sew the new piece back over the original location, making sure it’s clean and matches the rest of the jacket. Optional: carry the leather around to the front as a decorative piece, which would both look good and reinforce the structure. I’m honestly impressed with the advice the AI gave — this is exactly how I would fix it myself. Hope it’s helpful

What kind & brand of dye did you try to apply to it?

I would remove old ripped piece or not, then sew a piece of leather folded around the front & back, then use a oblong punch & punch a slot in it. Then I would sew around the oblong hole you punched thru it to reinforce it all.

Exactly, for a production machine that has to work when needed, that's the wrong choice. As a very cool old machine, it's exactly the right machine. I'd love to have it but I wouldn't be anywhere near $1200. Less than half that, to me. Others will differ. There just aren't that many people who collect large chunks of cast iron.

You can find clams at Geoge Bsrnsly and Son, in Emgland, which has cheap shipping to US or create an account at Vergez-Blanchard in France. The Vergez-Blanchard is more money but is highest quality. Clams unfortunately, don't come up often on e-bay or other sites I'm aware of. A good clam or stitching horse is essential to first class sewing. Avoid those little stitching ponies as they tend to be real junk. Maybe one of the members will be willing to part with a clam, just post a wanted item. I know this from personal experience, so avoid the frustration and get a good clam or stitching horse. Good luck, Mark Clark

Welcome aboard. I'd love to do some upholstery and car seats, if I could discipline myself to focus. Even in my rural part of the world, the few who do it, make good money. What do you use for sewing machines? There are many sewing machine addicts here ... Please post some of your repair work over in "Show Off", when you can. I don't think we get much of that here.

Just replacing that reinforcement on the inside would let you restore the shape of the button hole. Maybe even carry it around to the front as a decorative element. Just ruminating, really. That repair is out of my meager skill set.

Hi everyone, My name is Alexander. I run a small leather repair business serving the Bay Area, mostly working on furniture, car seats, and commercial seating. Spending time working with leather naturally got me curious about leathercraft in general, especially making things like bags, belts, and wallets. I’m not making anything just yet, but I’m really interested and plan to start learning and experimenting soon. For now, I’ll mostly be reading, watching what others are creating, and soaking up as much knowledge as I can. Glad to be here and grateful for the opportunity to learn from such a skilled and passionate community.

Good going on getting it to take a desirable black color! Looking forward to the pics. I totally understand wanting to be period correct. I used to frequent Ren Faires quite a bit and had a couple in depth characters. Vinegaroon only works with vegtan leathers as it's a chemical process between the tannins (from oak, chestnut bark, etc) and iron acetate. The more tannins the better the reaction. Vegtan leather can be most any animal. Vinegaroon wont work on Chrometanned, English Bridle, Harness, or Latigo.

Thank you! I appreciate your help.

The question you need to answer is what you want to sew. With such old machines certain parts can be difficult or impossible to get. The clutch motor presently on the machine should be replaced with a servo motor to get your sewing speed to a comfortable level which will cost about an additional $200. Learning to use a clutch motor can have a very steep learning curve, sort of like learning how to drive a car with a stick shift. Since your bio you mentioned wallets a flatbed machine would be a better choice then a cylinder arm. When you add in the cost of new servo motor cost would be about $1400. A new flatbed clone of the Juki DNU-1541S a Cowboy CB-1541S will cost $1600 plus shipping. Personally I would go with a new machine particularly if this is your first machine. kgg

Best solution is to buy a commonly available servo and double up the speed reducers if you need to.

There’s a Singer 45k25 for sale in my area. Old clutch motor attached to treadle. What does everyone think about $1200?

A friend of mine has a competition rifle shooting jacket and asked if I could fix the button holes that are torn. The leather surrounding the holes is very thin and sewn/glued to material backing. As you can see from the photos, the holes have been torn out of shape. I'd like to glue something to a new leather covering. I was thinking nylon webbing material to give it more strength? Any suggestions/advice? Thanks

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I clicked the College Sewing link out of curiosity. Yeah that's about $455! That's close to approaching half of what i sold the 205-64 for...! I've bought some goodies from College Sewing and had pretty good luck so far with "other" prices at least being somewhat affordable. Brexit? Is England the source of Singers in your part of the world? Singers seem to be good machines, but nearly every clone of a Singer I've found made in more modern times was a little better in build quality. Seiko/Pfaff/Adler etc.

Keep rambling, good info!!

It's easy to mistype these days, especially with all the autocorrects, I do it all the time! A person could have an oversaturated motor w/stators made from Chinese bean can steel that draws 600W and a quality built Efka or Misubishi that draws 575W and actually have "more" output shaft power put out by the later. When it's a $200 servo vs one a few times more expensive, nobody really seems to care though. I bet all the ROC made clutch motors I have aren't as efficient as my old Belgian and USA made versions, but I don't seem to care either. I'm just rambling on GerryR.

Yes, but that would defeat the purpose of a softer start, which you are trying to achieve.

Keep in mind no one machine will do everything. That is why a lot of use have more then one class of machine. If you are going to specialize in that type of work by the proper machine as indicated by @Wizcrafts and @mbnaegle. If you want to do flat work (wallets, belts) buy a flatbed, if you are going to do circular items get a cylinder arm machine. As a note you can sorta kinda turn a cylinder arm machine into flatbed by installing a flatbed table top attachment. If you want to use thread above V207 get a class 441 cylinder arm machine (manual or motorized). Buy Once, Cry Once kgg

I didn't find that. I sewed with the optically modified motor on my cb4500 and a couple of walking foot machines. They worked very well. The Cowboy had a 3:1 reducer. My long arm Singer machine fed directly from the motor's 45mm pulley. They had no hesitance to start turning over.

If you wanted a certain minimum speed, couldn't you just start the gradation at that point? Then have a smoother ride up to max?

Soon as I read "... reached up ..." parts of my anatomy sucked up into my abdomen. My beard is long enough that I tuck it in my shirt if I'm using a dremel or other spinny thing in my hands.

Those optical filters are nice, but they defeat the purpose of starting the motor at the so-called required minimum speed, which is probably not necessary in most instances.

Haven't took a picture yet, but I managed to quite save it. I sanded everything with 500 grit sandpaper. Then I brewed a strong black tea and did a coat of tea, followed closely by a coat of vinegaroon, twice. The colour isn't perfectly uniform but I'm quite happy with it...now I guess oil will suffice to get a good black colour. Don't want to do that on this piece: the scababrd has been made using only period techniques (parchment lining, split wood, linen thread, hide glue...) and I want the colour to match everything. Next batch of vinegaroon is brewing. As far as I understood, also leather type will affect the richness of the colour, isn't it?